Early Life and Career
Evensen was born in Alsvåg, but his family moved from Sørvågen to Molde, his mother's home city, when Johan was aged seven. He has four brothers. He took up ski jumping in the sports club Molde og Omegn IF at the age of seven, his father Arnor Evensen being a supportive figure. Johan Remen Evensen attended secondary school at Heimdal, being affiliated with the regional ski jumping team Trønderhopp. He later moved to Oslo, leaving Trønderhopp to join Eastern Norway's Kollenhopp.
At the Norwegian Championships held in Holmenkollen in January 2006, Remen Evensen finished seventeenth in the large hill.
In January 2007 he was used as a test jumper in the ski flying hill Vikersundbakken. He described this as "fantastically fun", and added that the success of Anders Jacobsen inspired him. By February 2007, he had displayed consistently good results in the Norwegian Tournament. He then performed well in the 2007 national championships. For this, he was sent to Japan to compete in the FIS Cup, the third highest level of international ski jumping. Competing three times, twice in Zao and once in Sapporo, Evensen recorded two victories and one second place. He followed up with a second place in his first Continental Cup event, in Zakopane two weeks later. He was drafted to the Norwegian squad for the World Cup event in Planica, but here he fell through in the qualification round. At this time his short-term goal (his long-term goal being to become "the world's best ski jumper") was to make the Norwegian national ski jumping team. In May the same year his inclusion in the national B team was announced. He landed a number of sponsor deals in order to concentrate fully on his training.
In the 2007–08 season, Evensen continued his Continental Cup career in January, with three competitions in Sapporo. His best result was a fourth place. At his next international competition, the Continental Cup in Trondheim in March, he finished ninth and tenth in the two races. This season he achieved a personal best jump of 212 metres as a test jumper in Planica. He was also a test jumper at the FIS Ski-Flying World Championships 2008.
Just four days ahead of the 2012 Ski-Flying World Championships at Vikersund in Norway Johan Remen Evensen announced that he would retire from ski jumping effective immediately. Since he had not been selected to represent Norway in the forthcoming world championship some people speculated a connection between this and his decision to quit. At a press conference he explained however that the reason for his quitting was a persistent problem keeping his weight down. He explained that he had been gaining weight without being able to account for it, and he concluded, "I have a body that doesn't function, and that means it's time to quit."
Read more about this topic: Johan Remen Evensen
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