Leed (Mandelid), Johannes “Johnny” “John”

Johannes Leed (Mandelid) “John” was born in Rjuban, Norway, on August 16, 1912. He married Edith Yori on November 8, 1946, in Ladysmith, BC. At the time of their marriage, he was working as a blacksmith. He died at Ladysmith General Hospital on January 23, 1978. 

His family (Nils and Ingebord Leed) came to the Princeton area in late 1927 and moved to Copper Mountain. Johnny/John Leed attended Copper Mountain School from 1927-1928. 

In the mid-1930s, the Leed family built a ski hill at Voight’s Camp near Copper Mountain and formed a club in the mid-1930s. Here, Olav and brother, John, trained for ski competitions.  John competed in, and won, the  Sorenson Cup (Junior Ski Jump) at the Princeton Ski Club competition by completing a jump of 36 feet in February 1930. 

More training and a decade later (February 1941), he won the ‘A’ class jump event at the Western Canada Ski Meet (Princeton Ski Hill). The Princeton Star reported: “Jumping with all his old verve and elan, Johnny Leed, diminutive Copper Mountain Ski Club “A” class ski jumper took his place at the head of the class “A” men on Sunday, when he leapt to a new hill record of 213 feet, two better than the mark set last year by Carl Baadswick, of Toronto.” He held the record for fifteen years, until in 1950, Alan Rimes jumped 230 feet.

 He became the Western Canadian “A” class jumping champion, skiing with the Copper Mountain Ski Club, in 1941.

In February 1941, he won the Open Jumping competition in the Okanagan Zone Championship held at the Twin Lakes hills. With a jump of 103 feet, he “just about out leapt the hill.” From there, he planned to go on the the Kimberly Ski Meet.

Leed went on to be the first Canadian to rank at the North American ski jumping competition at the  Snoqualmie Ski Bowl near Seattle, Washington in March 1941. The same month (1941), at the Wells Ski Tournament, he won the “A” Division jump competition. However, The Similkameen Star, in an November 1946 article on the history of the Amber Ski Hill, noted that John Leed seemed “to have vanished from the ski sport.”

Leed lost the sight in one eye in an accident and was known locally as the “One-Eyed Flash,” the “One-Eyed Wonder,” and “Jumping Johnny Leed.”

He also boxed (July 1930) and one of the boys, either Ole or John, played hockey (1930).

At the time of his death, John Leed was working as a logging railway car repairman.