Torjus Hemmestveit

Torjus Hemmestveit (1860 to 1930) was a Norwegian Nordic skier who shared the Holmenkollen medal with his brother Mikkjel Hemmestveit in 1928. The brothers were born in Kviteseid Municipality in Telemark, in the village of Morgedal, home of Sondre Norheim, commonly called the father of modern skiing. In 1881 they created what the article describes as the world's first skiing school, at Christiania, now Oslo, and so had a key role in the development of Telemark skiing. They later emigrated to the United States, ran several ski schools there, changed the spelling of their surname to Hemmestvedt and competed with the Aurora Ski Club in Red Wing, Minnesota. On 15 January 1893 Torjus beat his brother's ski jumping world record with a jump of 103 feet at McSorley Hill in Red Wing, and he died in Pennington County, Minnesota, on 7 June 1930.