Background
Østby was born in Modum, but grew up in Bærum, and was a member of Bærum KK.
Østby was born in Modum, but grew up in Bærum, and was a member of Bærum KK.
He was a new name in Norwegian and international kayaking after 1945, as most of the pre-war organized sporting activity had been put on ice during World World War World War II Already in 1948, before the Summer Olympics that year, Østby and his teammate Ivar Mathisen were considered as having the highest medal hopes in the Norwegian canoeing squad. Two years later he finished fifth in both the K-2 1000 m and the K-2 10000 m events at the 1952 Summer Olympics. In 1953 Østby competed in the Canoe Slalom World Championships in Meran, Italy.
He was considered as being without any sporting hopes for the competition, having no prior experience with whitewater kayaking—the newspaper Verdens Gang quoted him as saying "I don"t even know what kind of boat to use".
The participation was essentially regarded as a test to see whether slalom kayaking should be taken up in Norway—where it was largely unknown, despite the country"s abundance of whitewater locations. Østby was the only competitor from Norway, but the vice chairman of Norwegian Canoe Association travelled with him to help evaluate the championship.
The stay and the travel to Italy was paid for in full by the Italian arrangement committee. As it turned out, whitewater kayaking did not reach Norway until the 1960s, and was not organized within the Norwegian Canoe Association until 1972.
Østby continued his career in sprint canoeing.
At the 1956 Summer Olympics he finished eighth in the K-1 10000 m event, and competed without reaching the final in the K-1 1000 m event. Østby lived in Sandvika. He died in August 2010.