Kjeld Brodsgaard of Victoria, an integral figure on Island fields and mats, died Monday at the age of 74 of stomach cancer.
Brodsgaard refereed wrestling at the 1996 Atlanta and 2000 Sydney Olympics and a total of four Commonwealth and Pan Am Games and was also president of the Vancouver Island Soccer League and sa国际传媒 Soccer Association.
“Kjeld made a major impact in two sports. Most people would find it hard to make such impacts in just one sport,” said Vince Greco, executive-director of the VISL.
Brodsgaard was the sports chair for the wrestling competition of the 1994 Victoria Commonwealth Games and vice-president operations of the 2002 FIFA U-20 women’s soccer World Cup and 2007 U-20 FIFA men’s World Cup groups based in Victoria. He was inducted into the builders category of the Victoria Sports Hall of Fame with the Class of 2013.
“I remember working out in the weight room at the Y with Taras Hryb. Who knew the two guys working out in that little room would one day be in the Sports Hall of Fame? This is a great honour,” said Brodsgaard, on the night of his induction in 2013.
He was referring to especially being pleased to join his friend and previously-inducted wrestler Hryb, a 1972 Munich Olympian and Commonwealth and Pan Am Games medallist, in the Victoria Sports Hall.
Brodsgaard, who was born in Denmark and came to Victoria at age 16 with his family, was also inducted into the Canadian Amateur Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2024. He began officiating, coaching and organizing wrestling at the high school level, moving up to the sa国际传媒 Games and then to the Olympics and Commonwealth and Pan Am Games. Brodsgaard officiated nearly three decades, serving as president of the Canadian Amateur Wrestling Association Officials Association, and was the head official for the qualifying trials for the 1996 Atlanta and 2000 Sydney Olympics.
According to his Victoria Sports Hall of Fame citation, Brodsgaard officiated at more than 60 international wrestling championships, including 20 world championships and World Cups, the Olympics at Atlanta and Sydney, Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh and Manchester, two Pan Am Games, two European championships and the 1990 Goodwill Games.
Brodsgaard was a goalkeeper in his soccer life, winning a national championship in 1975 on Victoria’s London Boxing Club along with future World Cup player George Pakos and future pro Frank Woods, and Brodsgaard later mentored generations of Island ’keepers at his free clinics.
“Sport was my dad’s passion and he was positive, human and humble in the way that he approached it because he cared,” said son Shel Brodsgaard.
Although a noted goalkeeper, Kjeld Brodsgaard left his greatest mark on the VISL and sa国际传媒 Soccer, however, at the administrative level.
“Kjeld brought the VISL into the modern era,” said Greco.
“His influence on the league was massive. He loved the VISL and he safeguarded the league. He was dedicated to the VISL and gave so much to it over the years.”
Several national wrestling and VISL awards are named in honour of Brodsgaard. His job in his paid civilian trade was as an educator, retiring after a teaching career, mostly at Macaulay Elementary School and Shoreline Middle School.
Brodsgaard was predeceased by his brother Mogens, mother Karen and father Aksel and is survived by wife Kathy, son Shel, daughter-in-law Paola and grand-daughter Isabella. An open house will be held at the family home on Feb. 17 from 1-6 p.m. Donations in Brodsgaard’s memory can be made to KidSport-Greater Victoria.
