VINKO BOGATAJ AGONY OF DEFEAT WIDE WORLD OF SPORTS

[noaanhc]

There is a another funny story that is related to his famous ski jump crash.Years later Vinko Bogataj was on in his way to do a TV interview on ABC sports when he was involved in a very minor car accident.Responding later to the accident he replied.

"Everytime I'm on ABC,I crash."

[skyking1961]

I think he is still alive.

[geeksgaloremarmora]

I remember this, it used to be on the theme intro of wide world of sports

[altfactor]

I believe Bud Palmer and former U.S. Olympic ski jumper rt Devlin were the commentators at the ski jump event where Bogataj fell.

[altfactor]

If "Wide World" were still on the air today, chances are Vinko Bogataj's ski jump would no longer be "{The Agony Of Defeat".

It probably would be replaced by the crash that cost J.R. Hildebrand the 2011 Indianapolis "500".

[altfactor]

Didn't he once do an American Express TV commercial in which he said "Do you know me?? Every Saturday afternoon at 5 o'clock, I fall off a ski jump".

I believe Bud Palmer and Art Devlion (the latter a former U.S. ski jump champ and an Olympian) were the commentators at that event.

[johnny10301968]

This happened in 1971 he retired from ski-jumping 20 years later.

[mkulanator]

oh wow, that embarassing. yeah, maiden name. but yeah, he is my distant uncle

[DonReedProductions]

His video ran every time this program aired.

[TELEVISIONARCHIVES]

He jumped other times and made it but he wasn't good at it. I have video of that whole event unedited. He did fall on his first jump but it was nothing compared to that. 

[zelezniklemen]

to all of u, i know him and he is still lives.

[vccstudents]

This poor guy will NEVER live this down!

[mkulanator]

Kayper54, ur right, Distant uncle doesn't make since. I asked my mom and shesais it's my distant cousin. Soliman, shit up, honest to go if u looked upbhoa family tree u would find me

[Rorix9]

amazing he didn't die? lol, it was not THAT bad of a fall...especially on snow...i'm sure his pride is hurt much worse than his body

[ChaplainDMK]

@Rorix9

Not that bad? These guys are going at around 80-100 km/h at the jumpoff point... 

[mwjk13]

@Rorix9 snow is hard only new fluffy snow doesnt hurt that snow looked like ice snow

[kayper54]

It's just so amazing that this didn't kill him. Or at least seriously maim him.

[36zvxb]

WOAH BABY LOOK AT HIM GO! That made me lol. I had to watch a couple times haha. WOAH BABY LOOK AT HIM GO! Lol

[mkulanator]

honest to God, im not lying, that is my distant uncle,,,, my moms madden name is Bogataj..... you think im lieing, im not!!!! that is my distant uncle

[silkmann]

You are a lair!

[kayper54]

Are you sure you don't mean "distant cousin?" It would be rather difficult for an uncle to be distant, since he would most likely be, in this case, your mother's brother. That's not at all distant. Is he perhaps a great-uncle? That's still not distant.

[hardcharger]

@mkulanator Madden name? Like Madden football? What team does she like? Or is it her MATING name? HA HA. Ah the language barrier, always funny, no matter what time it is and no matter where you may live.

[clevesc]

If you look closer, you can see that his only head protection was a nit cap. Amazing.

[a1cjlock]

He is sooooo lucky he landed on snow instead of solid ground. He'd be in a wheelchair and eating from a tube for life had it were.

[doyoulikecheese5219]

scrupuducious

[a1cjlock]

LOOK AT EM GO!! WOOOA!!

[darkkaz7]

i know what went wrong, he fell. hes supposed to stay on his skiis, but he failed to do so, so he fell

[SAYYOURROSARY]

he forgot to say his Saint Christopher prayer

this is why he biffed it so bad .

Ohhhhh baaaabbbyy they had to call the

ambulance from 40 miles out .

but the roads were slick ! Hey ! He started breathing "almost" within 4 minutes so he will be O.K.

don't ya think ?

[buzzterbrown]

Finally, this is the guy. I was thinking of him after the tragic accident in Vancouver a few days ago.

