Charles Hoff

Charles Hoff (9 May 1902 – 19 February 1985) was a Norwegian athlete, coach, sports journalist and sports administrator.

As an active athlete he competed in pole vault, long jump, triple jump, sprints and middle distance running events. He set four world records in the pole vault during his career, became Norwegian champion ten times in different events, and competed in the 1924 Summer Olympics. In 1926 he was excluded from the sport for professionalism.

After his time as an athlete he took up a career as a sports journalist. During World War II he was a sports leader under the Nazi rule, leading the Norwegian Confederation of Sports from 1942 to 1944.

He was born in Fredrikstad as the son of mechanic Karl Ludvig Hoff and his wife Olga Kristine Karlsen. After taking the examen artium in 1921, he moved to Kristiania to attend the Norwegian National Academy of Craft and Art Industry. He also briefly attended the Norwegian National Academy of Fine Arts as well as a painting school in Paris.

Hoff set his first world record in the pole vault on 22 July 1922 in Copenhagen with 4.12 metres. He increased this record to 4.21 metres exactly one year later in the same city, then to 4.23 metres on 13 August 1925 in Oslo, and finally on 27 September 1925 when he jumped 4.25 metres at a meet in Turku. The record stood until May 1927, when American Sabin Carr jumped 4.27 metres. Hoff was the first Norwegian athlete to establish a world record, the only to do so before World War II, and the only Norwegian ever to do so in a jumping event. After World War II, world records have been set by several Norwegian throwers and runners: Sverre Strandli, Audun Boysen, Egil Danielsen, Terje Pedersen, Grete Waitz, Ingrid Kristiansen and Trine Hattestad.

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