Masahiko Harada

Masahiko Harada is a Japanese former ski jumper, born on 9 May 1968, remembered for a meltdown at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, where a final jump of just under 97.5 metres cost Japan the team large hill gold, and for his redemption at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, where he delivered a 137 metre jump that helped clinch Japan's first Olympic ski jumping team gold and earned him the nickname Happy Harada. He also took individual large hill bronze in Nagano. He competed at five Olympic Games, in 1992, 1994, 1998, 2002 and 2006. At the Nordic World Ski Championships he won the individual normal hill in 1993 and the individual large hill in 1997, along with three silvers and one bronze. In July 2006 he was appointed ambassador for the 2007 championships in Sapporo.