Torbjørn Yggeseth

Torbjørn Yggeseth was a promising ski jumper as a junior, placing sixth in the Holmenkollen junior event and tenth in the 1953 Norwegian Junior Championships. In 1954 he went to Canada to train as a fighter pilot, participating in a few competitions. He returned to Norway in 1956 and continued his ski jumping career. In 1958 Yggeseth hit the headlines by placing fourth in the Norwegian Championships, and in 1959 he won the ski flying competition in Kulm, Austria, also winning a few days later in Klingenthal, East Germany. He was awarded the prize “1959 Sportsman of the Year”, given by Norwegian sportswriters. Later that year he went to Seattle, USA for university studies and, in spite of not competing in the selection competitions at home, was nominated for the 1960 Norwegian Olympic team for Squaw Valley.

Yggeseth had difficult training conditions in Seattle, but managed to place fifth in Squaw Valley, the best placed of the four Norwegian jumpers. He returned to Europe for the Four Hills Tournament both in 1962/63 and 1963/63, placing second in total in both tournaments, and winning the competitions in Bischofshofen in 1962/63 and Oberstdorf in 1963/64. In 1963 he achieved his only medal at the Norwegian Championships, finishing second. On 17 March 1964, Yggeseth achieved his greatest victory, winning at Holmenkollen, and setting a new hill record of 84.5 m in front of a crowd of around 100,000 enthusiastic fans, which was redemption for him after disappointing 14th and 28th finishes at the Innsbruck Olympics.

Yggeseth ended his sporting career after the 1964 season, and worked as a pilot for SAS until his retirement in 1994. Yggeseth was chairman of the FIS Ski Jumping Committee from 1982-2004. In 2008 he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. After surgery he became paralyzed and was wheelchair bound until his 2010 death.