Bio

Bio

In Brief:

Name: Akseli Ensio Kokkonen
Nick name: Axu, Luigi
Date of birth: 27th of February, 1984
Place of birth: Oslo, Norway
Hometown: Lillehammer, Norway
Relationship status: Single
Sign: pisces
Weight: 56-64 kg
Height: 172 cm
Eye colour: blue
His family: one older brother Elmeri (1982), mother Anneli and father Kari
Profession: divemaster
Hobbys: Diving, Filming (Impulsive Pictures)
Favourite book: “The Last Dive” by Bernie Chowdhury
Favourite movie: Shawhank Redemption (1994) and Instinct (1999)
Favourite actor: Sean Connery
Favourite music: Queen, Freddie Mercury

Longest jump ever: 213,5 m Planica 2004

Official biographies: Eurosport | FIS
Skiclub: Stårheim IL
Team: Lillehammerhopp
Coaches: Aril Carlsson and Jermund Lunder
Skies: elan
Boots: Rass
Suits: Buff
Gloves: ICON
Bindings: Winair
Helmet and glasses: Uvex
Sponsor: Ruukki, Puutory Trading Oy, Forsell Motorsport, Normatic, Sparebanken Vest

In Detail:

Akseli Ensio Kokkonen was born on 27th of February, 1984 in Oslo, Norway. When he was at the age of one and a half, his family moved from Oslo to Lahti. In Finland, Akseli went to Rudolf Steiner School and made his first experiences in several sports (swimming, running and ski-jumping).
But his real passion has always been flying. In his youth, he even wanted to be a pilot. He started ski-jumping at the age of eleven but he never calls his passion as his profession. For him, ski-jumping has always been a lot of fun and it’s his most important hobby.

Akseli internationally joined the ski-jumping world on 23th October 2001 in Kuopio, Finland.
Finally, Akseli came in 36th. This was an marvellous debut and he did very good jumps during the whole competition. He even came in third at the qualification round. So the media was quite interested in him for the first time.

During the summer Grand-Prix 2002, Akseli finally captured the 40th place.

His first World Cup Season 2002/03 finally brought him the 45th place.

During Akseli’s preparations for the summer competitions, he lived in Stams, Austria for a while where he trained with the Austrian guys. Later that summer, he took part in the SGP where he even had his first victory in Predazzo, Italia. Furthermore he came in fifth in Hinterzarten, Germany. In the end, he reached the second place at the SGP overall ranking 2003. So this summer really was his big breakthrough.

From now on, he was one of the best Finnish youngsters. Tommi Nikunen, the former Finnish headcoach, was quite impressed by him. Akseli confirmed his talent when he came in fifth at Kuusamo, Finland during the following World Cup Season 2003/04. Beyond that, Akseli had some nice results during this winter e.g. when he came in seventh at Zakopane, Poland. This has been his second World Cup Season ever and it was a great success.

Debut: 11/23/2001 Kuopio, Finland
SGP 2002 overall ranking: 40
Season 2002/03 overall ranking: 45
SGP 2003 overall ranking: 2
Season 2003/04 overall ranking: 19

Akseli Kokkonen from Finland and Thomas Morgenstern from Austraia have been the two most discussed yougsters that time. But whereas Thomas Morgenstern continued being successful, Akseli has had several throwbacks.

Firstly, Akseli had to start his military service on 31^th May, 2004. However, it transpired that Akseli is not able to serve the sport battalion because of his scoliosis. That’s why he changed to the common battalion.
Secondly, Akseli broke his collarbone during a training in Kuopio, Finland.
Everyone thought that he won’t be able to take part in the following summer competitions. But the surgery succeeded and Akseli was ready to jump again.

But unfortunately, Akseli was not able to tie in with his former shape and fate took its course. Akseli has had several health problems that cause to a sportive crisis.
In addition, Finland has had a lot of young and ambitious skijumpers at that time. So Akseli
was suspended from the Finnish world cup team and did not take part in any competitions anymore.

SGP 2004 overall ranking: 43
Season 2004/05 overall ranking: 65
SGP 2005 overall ranking: 70

Akseli announced the end of his season on 15^th January, 2006 with the words:

“My season is done. I have had bad jumps for two years now which has taken its toll both mentally and physically.”

With that, Akseli announced his season’s end but he confirmed that he has not given up yet:

“I see my best years as a skijumper are ahead of me.”

Akseli wanted to have a break from ski-jumping. So he went to Egypt in order to become a divemaster. Akseli has always been interested in diving and the Colona Dive Center in Hurghada was the right place to take a time-out. Akseli has had a good time in Egypt and he was near to quit up ski-jumping.

The situation changed when he got a letter from Finland.

According to the letter, Akseli has not finished his military service yet and he has to go back to Finland.
So Akseli went back to Finland. And because of that, he was in contact with ski-jumping again.
According to Akseli, the return was his “war in Lahti” because he was forced to come to a decision.

Akseli finally decides to make a comeback:

“I will begin everything from square one. I am getting my life back to trail and the base of my life is getting stronger and stronger. When the base is hard enough, I can begin my jumping
career again and let the feeling fly again.”

Akseli pulled his socks up and trained and improved a lot. It really took some time but in 2007, Akseli returned to international ski-jumping competitions.
He took part in the Myasama Skigames in Japan and was one of the best ski-jumpers.
He even won one of the FIS competitions in Japan.
The victory reinfoced Akseli’s decision to carry on with ski-jumping.

“That felt so good after many hard years!”

As fortune wants it, Akseli moved from Lahti, Finland to Lillehammer, Norway.
In Lillehammer, he joined one of the best Norwegian ski-jumping teams, namely the Lillehammerhopp team. He trained and worked a lot. He found new friends and got happy again. Very soon, he was ready to take part in national ski-jumping competitions. So he took part in the Norwegian BUFF Norges Cup. He even came in first in the overall ranking with five victories.

But again, Akseli has been faced with a problem: Akseli has not received Norwegian citizenship yet.

When Akseli moved to Norway, he thought that it will be easy for him to get Norwegian citizenship because he has been living in Norway for one and a half years (in his youth). Concerning to the Norwegian regulations, one has to live in Norway for entire two years to receive Norwegian citizenship.
But Akseli hasn’t been living there two entire years (one and a half year in his youth and a half year in 2008).

Because of that, Akseli had to wait till June 2009 to receive his Norwegian citizenship. Despite, Akseli became part ofNorway’s Continental Cup team even though he still was a Finnish citizen in April 2009.
As he got his Norwegian ID card at the end of June 2009, he was able to compete in international FIS Continental Cup competitions in Slovenia where he celebrated his very successfull comeback with 3 top 5 places in 3 competitions.

”It is incredibly fun to compete for Norway, and I am very proud.”

Coached and supported by the world’s best skijumping coaches, Akseli won the gold medal in the Norwegian Championships in October 2009.
Aril Carlsson and mainly Jermund Lunder played a very important role in Akseli’s comeback.