University of Vermont Athletic Hall of Fame
Thorodd Bakken 1998 - Cross Country, Skiing
The 1998 men's winner of UVM's J. Edward Donnelly Award as the most outstanding athlete of his senior class and 2008 UVM Hall of Fame inductee, Thorodd Bakken was the first male Nordic skier in NCAA history to win four individual national titles.
In six career NCAA races, he finished first four times and second twice. Bakken, who was also the winner of the 1998 ECAC Robbins Division I Scholar-Athlete Award, was a three-time first team All-American skier and a three-time member of the NCAA All-Academic Team. The Catamounts as a team finished no lower than third in the NCAAs in his three seasons highlighted by a runner-up finish in 1997.
A transfer from the University of Olso in his native Norway, he also was Vermont's top cross country runner in each of his three seasons at UVM. He finished seventh in the 1997 America East Men's Cross Country Championship and posted a team-best finish at the New England meet that fall. A native of Holmenstrand, Norway, Bakken won his first NCAA title in 1996, winning the 10-K freestyle race. In 1997, he won the 20-K freestyle championship and finished second in the 10-K classical event.
At his last NCAA meet in 1998, he won both Nordic titles, the 10-K classical and 20-K freestyle. After winning both NCAA titles, he was featured in Sports Illustrated's 'Faces In The Crowd' in the magazine's March 30, 1998 issue. Over his three-year career as a Catamount, he 'lost' just three times, all second place finishes, with two coming at the NCAAs, while capturing seven of a possible eight Eastern (EISA) Nordic Championships.
An excellent student at UVM, Bakken earned his bachelor's degree in business administration in May of 1996 and his master's degree in May of 1998. He returned to Norway and was a member of the Norwegian National Nordic Team in 1999 competing in a pair of FIS events in Lillehammer. Prior to coming to the U.S. and UVM, he skied for the Norwegian National 'B' Team in two winters, 1993-94 and 1994-95.