[BlueCobolt]

Lotta speed in that track...now wait to... WOOAAW!! Look at him go! Ohh! Holy... Wooow..oh! Ooo..baby.... What a terrible fall!

[bryandamadman]

So is the new agony of defeat video going to be the luge guy nailing the pole?

[skyking1961]

Vinko didnt die from what he did. He didnt even have any injuries. You are comparing apples to oranges.

[gunnvon]

@skyking1961 He had a concussion.

[SAYYOURROSARY]

He did not say his Saint Christopher prayer . I only biff

if I forget that .....

[lmlove80]

Look at him go!

[xxLabrat407xx]

wooooah baby! ROFL *Smak*

[Maxwell2323]

@xxLabrat407xx

This was a great show and EVERYONE watched it every Saturday. The rumor was that the guy broke his neck on this fall, for many years, until we all found out he was OK.

Those of us from the 60s and 70s will never forget this video, voiceover and music. Classic.

[xxLabrat407xx]

Well I don't know if EVERYONE watched it EVERY SATURDAY but I remember it..that commentator's "Woooah baby!" gets me each time!! ROFL "Smak"

[bigpharmarules]

No helmets?? Wow

[jsmcguireIII]

Just watching ski jumping on tv with my teenage son and told him how we used to see this ski jumper go ragdoll on the intro to wide world of sports on saturday mornings. And here it is! We were laughing our asses off. I love youtube!!! Go Vinko - the most famous ski jumper OF ALL TIME!!!!

[only5ones0who5know]

wow that wasn't nice , poor man

[jfiles000000]

nice jump!!!!!!

[Blain1971]

What happened was new snow had fallen during the event making his run too fast. When he realized what was happening he tried to stop himself but lost control. At least he walked with just a concusion.

[stilleavy]

dudes from my native country. wait?? why am i bragging about this?

[GenericUser19xx]

Wow, talk about milking it with the show flag on the wall and doing an expose on the guy everybody loves to watch trainwreck for five seconds. I read the Wikipedia entry on the show and there was even a term for the people that tuned in only to watch Vinko "take a tumble". This may have been the first instance in video mass media of people watching merely to get a kick out of seeing somebody wreck himself (accidentally or not) for whatever reason.

[cochranexyz]

"This may have been the first instance in video mass media of people watching merely to get a kick out of seeing somebody wreck himself (accidentally or not) for whatever reason." Really? Did you make this up?

[GenericUser19xx]

Did I make what up? That it was the first instance of this in mass media? Or that people watched it merely to watch the guy tumble? To the first, I have no idea if it was the first, I was making conjecture. To the second, it's pretty obvious that's the case. It was the only clip ABC recycled from the original 70s intro for 20+ years, and what the clip became famous for. So yeah, people only remember the skier eating sh!t every week.

[cochranexyz]

Sounds like you made it up.

[photo199]

I remember seeing this interview years ago. This guy lived in communist Yugoslavia were they didnt' get the show. He didn't know for almost 20 years that he was on the opening of the show til they hunted him down for the interview.

[salinagrrrl69]

YA and I heard they cme up to him and he was most surprised at his ...infamy.

[crysjumar1]

just saw that information today. awesome

[firmingitup]

That's messed up!

[ochsensepp33]

did he died?

[crazyredlion4500]

ROFL! Thats funny man. It was a classic here is your sign moment.

[Black77Diamond]

This is in the opening clip of ABC Wide World of Sports. That was the famous clip,

AGONY OF DEFEAT!

THE WIPE OUT.

[balialho]

i wouldn't worry if i were him, if he lobbies hard enough, he can have Ricky Hatton getting KO'd  replace him as "The Agony of Defeat" sports example...

[mikemoair]

i remember watching this on tv but cant remember what the russian judge gave him ah ha. what ever became of barrel jumping?

[tonial39]

see, this is why the olympics used to be so much better, because they would let any crazy nut with a pair of ski's jump. "no training? well, just watch the guy infront of you, you'll be fine." they should go back to this, make it more fun to watch.

