Large Hill, Individual, Men

The Olympic Champion from the Normal Hill, Jiří Raška, was highly favored in the Large Hill event after producing excellent training jumps in the days before the competition. But the event produced a surprise winner, the 21-year old Vladimir Belousov from Leningrad fought a close duel with Raška and had the best and longest jumps in both rounds, 101.5 and 98.5 m. Belousov became the first Soviet ski jumper to win an Olympic gold medal. The silver medalist from the 1966 Large Hill World Championships in Holmenkollen, the Japanese Takashi Fujisawa, was second after the first round, but could not control his nerves and missed totally on his second jump, ending in 18th place. Raška made two good jumps and ended in the silver medal position, only 1.9 points behind Belousov. Those two were in the class of their own. The bronze medalist, Norwegian Lars Grini was 17 points behind the winner.

Belousov ended his successful Olympic season with a victory in Holmenkollen one month later. In 1969 he won his only Soviet Championship, and in 1970 he had another Holmenkollen victory after placing sixth at the World Championships on the Normal Hill in Vysoke Tatra.