Gold Medal Champion and Businessman

IVAR BALLANGRUD: 1904–1969

Gold Medal Champion and Businessman

On the ice rink he dealt in gold medals; on Nordre gate he sold sporting goods.

The once highly coveted autograph of speed skater Ivar Ballangrud is etched into his gravestone at Tilfredshet Cemetery.

Born in Jevnaker in 1904, Ballangrud chose Trondheim as his hometown and Stadion as his home track.

Yet the world was his arena, and he became the undisputed king of speed skating in his era.

Ballangrud was one of the famous “Hadeland Trio” of Norwegian speed skating, alongside Hans Engnestangen and Michael Staksrud. Of the three, however, Ballangrud was unquestionably the most successful.

He won his first Norwegian and World Championship titles in 1926 at Stadion in Trondheim. Success followed success. Over the course of his career, he claimed five Norwegian national championships and four overall victories in both the European and World Championships.

His remarkable collection of gold medals continued at the Olympic Winter Games, where each distance was contested as a separate event.

Ballangrud won the 5,000 metres in St. Moritz in 1928 and achieved an extraordinary feat at the 1936 Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, winning all four speed-skating distances.

In addition to his gold medals, he earned numerous silver and bronze medals, set six Norwegian records, four world records, and three Olympic records.

In 1928, he established the sporting goods store Ivar Ballangrud A/S in Trondheim. Ballangrud himself stood behind the counter, serving as the business’s best advertisement. However his time in Trondheim only lasted a few years before he moved to Drammen, where he opened his own shop.

However, some of his fondest memories were of Trondheim and Stadion. He returned in 1936 and opened a new sporting goods store in Nordre gate 11. By then, his skating career was drawing to a close, but as a businessman he remained active in Trondheim for the rest of his life.

Ivar Ballangrud died in 1969.