Hjalmar Hvam

Hjalmar Petterson Hvam (16 November 1902 – March 30, 1996) was a competitive Norwegian-American Nordic skier and inventor of the first safety ski binding.

Hvam was born in Kongsberg, Norway where he excelled at skiing as a youth, winning a ski jumping contest at the age of 12. He emigrated to Canada in 1923 before moving to Portland, Oregon, U.S. in 1927.

In Oregon, Hvam co-founded the Cascade Ski Club in 1928 and soon established himself as a strong skiing competitor. On April 26, 1931, Hvam and two fellow members of the Cascade Ski Club, Arne Stene and André Roch, became the first to descend on skis from the summit of Mount Hood. In 1932, he won the first U.S. nordic combined championship held at Lake Tahoe, California, taking first in jumping and cross-country racing.

Though originally a Nordic skier, Hvam soon became a competitive alpine skier as well, winning both runs of his very first slalom race at the 1933 Oregon state championships on borrowed skis. He continued to race competitively throughout the Pacific Northwest in the early 1930s, winning event at Mount Rainier and all four disciplines (ski jumping, cross-country, slalom, and downhill) on Mount Baker in 1936. He qualified for the 1936 U.S. Olympic team, but as a Norwegian citizen, could not compete, and did not want to compete in Hitler's Germany. In 1936, Hvam was the first winner of the nation's oldest ski race, the Golden Rose Ski Classic at Timberline Lodge ski area, and repeated his victory in 1937.

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