Birger Ruud

Birger Johannes Ruud (23 August 1911 – 13 June 1998) was a Norwegian ski jumper and alpine skier.^[1]

Birger Ruud
Ruud in 1936
Full name	Birger Johannes Ruud
Born	23 August 1911 (1911-08-23) Kongsberg, Norway
Died	13 June 1998 (1998-06-14) (aged 86) Kongsberg, Norway
Personal best	92 m (302 ft) Planica, Yugoslavia (25 March 1934)
Medal record Representing  Norway Men's ski jumping Olympic Games 1932 Lake Placid Individual LH 1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen Individual LH 1948 St. Moritz Individual LH World Championships 1931 Oberhof Individual LH 1935 Vysoké Tatry Individual LH 1937 Chamonix Individual LH 1939 Zakopane Individual LH Men's alpine skiing World Championships 1935 Mürren Alpine combined

Career

Birger Ruud in 1949

Born in Kongsberg, Birger Ruud, with his brothers Sigmund and Asbjørn, dominated international jumping in the 1930s, winning three world championships in 1931, 1935 and 1937.

Ruud also won the Olympic gold medal in 1932 and 1936, the first repeat winner of ski jumping gold.^[2] He also was an accomplished alpine skier, winning a bronze medal in the combined at the 1935 world championships. Ruud won the Holmenkollen ski jumping competition in 1934 and shared the Holmenkollen medal in 1937 with Olaf Hoffsbakken and Martin P. Vangsli.

In 1943, during the German occupation of Norway, Ruud was incarcerated at Grini concentration camp for expressing his anti-Nazi sentiments.^[2] After his release in 1944, he joined the Norwegian resistance movement.^[3] He also competed in the 1948 Olympics, winning the ski jumping silver medal at age 36, though he was initially only at the Games as assistant coach of Norway’s ski jumping team.^[2] This accomplishment he personally held in the highest regard; it made him the first ski jumper to medal in three different Olympics.^[2] Ruud is also the only ski jumper to have won Olympic medals before and after the war and furthermore the one with the longest time period between winning medals at the Olympics (twelve years).

Twice he set ski jumping world records: 76.5 m (250.98 ft) in Odnesbakken in 1931, and 92 m (301.84 ft) in Planica in 1934.^[4][5]

Later in life, Birger Ruud, with his friend Petter Hugsted, the 1948 gold medalist, participated in the creation of the Kongsberg Skiing Museum.

In 1987, a bronze sculpture of Birger Ruud, by the Norwegian sculptor Per Ung, was set up in Ruud’s native town of Kongsberg, and in 1991 he was awarded the Egebergs Ærespris for his achievements in ski jumping and alpine skiing. Ruud was selected to light the Olympic Flame at the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics in Norway, but had to withdraw due to heart complications immediately before the event. He died in 1998, aged 86.^[2]

Ski jumping world records

Date	Hill	Location	Metres	Feet
18 January 1931	Odnesbakken	Odnes, Norway	76.5	251
24 March 1934	Bloudkova velikanka K90	Planica, Kingdom of Yugoslavia	87	285
25 March 1934	Bloudkova velikanka K90	Planica, Kingdom of Yugoslavia	92	302

  Not recognized! Crash at world record distance.^[6]