Olav Hans Ulland, 92; Olympic Coach, First to Ski-Jump 100 Meters

Olav Hans Ulland, 92, the first ski jumper to clear 100 meters, died June 7 in his sleep in Kent, Wash.

Ulland also was an Olympic coach and judge and co-founder of a group of sporting goods stores in the Pacific Northwest.

One of 11 children raised on a farm near Kongsberg, Norway, then the ski-jumping capital of the world, Ulland began jumping by age 4.

Competing for Norway from 1929 to 1936, he won a number of titles in the early 1930s and was the first to break the 100-meter mark by soaring 103 meters at Ponte di Legno, Italy, in 1935.

As a coach, Ulland took the Italian team to the 1936 Olympics in Germany, then came to the United States in 1937 to coach Seattle Ski Club jumpers and decided to stay.

He coached the U.S. team at the 1956 Olympics in Italy and the 1958 World Championships in Finland.

Ulland was chief of jumping competitions at the 1960 Olympics at Squaw Valley, Calif., and an International Ski Federation jumping judge.

Ulland, who won his last senior ski-jumping championship at age 52, continued to jump until he was 60. He was inducted into the U.S. National Ski Hall of Fame in 1981.