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Simon Ammann

Grabs, Switzerland

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Simon Ammann won four Olympic gold medals in ski jumping across the 2002 and 2010 Winter Games, sweeping both the normal and large hill individual events at each of those two Olympics, a "double-double" achievement unmatched by any other ski jumper in Olympic history. Nicknamed "Harry Potter on skis" by international media for his youthful appearance and glasses during his surprise 2002 breakthrough, Ammann's unexpected rise to Olympic gold as a relatively unknown 20-year-old became one of the most memorable underdog stories of the Salt Lake City Games. His return to identical double-gold dominance eight years later at the 2010 Vancouver Games, after a period of relatively diminished results in between, reflected a level of competitive resilience and technical consistency that few ski jumpers have sustained across such a long career span. His combination of two separate double-gold Olympic sweeps eight years apart has made Ammann one of the most statistically dominant and historically significant ski jumpers ever to compete.

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