The Ski Jump

Anders Haugen
It took longer for Anders Haugen to win his medal than any athlete in Olympic history. At the 1924 Olympics, Haugen was placed fourth – just behind Norway’s Thorleif Haug, who had won three gold medals in other events. The result was accepted without argument. In 1974, at the 50th reunion of the 1924 Norwegian team, Norwegian sports historian Jacob Vaage was going over the results when he noticed an error. Haugen had correctly been given 1 7. 916 points, but Haugen’s scores added up to 17 .821, not the 18.000 with which he had been credited. The IOC was notified and at a special ceremony in Oslo, on 12 September 1974, 85-year-old Anders Haugen was given his bronze medal by Haug’s daughter – more than 50 years after the competition. Haugen and his brother, Lars, were the first great American ski jumpers. Anders won four national ski jumping championships, while Lars took seven. But Anders also set three American records, the first in 1911 at Ironwood, Michigan, and the last in 1920 at Dillon, Colorado. That mark, 214 feet, would not be bettered by an American for 12 years. Anders Haugen settled in California and coached skiing for many years. At the age of 75 he was still directing a junior alpine program for youngsters.

Henry Hall
Henry Hall was a famous ski jumper who skied from 1910 to 1930. He became a world champion and held two world records. Henry C. Hall was born in Ishpeming, Michigan in 1893. He was the best of five Hall brothers who skied throughout the United States and Canada from 1910 to 1930. When they were children, their father would have them jump off their front porch so they could beat their Swedish and Finnish neighbors. He also started them walking a tight rope in a big barn in order to improve their equilibri~m. Henry Hall won the National Ski Association National Ski Jumping Title in 1916 at Glenwood, Minnesota, and a year later established the World Ski Jumping Distance Record of 203 feet at Steamboat Springs, Colorado, the first of two world records set in his career. The Colorado ski fans present at Steamboat Springs’ famed Howelsen Hill that day in 1917 cheered wildly, placed American flags in Hall’s hands, hoisted him to their shoulder, and carried him to his hotel. That was a proud moment for American skiin,g for here was a World Distance Record holder who was a native-born American, the first to ever hold such a title. Hall’s second World Distance Record was set at Revelstoke, British Columbia, Canada in 1921 when he upped the distance record to 229 ½ feet.

Casper Oimoen
Casper Oimoen enjoyed a spectacular ski jumping career that spanned nineteen years. He was named to two American Olympic teams and won three U.S. ski jumping championships.

Casper Oimoen was born in Norway on May 8, 1906, and like most Norwegian youngsters was on skis from the time he could walk. Upon his arrival in the United States in 1923, he settled in Minot, North Dakota, and proceeded to take the ski jumping sport by storm.

In the late twenties and throughout the thirties, Oimoen entered over 200 tournaments, winning the majority of them, including the National Ski Association National Jumping Tournaments in 1930, 1931, and 1934. His record of ski tournament wins in 1929, 1930, and 1931 remains among the best in American ski jumping history.

His finest hour came as a member of the United States Olympic Ski Jumping Team of 1932 when he placed fifth in the Special Jumping against the world’s best at Lake Placid, New York. This was particularly gratifying. Previously, he had been selected for the 1928 Olympic Team but was informed that his American citizenship papers were invalid. Olympic officials declared that Oimoen was not a citizen of the United States. An investigation later revealed that immigration officials had misunderstood his name and spelled it Simeon instead of Oimoen. When Olympic officials checked his credentials, they found the error and made their ruling. Even the personal intervention of President Calvin Coolidge came too late to allow Oimoen to compete at the 1928 games. This was a great disappointment to him and the U.S. Team since he was at his peak and may well have won a medal in the games.

After the 1928 season, Oimoen married. The responsibility of a family took him into the contracting business and limited his ability to focus on his sport. He continued to compete whenever possible despite his growing family- remaining competitive enough to make the 1932 Olympic Team. He then continued to compete on a part-time basis, was named captain of the 1936 U.S. Olympic Jumping Team and was thirteenth of eighty competitors.

Casper Oimoen was a most graceful ski jumper as well as a powerful one. He had an enviable record of fourteen national, divisional or state championships, six hill records and was named to the “All American Ski Team” in a three-year period. Oimoen retired from the contracting business and settled in Ashland, Oregon in 1964. Based on his amazing athletic ability, Casper Oimoen was named to the U.S. National Ski Hall of Fame in 1963.

Birger Ruud
Birger Ruud, along with his brother Sigmund, were Norwegian ski jump and Alpine champions. Birger was a three-time Olympic medalist and three-time world champion. He is the only Olympian to win ski jumping and alpine events in the same Olympics. Birger Ruud is regarded by many ski historians as among the best ski jumpers of all time. Together with his elder brother Filgmund Ruud and younger brother Asbjørn Ruud, he dominated international ski jumping for almost two decades. In addition to his Olympic victories in 1932 and 1936 and his silver medal in 1948, he was World Champion three times, in 1931, 1935, and 1937, and silver medalist in 1939. Surprisingly enough, he was national champion only once (1939) and had only one victory at Holmenkollen (1934). Birger Ruud set two world distance records in ski jumping, in 1931 and 1934, jumping 92 metres at Planica, Yugoslavia in 1934. He was also a top alpine skier. In addition to his victory in the downhill combined at the 1936 Winter Olympics, he won the bronze medal in Alpine Combined at the 1935 World Championships.

During World War II, Ruud was imprisoned by German forces in 1943 for publicly announcing his anti-Nazi sentiments. After his release in 1944 he joined the N01wegian resistance movement. He ran a ski factory in his hometown Kongsberg, and together with his friend and Olympic ski jumping champion from 1948, Petter Hug~, took the initiative to create the Kongsberg Ski Museum. In 1987, a sculpture of him was set up in Kongsberg. He was supposed to light the Olympic flame at the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics, but had to withdraw due to heart problems. He died in his hometown in 1998, aged 86.

The oldest of the three famous Ruud brothers, Sigmund Ruud, came to national attention after winning the Junior Class in Nordic combined at Holmenkollen in 1926, where he impressed with his jumping. After his silver medal in the 1928 Olympics, he was World Champion in ski jumping in 1929 and won a bronze medal the following year. After 1930, he stayed several years in Central Europe, competing in ski jumping and alpine skiing, winning national championship titles in France, Czechoslovakia, and Romania. In 1932, he placed a disappointing seventh in the Winter Olympic ski jumping competition, severely hampered by appendicitis. He competed in the Alpine Combination in 1936, but had to withdraw after the downhill due to injury. In 1938, he published a highly acclaimed book on skiing, Skispor Krysser Verden (Ski Tracks Across the World). Ruud was chairman of the FIS Ski Jumping Committee for two periods, 1946-1955 and 1959-1967. He owned and ran a well-known sports shop in Oslo for several years, carrying his name.