SAPPORO: Yukio Kasaya, a Japanese ski jumping legend who won a gold medal at the Winter Olympic Games in Sapporo in 1972, died of ischemic heart disease at a hospital in the Hokkaido prefectural capital on Thursday. He was 80.

Born in the then village of Oe, now the town of Niki, in the northernmost prefecture, Kasaya joined Nikka Whisky Distilling Co. after graduating from then Yoichi High school, now Yoichi Benishi High School, and Meiji University, and competed in four consecutive Winter Games from the 1964 Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria.

He became the first Japanese ski jumper to earn an Olympic gold medal in 1972, taking the podium with teammates Akitsugu Konno and Seiji Aochi, who achieved silver and bronze, respectively. Together, the three were called “Hinomaru Hikotai” (Japanese flag air squadron), coached by the elder brother of Kasaya.

Retiring after Innsbruck 1976, Kasaya worked as head coach, board director and competition chief of the Ski Association of Japan. He also joined the Japanese Olympic Committee’s executive board and served as deputy head of the Japanese team at the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, Canada.

The Japanese government honored Kasaya as a Person of Cultural Merit in 2018.

JIJI Press