[Rrrrrrrea]

And in Slovenia, Vinko Bogataj is appreciated as one of the legends of ski jumping... He's such a joke :D

[crazyredlion4500]

Whoa! I remember even when I was a kid I knew that guy was really having a bad day. Ouch!

[OnTheRun167]

I wonder how many times I saw this on Saturday and Sunday mornings as a kid growing up lol

[crysjumar1]

easily 500 times...600? how many weekends from 8 years old to 18.

[themightycelestial]

I've wiped out the slopes worse than that.

[NaveedKoval]

nope

[hiram0ulysses]

I invented ski jumping!

[flaxman0]

no helmets back then?

[indyattic]

Imagine that! Add we lived! Scary, huh?

[Isthisthelongestname]

lol scary!

[neoyamaneko]

Vinko!!!

[siennah99]

i couldn't stop laughing when i was a little boy and i can't stop laughing now 40 years later

[norbiu]

So you never stopped being an asshole?

[mikemoair]

i feel exactly the same about jim jones and his cool aid cult "they did what"

[AllRequired]

There he is, standing at the very edge of the Oberstdorf sign like a proud warrior. I swear to God, he looked like he was all set to try that jump all over again.

[mrmike1881]

Rip in peace jim and thank you for all the wonderfull memories.

[Pookatube]

RIP Jim. And Thank You for immortalizing Vinko Bogataj forever in the minds of Millions of American and International Sports Fans!

[lemurboy12]

OMG

[HeyRadialMoon]

He bailed on the jump, pure and simple.

[TELEVISIONARCHIVES]

No he didn't . I have the complete show on this and he made the other jumps but he wasn't that good at sky jumping. He almost crashed on the other jumps he did. He slipped here.

[IllinoisHighwayMan]

Also, fresh snow was falling at the time, so that had an impact.

[TELEVISIONARCHIVES]

Yes. I wrote sky jumping. It should have been ski jumping. For a while ESPN Classic showed some longer Wide World of Sports shows .

[Mrgyn]

HE didn't slip here. He was going to fast and tried to stop.

[TELEVISIONARCHIVES]

No . He wasn't going to fast. Just before this another jumper jumped off and made it fine. Vinko did other jumps before this one that day and made it but his landings were shaky . He was the worst jumper that day.

[Mrgyn]

A light snow had begun falling at the start of the event, and by the time Bogataj was ready for his third jump, the snow had become quite heavy. Midway down the ramp for that jump, Bogataj realized that the conditions had made the ramp too fast. He attempted to lower his center of gravity and stop his jump, but instead lost his balance completely and rocketed out of control off the end of the ramp, tumbling and flipping wildly

[Mrgyn]

and crashing through a light retaining fence near a crowd of stunned spectators before coming to a halt. Despite the ferocity of the crash, Bogataj suffered only a mild concussion.

[bigreese120]

Hey, that's from wikipedia!!!

[TELEVISIONARCHIVES]

He wasn't a good jumper to begin with and others jumped after his wipe out that day. I have the complete show on video

[Mrgyn]

Yes, after they cleared off the jump... Just because more people went that day doesn't mean the conditions had gotten bad to the point of him going to fast during that particular run. They are constantly maintaning the ski jump throughout the event, and they did after he jumped to probably slow it down a bit.

[Mrgyn]

hadn't*

[TELEVISIONARCHIVES]

Did you see his other jumps. He never landed any of them good. He was not a good jumper and was the worst ski jumper at the event. Just before he jumped another jumper made it . He crashed because he wasn't good at it.

[Mrgyn]

You don't seem to understand I just quoted one of his books.

[TELEVISIONARCHIVES]

Books can be wrong. The tape of the whole show is not. I have a book here that said he died from this. That book was also wrong.

[neoyamaneko]

Wrong. He crashed because it had begun to snow heavily and it made his descent down the ramp faster than he had anticipated. His compensation for the sudden increase in speed caused him to crash.

[nesnman]

Nope. I have the complete Wide World Show from this event. He was not a good ski jumper at all and earlier he almost crashed on the landing.