Anders Haugen

Who was Anders Haugen?

Anders Haugen was an American ski jumper who won four national ski jumping championships. He competed in the 1924 Winter Olympics in Chamonix and the 1928 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz. Anders Haugen was the first American to win an Olympic medal for ski jumping with 18 meters.

Anders Olsen Haugen was born in Bø in 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. Between 1910 and 1920, the Haugen brothers won the U.S. National Championships eleven times. In 1919 and 1920, Anders Haugen set the World record ski jumping distances of 213 ft and 214 ft, respectively. 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 86-year-old and was given the bronze medal by Anna Maria Magnussen, Thorleif Haug's youngest daughter.