Statue of Colorado ski legend nears fundraising goal, will be placed at start line of American Birkebeiner

In celebration of his impact on North America’s largest cross country ski race, the American Birkebeiner, there will be a statue erected of Steamboat ski legend Sven Wiik in Cable, Wisconsin, where the race is held. 

In the early 1970s, Wiik was called on by Tony Wise to help garner popularity for the sport at Wise’s Telemark Lodge in Cable. Wiik’s solution was to design cross country ski trails in the area modeled after the Swedish Vasaloppet race trails, a competition in Wiik’s home country of Sweden.

The course became a smashing success, leading to the first American Birkebeiner in 1973, a race that has grown in size and interest each year since. 

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In December 2022, Wiik’s family began a fundraising campaign to raise the money necessary to construct and place the statue. The total cost of the project came in at an estimated $70,000, but a little over a year later, the project is just over $5,000 short of its goal. 

Wiik’s granddaughter, Kajsa Wiik-Lindgren, created the Sven Wiik Foundation, which has been approved as a 501(c)3 nonprofit, offering a potential tax benefit to donors. 

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Kajsa said there has been an enormous outpouring of support from Sven’s former athletes who have donated to the foundation. His influence in the ski world has reached donors from Alaska to Maine, according to Kajsa. 

“It is really cool to see how one person can have such a big impact on the world,” Kajsa said. “You don’t think about that but it’s true.” 

Sven was a Swedish Olympian who competed in the 1948 London Games in gymnastics. He moved to the U.S. after the Games and meandered his way to Gunnison, where he became a ski coach and assistant professor at Western State College. 

Sven introduced cross country skiing to Gunnison and helped make college skiing an official sport within the National Collegiate Athletic Association. 

Sven would eventually move to Steamboat Springs and buy property in town, building the Scandinavian Lodge. He also began the Steamboat Ski Touring Center, which is still being run by the Wiik family today after over 40 winter seasons.

Kajsa and her family traveled to Wisconsin for the 50th American Birkebeiner in February. The statue was originally planned to be stationed in the plaza where Wise’s Telemark Lodge once stood, but Kajsa said the family found a new location for the statue following the recent visit. 

“We are pivoting from the plaza situation and the statue is now going to be on the start line of the American Birkebeiner trail,” Kajsa said. “As a family, we feel that is a better placement to have him overlooking the Birkie for years to come. That is where he would want to be.”

The sculpting process for the project already is under way. The Wiik family is in the process of approving a two-dimensional drawing of what the sculpture will look like, created by artist Sara Balbin.

In collaboration with sculptor Tom Holleran, the drawing will then be converted to a maquette, which is a tabletop-sized rough draft of the actual sculpture. 

“If any changes need to be made, that is when that happens,” Kajsa said. “From the maquette is where the life-sized statue gets made, and then we’re looking at one-and-a-half to two years down the road for that.” 

Those interested in helping the project reach its goal can donate through SvenWiikFoundation.com, at any Alpine Bank Colorado branch or by sending donations to the Sven Wiik Foundation at PO Box 775401, Steamboat Springs, CO, 80477.

This story is from SteamboatPilot.com