March 9

Sondre Norheim was born in Øverbø, Norway on June 10, 1825. He took to skiing as a duck does to water (or, for that matter, to orange sauce). He is generally credited with popularizing the sport of downhill skiing. He is also responsible for introducing the Norwegian words ski and slalom to the world at large. At some point, he immigrated to the United States and settled in North Dakota. While he always thereafter kept a pair of skis near his front door, he was somewhat disappointed by the scanty opportunities that the prairie offered for downhill skiing. He died slope-less on the 9th in 1897 and was buried in Denbigh, North Dakota.
The Olympic Flames for the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo, the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley and the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer were all lit at Norheim’s birthplace.