Herman Smith-Johannsen

Herman " Jackrabbit " Smith - Johannsen ( born June 15, 1875 in Horten, Norway, † January 5, 1987 near Tønsberg ) was a Norwegian- Canadian cross-country skier and Super Centenarian. He was among the first athletes who made ​​the cross-country ski popular in North America.

As the " great old man of skiing " he rose in Canada and the United States on a symbolic figure, which was characterized by an irrepressible, enthusiastic love for skiing. He organized races, led ski tours, trained skiers, skiing advised initiatives designed jumps, marked cross-country trails and ski sports clubs founded in 23 Canadian cities.

Life

1875-1928

Even with two years he learned to ski, even as a small boy, he therefore took part in many ski jumping and cross-country competitions in which he could win some victories. His family moved when he was 8 years old, to Christiania near Oslo. In the early 90s it was expected, whose childhood idols Fridtjof Nansen and Otto Sverdrup, were among the best all-round skiers of Norway. Valuable experience was gained also in the skiing in the mountains of his homeland Nordmarka.

In 1894 he completed his studies at the Royal Norwegian Military Academy as a second lieutenant. He then went to Berlin to study engineering. On its completion in 1899, a longer skiing holiday in Norway and then the emigration followed in the United States. Smith - Johannsen settled in Cleveland ( Ohio) as a machinery salesman for the Brown Hoisting Machinery Company down.

The company sent him to Canada to get there construction machinery and equipment for logging to the people. This work brought him into the wilderness, North Bay, where he came into contact with the Cree and Ojibway. Stunned by his ability at high speed shut down on skis heavily forested slopes, they gave him the nickname " Okumakum Wapoos " which means as much as " chief prairie hare " (Chief Jack Rabbit).

In 1907 Smith - Johannsen with Alice Robinson, the daughter of a judge from Cleveland, the covenant of marriage. In accordance with it, he decided to become self-employed. As a sales engineer in Cuba he brought products that were used for the treatment of sugar cane, to the man. His first daughter Alice came in 1911 in Havana to the world.

His most important means of transportation on the Caribbean island was the horse, therefore he could not his passion for skiing here satisfy. The snowy landscapes of the north attracted, and so he decided in 1915 to return. Thanks to his earlier work caused him this new beginning only a few difficulties. His family had now grown by daughter Peggy and son Bob. While these moved into their quarters in the U.S. Lake Placid, Smith - Johannsen worked until 1924 mainly in Montreal and only drove on weekends and days off to his loved ones.

Also in the field of skiing operated Smith - Johannsen again: In 1923 he was third in the Eastern U.S. 25 - mile race, 1924 runner-up, one year later, fifth at the 10 - mile race. At this time he was almost 50 years old. Among his opponents were, inter alia, Bob Reid and the brothers Satre. In the area around Lake Placid, he was involved in the establishment of skiing trails and the creation of Lake Placid 's Snowbirds Ski Club.

1928-1939

He retired in 1928 with his family to Montreal and settled permanently starting in 1932 in a small hut in Piedmont in the Laurentians on. With the Great Depression of 1929, the interest broke out on his business together, 56 - year old, he was left with nothing, but gave up and focused now completely on the sport of skiing.

Smith - Johannsen was one of the pioneers of downhill and slalom run in the early days of the Montreal Red Birds Ski Club. He led those Red -Bird - groups that went from 1930 at the Mount Tremblant ski. At the Big Hill in Shawbridge and on Hill 70 in 1928, he built the first slalom routes, in 1929 he moved the path of the first Dominion Slalom Race, which was won by Austrian Harald paumgarten.

In the 20s and 30s, he also taught a number of ski runs. Is paid to his work on the famous Maple Leaf Trail, a government-supported Québec project that would connect with Prévost Lac Tremblant as particularly outstanding. Between 1930 and 1938, at least 1000 miles traveled were equipped with signal lamps. Due to the bad map material of the time this activity required a lot of adventurous spirit.

Even with 55 was his active sports career does not end when the 18-mile race from St. Marguerite Shawbridge after he finished fourth. The following year he was elected president of the company founded in 1904 Montreal Ski Club, the oldest ski club in Canada.

With money that Sidney Dawes had gathered, led Smith - Johannsen the evacuation of Kandahar and Tachereau routes in the Mont Tremblant Resort in 1934 and shut down smaller in St. Agatha, St. Marguerite, St. Sauveur and Shawbridge. A year later he worked as a consultant in the development of areas such as Lac Beauport, Mount Orford and Mount Gabriel and supported Joe Ryan in the design of the Mont Tremblant Resort, Collingwood, Ontario and Whiteface in New York.

Smith - Johannsen designed and built many ski jumps, including the 250 feet high Seigneury Hill Club in Montebello (Quebec ), also in St. Marguerite, Shawbridge, Lac Beauport, St. Gabriel de Brandon, Grand Mare Lac Mercier and hills around Lake Placid. In addition, he advised in 1932 the construction of the Olympic 60 - meter hill in Intervales and was regarded as one of the leading proponents of the first true ski lift in North America, which was built in Shawbridge. In 1934 he helped Fred Pope, ski tows in St. Marguerite and St. Sauveur to install.

In 1932 he assisted in training the Canadian Olympic Team. He put on a 50 - kilometer course in Seigneury Club in Quebec and led the team to Lake Placid. There hosted Smith - Johannsen training trips on the Adirondack Lodge by the avalanche Paq and around Colden and Marcy Mountains. In the 1932 Olympics, he was the official. In 1936, he won a five miles long race veterans in Shawbridge.

1939-1987

With the outbreak of the Second World War he offered the Military its services to the troops training, but was - although still in excellent physical condition - rejected because of his age. In order to provide proof of its potential, the then 65 - year-old led then a diary of the cross-country tracks, which he had traveled. By 1943, he brought it every year at about 1000 miles, but even that could not dissuade the military.

His racing career was inclined to a close. Meanwhile, 71 years old, he finished 1946 in a cross-country competition from the top of Mount Mansfield to Stowe (Vermont ), nor the third. He played his last official race with 75, when he was in the championship of the Red Birds of third parties under twenty participants.

The number of ski lifts and ski slopes rose after the war enormously, while the classic long-distance running and mountain tours not met the taste of the masses. Smith - Johannsen continued his work but also in their 40s, 50s and 60s continued and put routes to far away from the organized ski villages and ski lifts to provide the few who wanted to escape the crowd, an alternative.

However, in the 1970s it came to the surprising resurgence of the long distance run. Many new roads were built, hundreds of fresh skiers took to the stage. The two-day 100 -mile Canadian Ski Marathon, at its organization, Smith - Johannsen involved had to be limited to 2,500 participants. He went inside of Lachute Quebec after Cantley. Smith - Johannsen took over in the early years of the patronage of this event.

On 22 December 1972 he was nominated for his contribution to the development of skiing and its support of generations of Canadian skier a member of the Order of Canada. The Jackrabbit Ski League, a national cross-country program, is held in his honor since 1979. Even to old age of 106 years, he was active as a skier. The Canadian Sports Hall of Fame in 1982, took him into their ranks. In addition, Smith - Johannsen was one of the winners of the conferred by the Norwegian King St. Olav's Order.

As the oldest man in the world he died on January 5, 1987 from pneumonia at a hospital near Tønsberg. He had traveled to Norway to visit his son Bob. Smith - Johannsen was buried next to his wife in St. Sauveur. In his honor, today carries the CCC youth program his name, his home in Piedmont, where he spent the last 28 years of life, is now a space for a Jackrabbit Museum.