Birger Jansen

Birger Jansen competed at the highest national level in two different sports. He played 56 official ice hockey matches for Norway, including all the matches at the 1972 Olympics, and was Norwegian champion for the team Frisk Asker in 1979. In sailing he won 138 Norwegian Championship medals in the period 1965-2016, the most ever by a Norwegian. Jansen won a World Championships bronze medal in the Snipe Class 1991, and was European champion in 2000 in the same class. In the 21st century he was World Master Champion three times. He came very close to qualifying for the 1976 Summer Games in the Dinghy (Finn) class.

Jansen was a brick layer, starting his own firm at age 22. He lived his entire life in Bærum west of Oslo, was married with four daughters, three of whom were active in sailing on the national level. He died from cancer in 2016, at age 68.