Ski Jumping in Chicago? When Soldier Field Built Its Own Mountain

As ski jumpers prepare to launch themselves from towering alpine ramps for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy, a little piece of Chicago history offers a reminder that mountains, while helpful, have never been strictly required for ski jumping. 

In the Chicago History Museum image above, a ski jumper named Jorgen Johansen prepares to lift off a ski jump structure built atop Soldier Field at a meet in February, 1938. It was unseasonably mild that week, so the snow, according to one 1938 Chicago Tribune article, was imported from Escanaba, Michigan. 

Chicago traces its roots in ski jumping back to the early 20th century, when Norwegian immigrants brought the sport to the Midwest. In 1905, a group of Norwegian men created the Norge Ski Club, which claims to be “one of the oldest ski jumping institutions” in the country. It opened its own jump in northwest suburban Fox River Grove, which still serves as an Olympic training center today. 

The club hosted several meets at Soldier Field, including the one pictured in the photograph below. The “Summer Ski Jump” took place in September 1954, in which crushed ice was used in lieu of snow. An ad in The Daily Herald boasted the impressive, temporary structure was the “world’s tallest artificial ski hill – 17 stories high!”

The club’s meets weren’t limited to Soldier Field, either. According to the ski club, it once rented out a portion of Navy Pier and “set up a jump where the jumpers landed in the water.” Humboldt Park and Wrigley Field once served as ski jump sites, too, proving that with a little creativity, even the flattest of cities can have a rich ski history.