Career
In 1998, Hannawald won a silver medal at the ski jumping world championships in Oberstdorf as well as a silver medal at the Olympic Games in Nagano in the team large hill event.
In the 1998/1999 season, he finished fifth place overall in World Cup Ski Jumping. At the world championships in Ramsau, he won a silver medal in the individual large hill behind Martin Schmitt, as well as winning a gold medal in the team large hill event.
In 2000, Hannawald won the Ski-flying World Championships in Vikersund. He also won the ski jumping competition at the Holmenkollen ski festival that year.
In the 2000/2001 season, Hannawald won gold in the team large hill event and bronze in the team normal hill event at the world championships in Lahti.
The following winter of 2001/02 was the most successful of his career: Sven Hannawald emerged victorious as the World's best ski jumper, winning all four Individual jumping titles at the Four Hills Tournament, the first to do so. He successfully defended his title of Ski Flying World Champion. At the Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City, he won gold in the team large hill and silver in the individual normal hill. He was nominated for Sportsman of the Year in Germany.
In the 2002/2003 season he finished again second in the world rankings and managed to set another highlight of his career: at the Worldcup competition in Willingen, Germany, he became the third person in history to achieve perfect marks from all five judges (20 points maximum) - 27 years after the first one (Anton Innauer) and five years after the second one (Kazuyoshi Funaki). Surprisingly enough, this mark has been matched only about one hour later at the same World Cup competition by Hideharu Miyahira, who finished sixth. Then it took another six years until Wolfgang Loitzl at Bischofshofen, Austria in 2009 during the 2008-09 Four Hills Tournament became the fifth one.
In the 2003/2004 season, he performed well below personal expectations. His best result was third in Engelberg. As a consequence of that, Hannawald ended his season prematurely. On April 29, 2004, Hannawald revealed that he was suffering from burnout, and had put himself into psychiatric treatment. During this time, Sven Hannawald managed to recover and reappeared to the public.
On August 3, 2005, he ended his career as a ski jumper, explaining through his managers that, after successfully dealing with his burnout, he no longer wished to suffer the stresses of professional sport.
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