Jacob Tullin "Tulla" Thams (April 7, 1898 – July 27, 1954) was a Norwegian

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 Olympian. He won the first Olympic ski jumping

Ski jumping

Ski jumping is a sport in which skiers go down a take-off ramp, jump and attempt to land as far as possible down the hill below. In addition to the length of the jump, judges give points for style. The skis used for ski jumping are wide and long...

 gold medal in 1924

1924 Winter Olympics

The 1924 Winter Olympics, officially known as the I Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event which was held in 1924 in Chamonix, France...

, and became the third person (after Gillis Grafström

Gillis Grafström

Gillis Emanuel Grafström was a Swedish figure skater. He was born in Stockholm, Sweden. He won three successive Olympic gold medals in Men's Figure Skating as well as Olympic silver medal in same event in 1932, and three World Championships...

 who competed in one sport only and boxer/bobsleigh crew member Eddie Eagan

Eddie Eagan

Edward "Eddie" Patrick Francis Eagan was an American sportsman. He is one of only two persons to have won a gold medal at both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games.-Olympics:...

) to medal in both the Winter and Summer Olympics in 1936

1936 Summer Olympics

The 1936 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event which was held in 1936 in Berlin, Germany. Berlin won the bid to host the Games over Barcelona, Spain on April 26, 1931, at the 29th IOC Session in Barcelona...

 as a member of the silver medal-winning Norwegian 8-metre sailing team. Thams also won the individual large hill at the 1926 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships

1926 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships

The FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 1926 took place between February 4-6, 1926 in Lahti, Finland.- 30 km :February 4, 192618 km was replaced by 30 km, but returned the following year. 30 km would not return to the championships again until 1954 when the 18 km event was shortened to 15 km...

 in Lahti

Lahti

Lahti is a city and municipality in Finland.Lahti is the capital of the Päijänne Tavastia region. It is situated on a bay at the southern end of lake Vesijärvi about north-east of the capital Helsinki...

, earned the Holmenkollen medal

Holmenkollen medal

The Holmenkollen medal is Norwegian skiing's highest award for competitors. It signifies top placings in international championships and other international events, including the Holmenkollen events....

 in 1926 (the first true ski jumper to do so), and would develop the Kongsberger technique

Kongsberger technique

The Kongsberger technique in ski jumping was created in Kongsberg, Norway by Jacob Tullin Thams and Sigmund Ruud. The technique was developed after World War I, and was characterized by the upper body being bent at the hip, and arms extended at the front with the skis parallel to each other...

 in ski jumping (along with fellow Norwegian Sigmund Ruud

Sigmund Ruud

Sigmund Ruud was a Norwegian ski jumper.Born in Kongsberg, Norway, Sigmund Ruud, with his brothers Birger and Asbjørn, dominated ski jumping in the 1920s and 1930s. At the 1928 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, Sigmund earned a silver medal in the ski jumping competition...

) that would be the standard until it was superseded by the Daescher technique

Daescher technique

The Daescher technique is a ski jumping technique that was created by Andreas Daescher of Switzerland. This technique was created in the 1950s as a modification of the Kongsberger technique where the arms are placed backward toward the hips for a closer lean...

in the 1950s.