Arthur E. Tokle

Arthur Emil Tokle (August 16, 1922 – March 3, 2005) was a Norwegian-born American ski jumper who competed for the United States at the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo, finishing 18th in the individual large hill event.[1]

Biography

Tokle was born in Løkken Verk, a village in Meldal, Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. His father was a Norwegian mining official, who raised every one of his 20 children in the sport, and skied himself until he was well past 70. Torger Tokle, Art's older brother, came to the U.S. in 1939 and gained sudden fame before he was killed in Italy as a ski trooper in 1945. Kyrre Tokle, another older brother, was still jumping in informal meets in the U.S. at the age of 55.[2] The brothers represented the club SK Fjell.[3]

Arthur Tokle won his first national championship as a teenager and served in the Kings Guard before immigrating to America in 1947. He was US national ski jumping champion in 1951 and 1953. Tokle carried the American flag during the opening ceremonies of the 1958 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Lahti, Finland and competed in the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley. He later coached the American ski jumping team at the 1964 and 1968 Winter Olympics. Tokle was inducted in the National Ski Hall of Fame in 1970.[4] He was a technical director for the US team at the 1980 Winter Olympics. He co-authored The Complete Guide to Cross Country Skiing and Touring I with Martin Luray (New York, NY Holt, Rinehart & Winston: 1973) [5]

Personal life

In 1948, he married Oddfrid Larsen and settled in Lake Telemark, New Jersey, a semi-rural community favored by Scandinavian immigrants. Together they had two children Arthur Tokle Jr. and Vivian Lynch.[6]

References
  1. Art Tokle Wins Plastic Snow Ski Jump in 100-Degree Weather (1957 American Ski Annual) Archived July 16, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  2. Sport: Old Daredevil (Time Inc)
  3. "Løkken IFs historie fra 1896" (in Norwegian). Løkken IF. Archived from the original on 24 July 2011. Retrieved 16 January 2011.
  4. Arthur Tokle, Inducted in 1970 (U.S. National Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame)
  5. Arthur E. Tokle, Rockaway Township, N.J (Washington Post. March 5, 2005)
  6. Art Tokle, jumper and coach(Skiing Heritage Magazine. Mar. 7, 2005)


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