Stein Eriksen

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Stein Eriksen (born December 11, 1927) is a Norwegian-American former professional alpine skier and Olympic gold medalist.

[edit] Sports career

Eriksen won the gold medal in the Giant Slalom event at the 1952 Winter Olympics, which were held in Oslo, Norway. He also won a silver medal in the Slalom race. Eriksen was the first skier from outside the Alps to win an Olympic men's alpine gold medal. Some of his other accomplishments include the fact that he is credited with devising "aerials", a freestyle skiing event, and he helped revolutionize the world of alpine skiing, especially in America, where he has served as a ski instructor at many different ski schools. For his Olympic medals, Eriksen earned the Holmenkollen medal in 1952 (Shared with Torbjørn Falkanger, Heikki Hasu, and Nils Karlsson).

It is said that Eriksen was skiing's "first superstar", since he was handsome, stylish, and charismatic. Despite his fame, he maintained a very down-to-Earth personality. For example, he is quoted as saying, "Be tough, be confident. But you will never be a whole and happy person if you aren't humble".

Stein's father, Marius Eriksen competed in the 1912 Olympic Games as a gymnast.

[edit] Life in the US

Shortly after his success in the Olympics, Eriksen went to America and has lived there ever since. He worked as an instructor and as a director at various ski schools across the country. He is currently director of skiing at the Deer Valley Resort in Utah, and also serves as host of the Stein Eriksen Lodge, a ski lodge in Deer Valley, Utah (the Lodge was named in honor of Eriksen, but is not owned by him). Stein is married to Francoise and has five children, Ava, Stein Jr., Julianna, Anja and Bjorn.He currently calls both Utah and Montana home.

In 1997, Eriksen was honored by the King of Norway by being awarded the highest honor that the Norwegian government can give to people living outside Norway.

On December 15, 2007 Stein Eriksen celebrated his 80th birthday (which is actually on the 11th) with friends at an "by invitation only" black tie dinner at the lodge with his namesake: Stein Eriksen Lodge. At this event was unveiled a full-size bronze statue to immortalize the legend - which now resides next to the Olympic torch in the center of the quadrangle at the entrance of the Stein Eriksen Lodge in Park City, Utah.

[edit] References

• FIS-Ski: Stein Eriksen - statistics
• Holmenkollen medalists - click Holmenkollmedaljen for downloadable pdf file (Norwegian)