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 was born in 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]

The brothers would emigrate to the United States in the late 19th century and ran several ski schools in their new country. They changed the spelling of their surname of Hemmestvedt in the United States.

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 west 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.^[4][5][6]

References

other sources

• Sky Crashers: A History of the Aurora Ski Club (Goodhue County Historical Society. 2004)

External links

• Holmenkollen medalists - click Holmenkollmedaljen for downloadable pdf file (Norwegian)
• Aurora Ski Club Members