Ski jumper Masahiko Harada suffered a crushing upset at the last Winter Games. Now he's returned to lead another top Japanese team

he best ski-jumpers shoot through the air like corks popping out of champagne bottles. But as Masahiko Harada knows, it's impossible to predict how far the cork will travel. Japan's Harada-led jumpers seemed a shoo-in for the gold at the 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer-until the final round, when Harada muffed his takeoff and landed a full 8 m short of the distance he needed. That failure blew Japan's chances for victory, and the memory of Lillehammer haunted the 29-year-old long after he left Norway. Harada struggled in 1995, and in 1996 he finished a lackluster 29th in World Cup standings. Snide commentators speculated that his career would soon be finished.

Harada knew better. He has put the fizz back into his jumps, making Japan the favorite for Olympic team gold once again-this time on home turf. Last month the squad took the top three places in a World Cup jumping competition for the third time this season. That raised hopes for a reprise in Nagano of one of the great moments in Japanese sports history. The last time Japan hosted a Winter Olympics, the 1972 Games in Sapporo, Yukio Kasaya led Japanese ski jumpers to a sweep of the medals in the 70-m-hill event.

A similar triumph at Nagano would cap a remarkable comeback for Harada. He regained his form in March 1997 by capturing a gold at the World Championships in Trondheim, Norway, and solidified a top World Cup ranking with a victory last week at Japan's National Jumping Championship. Explains Ski Association of Japan coach Katsuhi Tao: "After Lillehammer, Harada had to learn basic techniques all over again in order to rebuild his self-confidence. But all that balance and timing training has enabled him to evolve into a much stronger and more consistent jumper."

The breeding ground for Japan's ski program is Hokkaido, the nation's northernmost island. There, children often glide to school on skis, and the nimblest youngsters are sent to Člite ski academies. Hokkaido's masters trained not only Harada (he got serious about the sport at age eight), but also Kazuyoshi Funaki, 22, and Hiroya Saito, 27-the rest of the trio leading the quest for team gold.

In the individual contests, the allies will become rivals, and young Funaki, the team heartthrob, poses the most serious threat to Harada's supremacy. Constantly vying for the No. 1 spot in the World Cup standings, Funaki won January's grueling Four Hills competition in Austria and Germany. But Funaki lacks the Olympic experience of three-time veteran Harada. "It's a coin toss," says Jim Nishi, sports editor at Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun. "Funaki is seen as a medal favorite, but Harada has often performed best when he's seen as the underdog."

Both Harada and Funaki-as well as other top contenders Dieter Thoma of Germany and Jani Soininen of Finland-will have to contend with the sport's great equalizer: the winds that can suddenly swirl around the ski-jump ramp. Tricky gusts can bless one jumper with a textbook takeoff and damn the next with a nightmare landing. Being home team should help, however. "I can eat rice and miso soup this time, instead of bread and coffee," quips Harada. "At Nagano, Harada should be comfortable, so he can tune out everything except the image of himself flying," says coach Tao. "That mental concentration will make him unbeatable." If Harada and his teammates fly far enough, champagne corks will fly as well-to celebrate Olympic gold.