Mikkjel Hemmestveit

Mikkjel Hemmestveit (6 March 1863 – 22 April 1957), was a Norwegian-American Nordic skier who shared the Holmenkollen medal with his brother, Torjus Hemmestveit in 1928.[1][2]

Mikkjel Hemmestveit
Country Norway
 United States
Born(1863-03-06)6 March 1863
Kviteseid, Telemark, Norway
Died22 April 1957(1957-04-22) (aged 94)
Minnesota, US
Personal best31.1 m (102 ft)
Red Wing, US
(9 March 1891)

Biography

Mikkjel Hemmestveit was born on the Hemmingstveit farm in the parish of Kviteseid in Telemark county, Norway. Both Torjus and Mikkjel Hemmestveit were from the village of Morgedal, whose most famous resident was Sondre Norheim, commonly referred to as the father of modern skiing. The brothers had a key role in the development of Telemark skiing by creating the world's first skiing school in 1881 at Christiania, Norway (now Oslo).[3] [4]

The brothers would emigrate to the United States, Mikkel (1886) and Torjus (1888), and ran several ski schools in their new country. In the United States, they changed the spelling of their surname to Hemmestvedt and Mikkjel became Mikkel.[5]

The first actual recorded tournament in the Midwest took place in St. Paul, Minnesota on January 25, 1887. Hemmestveit and his brother Torjus took the sport south to Red Wing, Minnesota with an exhibition tourney on February 8, 1887, sponsored by the Aurora Ski Club of Red Wing. The first recorded North American distance record was set in 1887 by Mikkel Hemmestvedt when he flew 37 feet at Red Wing, Minnesota. They became members and competed in the Aurora Ski Club.[6][7][8]

On 9 March 1891, he set the ski jumping world record distance at 102 feet (31.1 metres) on McSorley Hill in Red Wing, Minnesota, United States.[9]

Mikkel Hemmestveit returned to Morgedal in 1894 while his brother Torjus remained in Minnesota. In 1928 they both were awarded the Holmenkollen medal (Holmenkollmedaljen). [10]

Ski jumping world record
Date Hill Location Metres Feet
9 March 1891   McSorley Hill Red Wing, United States 31.1 102

References
  1. Rolf Bryhn. Mikkel Hemmestveit (Store norske leksikon)
  2. World record holding brothers Torjus and Mikkel Hemmestvedt (Ski Jumping Hill Archive)
  3. "Hemmingstveit. Kviteseid herad. Telemark". Matrikkelutkastet av 1950. Retrieved January 1, 2018.
  4. Sondre in the History of Skiing (Sondre Norheim- the Skiing Pioneer of Telemark)
  5. "Torjus and Mikkel Hemmestveit". morgedal.com. Retrieved January 1, 2018.
  6. The Aurora Ski Club (SkiJumpingUSA.com) Archived 2012-03-11 at the Wayback Machine
  7. US Ski Jumping History (Ski Jumping Hill Archive) Archived 2011-07-16 at the Wayback Machine
  8. National Skiing Association (U.S. National Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame and Museum in Ishpeming)
  9. "On Monday, Hemmestveit broke world record at 102 feet". Little Falls Transcript. 13 March 1891.
  10. Rolf Bryhn. "Holmenkollmedaljen". Store norske leksikon. Retrieved January 1, 2018.

Other sources
  • Frederick L. Johnson (2004) Sky Crashers: A History of the Aurora Ski Club (Goodhue County Historical Society) ISBN 978-0961719753
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