Anders Haugen

Anders Olsen Haugen (October 24, 1888 – April 14, 1984) was a Norwegian-American ski jumper who won four national ski jumping championships.[1] He competed in the 1924 Winter Olympics in Chamonix and the 1928 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz.[2] Anders Haugen was the first and, as of 2022, only American to win an Olympic medal for ski jumping.[3]

Anders Haugen
Anders Haugen
Country United States
Born(1888-11-24)24 November 1888
Bø, Telemark, Sweden-Norway
Died14 April 1984(1984-04-14) (aged 95)
Yucaipa, California, U.S.
Personal best65.2 m (214 ft)
Dillon, Colorado, US
(29 February 1920)
Medal record
Men's ski jumping
Olympic Games
Bronze medal – third place 1924 Chamonix Individual large hill
January 1926 jump by Haugen at a competition in Grand Beach, Michigan

Biography

Anders Olsen Haugen was born in Bø, Telemark, Norway. Anders Haugen and his brother Lars emigrated to the United States in 1909 and built a ski jumping hill with the Milwaukee Ski Club near Lake Nagawicka west of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in order to open ski jumping to the public of the area.

In 1911 Anders Haugen set a world record of 46m (152 feet) on Curry Hill in Ironwood, Michigan while winning the National Championship.[4] Between 1910 and 1920, the Haugen brothers won the U.S. National Championships eleven times. In 1919 and 1920, Anders Haugen set the two world record ski jumping distances of 213 ft (64.92m) and 214 ft (65.23m), respectively.[5][6]

He was Captain of the first US skiing team at the 1924 Winter Olympics.

Haugen and his brothers later moved to northwestern Wisconsin and then Frisco, Colorado.

Haugen had won the 1924 Olympic ski jumping bronze medal in the individual large hill, though he was not awarded the medal due to a scoring error. 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. The bronze medal had been awarded to Norwegian skier Thorleif Haug, who also won three gold medals in the first Winter Olympics in Chamonix. On 12 September 1974, Anders Haugen came to Norway as an 85-year-old and was given the bronze medal by Anna Maria Magnussen, Thorleif Haug's youngest daughter.[7][8]

In 1929, Haugen and his brother Lars moved to the Lake Tahoe area in California, where he developed the Lake Tahoe Ski Club. Up until his 70s, he directed the junior skiing program at the ski club. Haugen was elected to the Colorado Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame in 1978.[9]

Haugen was inducted into the U.S. Ski Hall of Fame in 1963. His bronze medal is on display at the Hall of Fame in Ishpeming, Michigan.

He died at Redlands Community Hospital in San Bernardino, California on April 14, 1984, of kidney failure, and had been suffering from prostate cancer.[1]

Personal life

Haugen became a strict vegetarian in 1911 and adhered to the diet for the rest of his life.[10] He stated that his vegetarian diet gave him more strength and improved his skiing performance. He was a teetotaller and non-smoker. He married Mina Amundson in 1917, they had two sons.[10]

Cross-country skiing results

Olympic Games
 Year   Age   18 km   50 km 
19243533—
19283943—

Ski jumping world records
Date Hill Location Metres Feet
19 February 1911   Curry Hill Ironwood, United States 46.3 152
1919   Howelsen Hill Steamboat Springs, United States 62.2 205
9 March 1919   Haugen Hill Dillon, United States 64.9 213
29 February 1920   Haugen Hill Dillon, United States 65.2 214

  Not recognized! Crash at world record distance.[5]

References
  1. "Anders Haugen, Olympian. Medal Was Delayed 50 Years". The New York Times. Associated Press. April 19, 1984.
  2. "Anders Haugen". IOC Olympics.com.
  3. Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Anders Haugen". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 2020-04-18.
  4. "Sensational ski jumping". Calumet News. 20 February 1911.
  5. "Jumps 213 feet". El Paso Herald. 10 March 1919.
  6. "Norwegian immigrant contributions to America's making, p.166 (174/188)". El Paso Herald. 20 November 2009.
  7. Thorleif Haug (Store norske leksikon)
  8. Anders Haugen's belated bronze medal Ski Jumping Hill Archive, 5 January 2006, retrieved 29 March 2013
  9. Anders Haugen at Colorado Snowsports Museum
  10. "Vegetarianism" (PDF). Life and Health: National Health Journal. 1: 34–37. 1973.
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