The level of hype surrounding Japan’s ski jumping supremo Kobayashi Ryoyu this winter season, which culminates in the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022, has reached fever pitch in recent months. Sitting atop the World Cup standings with 1162 points - ahead of notable names including Germany's Karl Geiger, Norway's Halvor Egner Granerud and German legend Stefan Kraft - Kobayashi demonstrated his recent domination of the sport by winning the prestigious Four Hills tournament for a second time this January.
However, with the Olympic Winter Games just around the corner, the Four Hills also gave a hint of just how quickly things can change in a sport where the finest margins separate victory from disappointment.
Kobayashi’s first Four Hills triumph came in the 2018/2019 season, when he also claimed the coveted Grand Slam -one of the sport's rarest achievements that requires ski jumpers to triumph on all four hills in Oberstdorf, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Innsbruck and Bischofshofen. It is a feat that has only been achieved by two other jumpers in history.
After a relatively low-key (by his standards) 2019-2021, the 25-year-old has been back to his mesmerising best this season and was on the cusp of repeating his Grand Slam triumph at this season’s final Four Hills showpiece, having won the first three events in dominant style.
But in the final event, with the chance to become the first ski jumper ever to sweep the tournament twice, Kobayashi finished fifth. It was a result that left Japan’s brightest male ski jumping prospect ruing what could have been. But also, in some small way, one which would have given his closest rivals confidence heading into the Olympic Winter Games.
“Maybe [I was] thinking [about the] Grand Slam,” reflected Kobayashi, who has talked on numerous occasions about the nervousness he feels before competing.
Beijing 2022 will not be Kobayashi’s first Olympic Winter Games, after the athlete competed four years ago at PyeongChang 2018.
Despite finishing a respectable 7th in the normal hill and 10th in the large hill, the then 21-year-old was left disappointed with his performance, stating in an interview with Sportiva Magazine: “I felt like I was miles away off the competition. I was in top form but still finished seventh and 10th.
“Looking back, I wasn’t near the highest level in the world technically. I have a long way to go. The lack of experience really showed, I think.”
Fuelled by this disappointment and with a burning desire to succeed, Kobayashi went into the 2018/2019 season a changed athlete.
What followed was, from a sporting perspective, nothing short of remarkable.
In his first race of the 2018/2019 season, he reached the podium for the first time, before winning 13 World Cups en route to the overall crown. His achievements that season included the Four Hills, ski flying title. Raw Air, Planica7 and Willingen Five.
Speaking to Manila STV after the Four Hills event that season, Kobayashi made it clear that his dreams for the future went far beyond the level of success he had achieved at that time.
“To become an athlete with great presence, like football superstar Neymar, baseball sensation Shohei Ohtani and renowned Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton is a dream in my whole life,” he said.
But to do that, Kobayashi knows that there is one competition, above all others, he needs to win.
As he said himself when analysing what it will take to reach the level of stardom enjoyed by his sporting heroes: "The reality is nobody pays attention to you if you don’t win at the Olympics.”
At Beijing 2022, Kobayashi has the chance to become the first Japanese ski jumper to win Olympic gold since Kazuyoshi Funaki at Nagano 1998. The tournament begins on 5 February with the men's normal hill and ends on 14 February with the men's team competiton.