Rodney Olssen was a product of the Duluth Ski Club. He lived not far from Chester Bowl Park. As a junior skier, Olssen came under the influence of the legendary Walter Mattson, who ran the junior ski programs at Chester Bowl.

Rodney progressed to become a successful junior ski jumper and cross country runner. As a youth, Olssen won the Canadian Junior National Combined Championship.

In Minnesota State High School Competitions, competing for Duluth Central High School, Olssen narrowly missed winning the State High School Ski Jumping Championships and finished in second place.

Following a very successful junior career as a member of the Duluth Ski Club, Olssen moved to St. Paul in 1961. He joined the St. Paul Ski Club in 1962 and was soon recognized as a quiet, diligent, hard-working member. It was a rarity to not see Olssen at a work party.

A better than average competitor, Olssen won the St. Paul Ski Club Memorial Trophy, emblematic of the best St. Paul competitor in the 1962 Winter Carnival competitions, held at Battle Creek Park.

He became a consistent influence in the ski jumping lives of innumerable junior ski jumpers. During the years when the Christmas holiday junior training camps attracted upwards of 100 enthusiastic kids, Olssen would take his vacation and could be counted on as a coach at the clinics.

Olssen was a fixture at the Friday evening junior tournaments. He was always coaching, judging, marking, and in his quiet manner, influencing junior members in a positive way.

Olssen was elected to and served for many years on the St. Paul Ski Club Board of Directors. As his talents diffused, he was elected and served two terms as president of the St. Paul Ski Club.

Following his last competitive jumps in 1985, Olssen continued to be on hand to assist during competitions held by the club.

For more than three decades, Olssen, as a member of the St. Paul Ski Club, was a positive influence in the sport of ski jumping. His dedication to the sport and to the lives of the juniors he assisted, warrant his induction into the St. Paul Ski Club Hall of Fame.