Fall 2019 RAGNAR ULLAND EXTENDED A GREAT KONGSBERG JUMPING TRADITION The name may not register with all long-time Pacific North- Nordic combined championship at Lake Tahoe, Calif., by taking west alpine skiers, but anyone who has been close to a ski jump- first in Class B jumping and the 18-kilometer cross-country race. ing hill is likely to recognize “Ragnar Ulland” and the Kongsberg He won several Northwest alpine and Nordic events in the 1930s jumping tradition. and ‘40s and also is widely known for inventing an early alpine Ragnar, now a Mt. Vernon, Wash., resident, was born into ski binding that could release upon impact. an extended family and community of ski jumpers in Kongsberg, Petter Hugsted won the junior Holmenkollen championship Norway, a silver mining town, 55 miles southwest of Oslo. In in 1940 and went on to win a gold medal for Norway in the 1948 the 1930s, Kongsberg was Winter Olympic Games. a place where ski jumping To British Columbia came the trio of Nordal Kaldal, Henry was a mainstay activity in Sodvedt, and Tommy Mobraaten, who left Kongsberg for mining winter and a home for jump- and lumber town jobs in western Canada during the late 1920s ers who topped world and and early 1930s. Known as the “three musketeers of ski jump- Olympic competition from ing,” these three Norwegians not only dominated the top placings 1928 through 1948. During in Northwest ski jump- that period, three of the four ing events, but they also Olympic gold and silver med- helped organize, teach, als awarded to winners of the and judge skiing compe- ski jumping events went to titions throughout Brit- Kongsberg athletes. Often, ish Columbia and other three members of a four-man Ragnar Ulland parts of Canada. ski jumping team representing Nor- as a young adult In 1932, Kaldahl way were from Kongsberg. won more than five Class The guys with the red sweaters A jumping tournaments and white K’s on their chest were in the Northwest, and, notorious throughout Europe and the the next year, Mobraaten United States in the 1930s and ‘40s. followed, winning most Ragnar’s superior form A list of the best-known Kongsberg of the same champion- jumpers of the era reads like a who’s- ship events. Mobraaten who of champions. They include represented the Cana- Birger, Sigmund, and Asbjorn Ruud; Roy and Strand Mikkelsen; dian Olympic team in 1936 and 1948, taking a respectable 14th Hjalmar Hvam; Petter Hugsted; Arnhold Kongsberg; Nordal place in the 1936 Olympic jumping competition. Sodvedt was a Kahldal; Tom Mobraaten; Henry Sodvedt; and Olav, Sigurd, and champion in the combined Nordic events; was active in the Ca- Reidar Ulland. The latter was Ragnar’s father. nadian Amateur Ski Association, serving as a vice-president; and The Ruuds led the way became a renowned international ski jumping judge. The Ruud brothers, the most well-known of the Kongs- Seven Ulland brothers competed berg group, dominated international ski jumping for Norway in The Ulland family had seven brothers who grew up jump- the 1930s, with Birger winning back-to-back gold medals in ski ing in Kongsberg. Sigurd came to the U.S. in 1928 and set hill jumping in the 1932 and 1936 Winter Olympics. The three Ruud jumping records at Lake Placid and in the west at Mount Shasta. brothers won the World Championships five times between them. In 1938, he won the U.S. Ski Jumping Championships in Brattle- Sigmund won the silver medal in the 1928 St. Moritz Winter boro, Vt. Games and Asbjorn won gold at the 1938 FIS Nordic World Ski In 1930, Sigurd’s younger brother, Olav, took third in the Championships and the 1946 Holmenkollen competition. Holmenkollen junior championships. He moved on to coach in The Mikkelsen brothers contributed greatly to development France, where he captured the 1935 French four-way combined of the skisport in North America. Strand won the 1929 U.S. Na- championships. In the same year, Olav made jumping history at tional Championships and younger brother Roy was a member of Ponte di Legno, Italy, where he soared 103.5 meters (339 feet) the 1932 and 1936 U.S. Olympic jumping teams. to become the first ski jumper ever to break the 100-meter bar- Hjalmar Hvam grew up skiing in Kongsberg and came to rier. One year after Olav coached the Italian jumping team at the Portland, Ore., in 1927. Five years later, he won the first U.S. Continued on Page 2 Page 2 RAGNAR ULLAND EXTENDED A GREAT KONGSBERG JUMPING TRADITION Continued from Page 1 1936 Olympics at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, the Seattle Wren. With three jumps over 230 feet, he took seventh in Class A Ski Club arranged