Paulsen was born in Aker near
Christiania (today's Oslo) to Haagine Olsen (1822–1918) and the merchant Johan Peter Paulsen (1820–1887). He grew up in Oslo, where his father ran a coffee shop. He started skating
at early age and by 1870 already competed both in speed skating and figure skating. In 1882, he won the World Championships in speed skating in
Vienna and received an extra prize in figure skating for a new jump, which he performed while wearing
speed skates at a three-race meet in
Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Besides inventing the Axel jump, he constructed the first modern speed skates with a metal blade fixed to the boot. After the death of his father, he took over his coffee shop and ran it until 1936 together with his brother Edvin. He married twice, first in 1885 to the Welsh woman Kathryn Williams, the marriage being dissolved in 1890; and second to Anna Elise Nicolaisen (1865–1935). ==References==