We can’t quite believe that this Japanese ski jumper – Daiki Ito – has finished in the World Cup Top Ten 14 times. Last year he finished fourth!

He looks like a novice here:

This hair-raising incident took place in Sapporo in Japan. The event was part of the Ski Jumping World Cup circuit. Apart from a few bruises, luckily the only thing damaged was his ego! He actually went on to finish the event in 6th place… after a couple of decent jumps, that is!

Admittedly it’s not as dramatic as the infamous clip of Slovenian Vinko Bogataj who fell off the end of the jump. His inability to get off the ground made him famous worldwide as his failed jump became immortalised as “the agony of defeat” in America’s ‘ABC World Wide World of Sports’ television show.  Ouch… he was only wearing a bobble hat!

Or course, we can’t do a feature on ‘funny’ ski jumping without mentioning the UK’s own Eddie “The Eagle” Edwards, who also achieved notoriety as the first competitor to represent Great Britain in Olympic ski jumping in the Calgary Games in 1988. He came last… convincingly last! But at least he didn’t crash!

Eddie was quite a character, who claimed to be afraid of heights. In 1970 he explained the reason for his fear to The Guardian newspaper: “There was always a chance that my next jump would be my last… a big chance.” As with Vinko, his lack of success endeared him to people around the world. The worse he did, the more popular he became.

Maybe Ito’s taking a leaf out of Eddie’s book?

…By the way, in case you were secretly wishing Ito had slid all the way down the ramp and then gently plopped off the end uninjured, don’t worry! We were too.