Winter Olympics Athlets Bios

Ronny Ackermann

Sport Nordic Combined
Event(s) Individual, Team, Sprint
Birthdate May 16, 1977
Birthplace Badzeitung, West Germany
Olympics 1998, 2002, 2006

Competing in his second Olympics, Germany's Ronny Ackermann earned two silver medals at the Salt Lake Games (team and sprint). Ackermann, the anchor of Germany's team relay, clinched second for his squad when he passed Austria's Felix Gottwald in the final 200m. Earlier in the Games, Ackermann earned his first-ever Olympic medal when he finished behind Finland's Samppa Lajunen (winner of all three Nordic combined events in Salt Lake) in the inaugural sprint event. The silver marked Germany's first individual Nordic medal since East Germany's Ulrich Wehling (gold) and Konrad Winkler (bronze) won individual medals at the 1980 Lake Placid Games.

The German made his Olympic debut at the 1998 Nagano Games where he competed despite suffering from a virus that was so severe the Nordic athlete could barely walk. The illness forced Ackermann to miss about a month of training, but he still finished 12th in the individual -- his best result at a major international competition at that point -- and helped Germany to sixth place in the team event.

Ackermann has remained one of the world's best since Salt Lake, winning the 2002 and 2003 World Cup titles and placing second in 2004 and 2005. The German's success has carried over to the world championships. He earned a gold (individual) and two silvers (sprint and team) in 2003 and won the sprint and individual and was second in the team event in 2005. Ackermann has won seven career world championship medals.

Ackermann, who idolized three-time Olympic gold medalist Jens Weissflog, started ski jumping on 6m and 20m jumps in his hometown of Unteralba when he was 5. Outside of the Nordic combined, Ackermann enjoys soccer, basketball, golf and Alpine skiing.