Germany was won the gold medal in the men's large hill team ski jumping event at Park City, Utah. The Germans edged Finland on their final jump of the competition.
It was the closest finish in the history of the Olympic large hill team event just one-tenth of one point separated Germany from Finland. Two time World Cup champion Martin Schmitt of Germany made the difference with his final jump, earning 259 points to give Germany a total of 974.1 points.
Finland was second with 974 points. The bronze medal went to Slovenia with 946.3 points. Mr. Schmitt said he was glad that his team came out on top, even if it took such a close margin. "Basically what I wanted to do was jump over 130 meters," he said. "I seemed to be fairly quick at takeoff but then there was a little gust. And I had a little problem and I had to fight to get a few more meters, and so we barely made it."
The Slovenians pulled off the biggest upset of the day, finishing third ahead of Austria. It is the first time since 1988 that Austria has not won a medal of any kind in the event. The U.S. team finished 11th.