Hjalmar Petterson Hvam (16 November 1902 – March 30, 1996) was a competitiveNorwegian-AmericanNordic skier and inventor of the first safetyski binding.
Hvam was born inKongsberg, Norway where he excelled at skiing as a youth, winning aski jumping contest at the age of 12.[1] He emigrated toCanada in 1923 before moving toPortland, Oregon, U.S. in 1927.[1]
In Oregon, Hvam co-founded theCascade 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 andAndré Roch, became the first to descend on skis from the summit ofMount Hood.[2] In 1932, he won the first U.S.nordic combined championship held atLake Tahoe, California, taking first in jumping andcross-country racing.[3]
Though originally a Nordic skier, Hvam soon became a competitivealpine skier as well, winning both runs of his very firstslalom race at the 1933 Oregon state championships on borrowed skis.[1] He continued to race competitively throughout thePacific Northwest in the early 1930s, winning event atMount Rainier and all four disciplines (ski jumping, cross-country, slalom, and downhill) onMount Baker in 1936.[1] He qualified for the1936 U.S. Olympic team, but as a Norwegian citizen, could not compete,[1] and did not want to compete inHitler'sGermany.[3] In 1936, Hvam was the first winner of the nation's oldest ski race, theGolden Rose Ski Classic atTimberline Lodge ski area, and repeated his victory in 1937.[1][3]
While celebrating his 1937 repeat victory in the Golden Rose, Hvam, like many skiers of his era, broke his leg.[3] Hvam, who had been trained as a mechanical draftsman, had been working for years on a design that would reliably release a ski boot in a fall, but remain in place for normal skiing maneuvers.[1] While laid up in the hospital, he had an inspiration for a new design, which became the Saf-Ski, the world's first ski safety bindings.[3] The bindings made it to Europe for use by the10th Mountain Division inWorld War II.
After the war, the design caught on and became popular around the world into the 1960s. Hvam sold and rented thousands of pairs until the early 1970s, when insurance premiums for sale of the bindings became too expensive and the Saf-Ski disappeared from the market.[1]
Hvam coached the U.S. Nordic combined teams at the1952 Winter Olympics in his native Norway, where he found he could still outjump the athletes he coached.[1] He continued to operate ski shops in Portland and on Mount Hood until he retired in 1962. He continued to ski recreationally into his mid-80s. He was inducted into theUnited States National Ski Hall of Fame in 1967,[4] theOregon Sports Hall of Fame in 1992,[5] and is a member of the Northwest Ski Hall of Fame and the U.S. Ski Business Hall of Fame.[3]
Hvam suffered aheart attack at hisBeaverton home and died on March 30, 1996.[3]