Sigmund Ruud

Who was Sigmund Ruud?

Sigmund Ruud was a Norwegian ski jumper.

Born in Kongsberg, Norway, Sigmund Ruud, with his brothers Birger and Asbjørn, dominated ski jumping in the 1920s and 1930s. At the 1928 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, Sigmund earned a silver medal in the ski jumping competition. At the 1929 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships, he won the ski jumping competition while earning a bronze at the 1930 event. Sigmund also competed in the ski jumping competition at the Holmenkollen ski festival, which first began in 1933. He also competed at the 1932 Winter Olympics in the ski jumping event, but finished 7th. Additionally, Sigmund wanted to compete in the first alpine skiing events at the 1936 Winter Olympics, though he did not start.

Sigmund Ruud and fellow Norwegian ski jumper Jacob Tullin Thams are considered co-creators of the Kongsberger technique after World War I, a ski jumping technique that was the standard until it was superseded by the Daescher technique in the 1950s.

For his contributions in ski jumping, Sigmund earned the Holmenkollen medal in 1949, the last of the three Ruud brothers to do so. Ironically, Sigmund was the only one of the three not to win the Holmenkollen ski jumping competition.