Lars Bystøl (born 4 December 1978 in Voss

Voss

is a municipality in Hordaland county, Norway. It is part of the traditional district of Voss. The administrative center of the municipality is the village of Vossevangen....

) is a Norwegian

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 ski jumper who has won one Olympic gold medal, one World Cup

Ski jumping World Cup

The FIS Ski Jumping World Cup is a ski jumping tournament held yearly by the International Ski Federation since 1979–80 season.- World Cup points :...

 event, two FIS Nordic World Ski Championships

FIS Nordic World Ski Championships

The FIS Nordic World Ski Championships have been held in various numbers and types of events since 1925 for men and since 1954 for women. Championship events include nordic skiing's three disciplines: cross-country skiing, ski jumping, and nordic combined...

 bronze medals in the team large hill events (2003, 2005), and a gold medal in the FIS Ski Flying World Championships. Bystøl has also had several alcohol

Alcohol

In chemistry, an alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxy functional group is bound to a carbon atom. In particular, this carbon center should be saturated, having single bonds to three other atoms....

-related episodes that have made the front pages of Norwegian newspapers.

Career

Bystøl won his first, and so far only, World Cup event on January 4, 2006 by winning the third event of the Four Hills Tournament at Bergisel

Bergisel

The Bergisel is a hill that lies to the south of Innsbruck, Austria, in the area of Wilten, where the Sill river meets the Inn Valley....

. Eleven days later, Bystøl won a gold medal in the team event at the 2006 Ski Flying World Championships

FIS Ski-Flying World Championships 2006

The FIS Ski-Flying World Ski Championships 2006 took place on 12-15 January 2006 in Bad Mitterndorf, Austria for the fourth time. Bad Mitterndorf hosted the championships previously in 1975, 1986, and 1996...

 in Bad Mitterndorf

Bad Mitterndorf

Bad Mitterndorf is a town in Salzkammergut, Styria in Austria. Situated between Salzburg and Graz, it is a popular winter sports resort and also as a location for walking and cycling in the summer. Bad Mitterndorf is the site of two health spas with thermal baths, an outdoor swimming pool and...

, Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

.

Bystøl continued the World Cup season by placing between 10th and 20th in the next three individual events, before going to the 2006 Winter Olympics

2006 Winter Olympics

The 2006 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XX Olympic Winter Games, was a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated in Turin, Italy from February 10, 2006, through February 26, 2006. This marked the second time Italy hosted the Olympic Winter Games, the first being the VII Olympic Winter...

. He retained his top-15 position in the World Cup standings, which enabled him to qualify for the normal hill of the Olympics despite being disqualified in the qualifying run. Once there, he finished sixth in the first jump, but held on with 103.5 meter second jump to win Olympic gold.

Bystøl finished 13th in the 2005-06 Overall World Cup standings.

Controversy

In 2000 he was sent home from a continental cup competition in Innsbruck after a party at New Year's Eve, and later that year he was caught DUI

DUI

DUI is a three letter acronym that may stand for:* Driving under the influence * Democratic Union for Integration — the largest ethnic Albanian party in the Republic of Macedonia* Data Use Identifier...

 with a 2.38‰http://www.dagbladet.no/sport/2003/11/05/382673.html blood alcohol content

Blood alcohol content

Blood alcohol content , also called blood alcohol concentration, blood ethanol concentration, or blood alcohol level is most commonly used as a metric of alcohol intoxication for legal or medical purposes....

. He was sentenced to 24 days in prison. In 2003 he fell into the ocean after he was fighting after some heavy drinking. His alcoholism

Alcoholism

Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...

 was so bad that it caused Bystøl to be kicked off of the ski jumping team in 2004 though he did fight his way back to the team.

In early 2009 he admitted to having tested positive for tetrahydrocannabinol

Tetrahydrocannabinol

Tetrahydrocannabinol , also known as delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol , Δ1-THC , or dronabinol, is the main chemical psychoactive substance found in the cannabis plant. It was first isolated in 1964. In pure form, it is a glassy solid when cold, and becomes viscous and sticky if warmed...

, a derivative of cannabis

Cannabis

Cannabis is a genus of flowering plants that includes three putative species, Cannabis sativa, Cannabis indica, and Cannabis ruderalis. These three taxa are indigenous to Central Asia, and South Asia. Cannabis has long been used for fibre , for seed and seed oils, for medicinal purposes, and as a...

. The sample was delivered in November 2008 in a Norwegian Cup race in Vikersund

Vikersund

Vikersund is a town of 2,448 inhabitants in the municipality capital of Modum, in the county of Buskerud, Norway.Vikersund is located 30 kilometers south of Hønefoss and 40 kilometers northwest of Drammen. The village is located at the southwestern arm of Tyrifjorden. The Drammen river enters...

.