Ansten Samuelstuen was an outstanding ski jumper with many victories in his native Norway prior to his immigrating to the United States. He was a three-time national champion and a four-time North American champion. He competed on two U.S. Olympic teams being the nation’s top ski jumper at the Squaw Valley Olympic Games.

During his career he collected 300 prizes and trophies in junior, national and international competition. In 1956 he won two FIS sanctioned events in Lillestrom and Lillehammer. He also was in the top five at the classic Holmenkollen ski jumping tournament.

He visited the United States in 1951 and set a national and North American distance record of 316 feet at Howelsen Hill in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. This record stood for 12 years.

He immigrated to the United States in 1954, becoming an American citizen three years later. He won the national championships in 1957, 1961 and 1962. He claimed four North American titles: 1954, 1955, 1957 and 1964. In 1962 he set a Canadian distance record in Revelstoke, British Columbia of 262 feet, becoming the first person to hold both U.S. and Canadian distance records.

He was a member of the U.S. FIS team at Lahti, Finland in 1958 and was a two-time Olympian competing in 1960 and 1964. His seventh-place finish off the 80M jump in 1960 was the top performance by a U.S. ski jumper at those games.