to have him come to Seattle to coach aspiring events at Howelsen Hill in Steamboat. One month later, Ragnar young ski jumpers. won the National Junior Ski Jumping Championships at Leav- Deciding to stay in the U.S., enworth and tied the hill record with a standing leap of 284 feet. Olav won several Class A jump- With that win, he was invited with 40 other jumpers to the try- ing events in the Pacific North- outs for the U.S. Olympic ski jumping team in Iron Mountain, west, including the PNSA cham- Mich., where he took fourth place, landing him a coveted spot on pionships in 1939. Like many the U.S. team. jumpers of his time, Olav also Olympic hopes dashed was an accomplished alpine Going into the year of the 1956 Winter Olympics to be held in skier and he took fifth in the Cortina, Italy, Ragnar was age 18, a senior at Seattle’s Roosevelt Mount Rainier Silver Skis race High School, and, at that time, the youngest member of a U.S. of 1938. After years of teach- ski jumping team to compete in the Olympics. ing, he became coach of the Before heading for Europe to compete, the jumping team went 1956 U.S. Olympic ski jump- to Lake Placid, N.Y., for training. The intensity there was high, Olav Ulland in his ing team, a role he continued as no American since 1924 had placed better than fifth in Olym- Kongsberger sweater for his adopted country through pic ski jumping. Ragnar’s Uncle Olav, as coach of the team, the 1958 World Championships in Lahti, Finland. In 1960, he was knew European judges were tough on the landing and worked named chief of competition for jumping events at the Squaw Val- with the jumpers on their style. ley Olympic Games. Olav is also widely known for his role in the With the six jumpers pushing hard based on high hopes of Osborn & Ulland sporting goods stores, a dominant Seattle area achievement, mishaps occurred. During practice jumps, Ragnar ski business from 1941 through 1995. took a terrible spill and badly hurt his lower Olav’s younger brother Reidar had been back. He was one of six U.S. winter athletes jumping successfully in Norway, and, with Olav’s hurt in one day in Cortina. While disappointed encouragement, decided to join him in Seattle in and recovering from injuries, Ragnar came back 1947. Reidar immediately found himself a top fin- to the Pacific Northwest and still managed to isher in several of the ski jumping tournaments of compete in the local Kongsberger Ski Club an- that era, and, four years later, his son Ragnar, age nual event, placing 2nd. 14, came to Seattle to stay. With the 1956-57 season, tryouts loomed to Ragnar continues the legacy select the next U.S. team to participate in the Ragnar began ski jumping at age five in F.I.S. World Championships scheduled for La- Kongsberg. Within three years, he started travel- hti, Finland, in 1958. Ragnar, now 19, still was ing to compete, and, at the time, he was said to recovering from his injuries, and, while he had have been jumping from 110 to 120 feet in compe- titions. Sigmund Ruud (left) was His first ski season in the Northwest was highly celebrated in 1940s acclaimed for the 14-year old Ulland prodigy. He advertising consistently placed in the top five in Class B re- gional jumping tournaments. At the 1952 National Junior Ski Jumping Tournament at Lake Tahoe, Ragnar took third and earned a prize for the most stylish leap of the day, a 127-foot effort. Ragnar soaring at Leavenworth Ragnar was said to get his amazing distances because he “held his float.” He had learned the technique of carrying skis higher on the float, keeping the air pressure under the blades all the way, leaning forward, and then timing his landing to get the last yard, foot, and inch. Indeed, the Kongsberg jumpers, starting with his Uncle Sigurd, had refined a new style of leaning forward, bending at the hips, and keeping the ski tips high on the descent. During the 1952-53 season, Ragnar notched five first-place finishes, and the next year, at age 16, he began jumping in Class A events -- consistently taking second in tournaments, with one first several top 10 finishes, he finished 17th in the 1957 National Ski place title where he beat his legendary Uncle Olav. The National Jumping Championships in Berlin, N.H. Junior Jumping Championships held in Duluth, Minn., in Febru- In January 1958, he participated at Ishpeming, Mich., in the ary 1954 were no exception. He placed second, with longer jumps final tryouts for the 1958 U.S. team. On the famed Suicide Hill, than the local youth, Jerry Lewis, who still won the event based on he repeated his 17th place finish from Nationals the year before.