Ryōyū Kobayashi

is a Japanese ski jumper.

As a ski jumper, he has won 37 World Cup individual competitions, the World Cup overall title twice, Four Hills Tournament three times, and is an individual Olympics gold medalist.

During his victorious 2018–19 World Cup season, Kobayashi scored 13 individual wins and won all six possible titles in a single season: the World Cup overall title, the Ski Flying World Cup overall, the Four Hills Tournament, the Raw Air tournament, the Planica7 tournament, and Willingen Five tournament.

He is the third ski jumper in history to win the 'Grand Slam' of all four events in the 4Hills Tournament, the gold medal at the 2022 Olympics in Beijing on the normal hill and the silver on the large hill.

With 252 metres (827 feet), the third longest jump in history, he is the current Japanese record holder. In an unofficial event near Akureyri, Iceland in April 2024, he achieved a distance of 291m after being airborne for around 10 seconds. It was an unofficial world record and is not being counted as a ski flying world record by FIS.

Personal life He was born on 8 November 1996 in Hachimantai, Iwate Prefecture, Japan. He began skiing at the age of five but began ski jumping in the first grade, inspired by his older brother and Japanese ski jumper Junshiro Kobayashi. In 2015, he joined Japanese ski jumping team Tsuchiya Home Ski Team.

He has two older siblings, Junshirō and Yūka, and a younger brother, Tatsunao; all of them are also ski jumpers. He attended Morioka Central High School, graduating in 2015.

Career At the 2018 Winter Olympics, Kobayashi competed in the men's normal hill, placing 7th, as well as the men's large hill, placing 10th. He also competed in the team event with teammates Taku Takeuchi, Noriaki Kasai, and Daiki Ito, finishing in 6th place.

Individual wins

Individual starts (245)