From over the hill to king of the hill, Fairbanks skier Audun Endestad made history — and a statement — 35 years ago at the 1990 U.S. Cross Country Ski Championships at Kincaid Park.
Two years after the U.S. Ski Team left him off the 1988 Winter Olympic team, deeming him past his prime, Endestad turned the national championships into a one-man show.
With his 37th birthday looming, he became the first person to sweep the gold medals by skiing to four victories, some of them landslides, some of them squeakers.
Over 105 kilometers of racing in temperatures that hovered near zero, Endestad emerged as the undisputed champion of U.S. cross-country skiing.
He came into the championships with a record eight national titles, a mark he shared with Bill Koch and Tim Caldwell, two of the sport’s all-time greats. He left with 12 titles, and would go on to win one more before he retired.
Endestad started his gold-medal haul at Kincaid Park with a 3.6-second win in the 30-kilometer classic. His time: 1 hour, 28 minutes, 12.5 seconds.
He won the 10K freestyle by 76 seconds in a time of 28:31.6.
He won the 15K classic by 19 seconds in a time of 45:33.9.
He finished with a blowout victory in the 50K freestyle, winning by more than five minutes in 2:34:28.7.
“They should have two races. One for Audun and one for everyone else,” said runnerup Ed Lynt of Lake Pleasant, New York, who at 21 was 15 years younger than the man he couldn’t keep up with.
Endestad grew up in Norway, where everyone skis, and moved to the United States to coach as a young man in the 1970s. He settled in Fairbanks in 1980 and became a U.S. citizen in time to compete at the 1984 Winter Olympics as a member of Team USA.
Four years later he missed earning an automatic qualifying spot on the 1988 Olympic team by a fraction of a point. The U.S. Ski Team decided not to make a discretionary pick at age 35.
But Endestad wasn’t done. The next year he won two golds and two silvers at the national championships. Then came the 1990 sweep.
Two years after that, with his 39th birthday a few days away, Endestad’s bid to make the 1992 Olympic team ended in disappointment; he was battling a cold that forced him to drop out of the 30K and kept him out of the top 10 in other races.
Endestad finished his career with 13 national titles, six Great American Ski Chase titles, five World Championship appearances and the 1984 Olympic appearance where he placed 18th in the 50K.
He still lives in Fairbanks, where his love of the outdoors and epic fitness and endurance served him well as he forged a stellar reputation as a big-game hunting guide.
His son, Ari Endestad, trains with the Alaska Pacific University elite ski team and is competing in the national championships that began Thursday at Kincaid Park.
