Background
Johannsen was born in the town of Horten, some fifty miles south of Norway"s capital Oslo, and graduated with an engineering degree from the University of Berlin in 1899.
Johannsen was born in the town of Horten, some fifty miles south of Norway"s capital Oslo, and graduated with an engineering degree from the University of Berlin in 1899.
He is recognized by certain groups within the cross-country skiing community in Canada for the many contributions he made to the sport and for his personal longevity. He emigrated to the United States of America as a machinery salesman shortly thereafter. In 1907, Johannsen immigrated to Canada with his family and settled in the Laurentians in the predominantly French-speaking province of Quebec.
Johannsen learned French and further introduced skiing to the area.
While on a trip to Canada to sell machinery to the Canadian Grand Trunk Railway in 1902, Johannsen was befriended by the First Nations Cree in the wilderness above North Bay, Ontario. The nickname "Jackrabbit" is said to have been given to him by the Cree, who were impressed by his speed on skis compared to the snowshoes they were using at the time.
He was profiled during American Broadcasting Company Sports coverage of the 1984 Winter Olympic Games. Jackrabbit died from pneumonia on January 5, 1987 at the age of 111 in a hospital near Tønsberg, Norway.
He was an honorary member of the Norwegian skiing and gentlemen"s club Saskatchewan Ull.