Thorleif Haug

Thorleif Haug, born on 28 September 1894 in the valley of Vivelstad near Lier in Buskerud county, Norway, was a Norwegian skier who competed in Nordic combined and cross-country skiing and dominated both through the 1920s. At the first Winter Olympics, in Chamonix in 1924, he won all three Nordic skiing events, the 18 kilometres, the 50 kilometres and the Nordic combined. He was also awarded the bronze medal in ski jumping, but fifty years later a mistake in the calculation of scores was found, he was demoted to fourth place and his daughter presented the medal to Anders Haugen. He won the 50 kilometre event at the Holmenkollen ski festival a record six times, represented the club SBK Drafn of Drammen, worked as a plumber after his sporting career and died of pneumonia on 12 December 1934 at the age of forty. A statue of him was erected in Drammen in 1946.