STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
Jon Engen was a pull-himself-up-by-his-bootstraps kind of guy.
He called on his strong Norwegian work ethic to propel him to three Olympics.
And then he used his engineering background and his laser-like focus on biomechanics and state-of-the-art training techniques to help other Nordic skiers and bicyclists become more efficient at their sport.
He tried just as hard to pull himself past his battle with pancreatic cancer. But this was one race he couldn’t win, passing away at his home in Sun Valley in late April.
“He tried his best to keep moving through it all,” said Kelly Allison, who co-chairs the Boulder Mountain ski tour with her husband Glenn. “But it’s such a horrible disease.”
Engen, who is survived by his wife Darlene Young, grew up in Norway, the birthplace of Nordic skiing. His father managed the travel service for the University of Oslo. His mother was an accountant for Norway’s version of the Internal Revenue Service.
Like every other Norwegian kid, he grew up cross country skiing with his family. He started competing in ski jumping at age 4 and cross country skiing at age 9.
“My Dad was a ski jumper,” he recalled in an interview with Eye on Sun Valley a few years ago. “I remember going past a 60-meter hill and watching him take his coat off, climb all those steps and jump on his touring skis. That was pretty special—all those young jumpers and, here, my dad was one of them.”
Called to mandatory military service in the Norwegian Army at age 20, Engen participated in a sports platoon when he wasn’t guarding the king.
“Athletically, it was an eye opener because I was there with the very best past, current and future champions of the games,” he recalled. “And I got to train every day in the Army.”
Engen raced in Norway’s Junior Championships. He was a national level Nordic racer while attending college in Oslo--always coming in “one short tier away from World Cup deck.
In 1980 he followed former Kansas City field goal kicker Jan Stenerud to Montana State University in Bozeman where he completed his engineering degree.
There, he challenged himself to pair the shooting skills he’d learned in the Army with skiing in order to compete in biathlons.
“I’m better in shooting than cross country,” he said.
He went on to post top 20 World Cup finishes in both biathlon and Nordic racing, along with wins at the U.S. Olympic trials and North American championships. But it didn’t come easy.
Everything went wrong at his first attempt to make the U.S. biathlon team. So Engen set up targets and classical cross-country tracks in the backcountry around his house—his solitary efforts earning him a berth as an outsider on team at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary.
“We’re talking, ‘Rocky,’ the movie,” he recalled. “It was an exhausting winter but I learned a lot.”
When the next Olympics rolled around, he was working full time as an engineer in Bozeman.
“I figured out: I’ve got to get the best job I can get so I can make money to train,” he said. “I also figured out different ways to train. I’d tell myself: ‘I have 15 minutes. How can I use 15 minutes?’ I’d climb 28 floors at the Sheraton Hotel where I was doing seminars, skipping steps. I’d do parallel jumps. I’d do pushups on the landings.
“And I’d study the other racers. If you can see them, you can figure out how you’re going to beat them.”
With that strategy, Engen made it to the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France, and the 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway. He made the 1994 team, despite suffering a whiplash in a car accident during trials.
“To me it was such a blast to be out there with the people, the community of skiers. And there’s no other challenge like the Olympics if you want to be with people who are successful,” he said. “One thing about the Olympics is everybody there has a story. It’s not about run-of-the-mill people. Most of the athletes are creative scrappers. “
Engen raced 30- and 50-kilometer races and competed in a 20-km. biathlon. And he posted 13 and 14th finishes in the men’s 4-by-7.5-km. biathlon relays in Albertville and Lillehammer.
In 2002 he became chairman of the U.S. Cross-Country Ski Team—a position he held for more than a decade. He helped secure funding. He found ways to educate the Nordic coaches across the country. And he encouraged those coaches to come up with creative programs to motivate young racers.
During that time, the U.S. team climbed from 58th in the world to fourth. And U.S. Nordic skiers, who had been shut off the medal stand since Bill Koch’s surprise silver medal in the 30-kilometer race at the 1976 Olympics, began collecting World Cup medals.
It was only fitting that Engen was able to see Jessie Diggins and Kikkin Randall win the United States’ first Olympic gold medal in Nordic skiing in the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang.
In fact, much of the success the United States is now enjoying in cross country skiing, can be attributed in part to Jon’s role, U.S. Ski & Snowboard Chief of Sport Luke Bodensteiner said in a tribute to Engen this past week at a USSA banquet held in Park City.
“He was just an amazing, kind individual who just wanted to help the sport find success in America,” Bodensteiner added.
Engen moved to Sun Valley in 2002 after working on a slew of environmental engineering projects, including one for Big Sky Resort. He came to race in the Boulder Mountain Tour, met Darlene Young and got married.
He became a familiar sight at Sun Valley Nordic Center, coaching Masters skiers and others. And he worked year round writing training programs for Nordic racers, bicycle racers and others from around the world who wanted to win medals, overcome injuries or, simply, improve themselves.
He used film to analyze technique and uses motion-specific drills and age-specific strength training. He took groups to Masters races in places like Lillehammer and Brusson, Italy. And he created creative plans for how they could stay in shape while traveling--from running around the Eiffel Tower to practicing ski turns on Caribbean beaches.
“My whole emphasis is: How can I help people do better? Even to stay out of the doctor’s office,” said Engen.
“Jon was equally as good with never-ever skiers as he was with high-end skiers,” said Steve Haims, who manages Sun Valley Nordic Center. “He could go in depth, given his engineering degree and interest in biomechanics, or he could make it as simple as you could want.”
Following his Olympic success, Engen continued to compete in Masters World events, winning two gold medals at the Masters World Cup Nordic Championships staged in 2004 at Lillehammer, Norway. He raced in state championship cycling races and even ran in the 2,500th anniversary of the Athens Marathon.
He was inducted in the Sun Valley Ski Hall of Fame in 2014. That same year he was received an Excellence Award from the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association, for his years of service.
“Jon was a very special person who made the most out of life,” said Jim Fredericks, former director of Nordic racing at Rossignol, in a Facebook tribute. “Most of all, he was dedicated to making the sport better for everyone.”
A memorial service will be held this summer.