OLYMPIC CHAMPIONS

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 25, 29 July 1922, Page 15

OLYMPIC CHAMPIONS

FINLAND'S RACE OF ATHLETES GREAT RECORD FOR LITTLE COUNTRY Athletics put a country on the map, if the prowess of its athletes is rewarded with resounding success. This has been eminently the case with Finland. Finland possesses artists and scientists who have achieved world reputation. Names like Sibelius,.Edelfelt, and Westermarck will serve as examples. Its recent political history also furnished one name of world importance, that oi Mannerheim. But not one of these great names is so generally known in the world as that of Kolehmainen. Athletics have proved incomparably the best advertisement for Finland. In this field it is possible for the Finns, a. small people only numbering about three and a-half millions, to compete and compare with the biggest i and,most advanced nations of the world.

Finland has won its laurels in the sphere of■ athletics principally- at. the Olympian Games. It presented the great surprise at Stockholm in 1912, when Kolehmainen achieved his world fame, and the great Finnish throwers, Taipale, Saaristo, and Niklander, impressed themselves upon the consciousness of the athletic public. It achieved still greater successes at Antwerp in 1920, the first time it took part in the games as an independent nation. The Marathon race, which is generally regarded as the'principal event of the Games, was won, in record time by Kolehmainen, who had been' out of form during the preceding years, and was not regarded as a very dangerous competitor. In the distances over which he gained his victories in 1912, Nurmi now proved his worthy successor. It is true that Nurmi was beaten in the 5000 metres by Guillemont—a revenge for the defeat of Bouin by Kolehmainen in 1912—but he won the 10,000 metres and the "cross-country, in which latter event Finland also won the team race. In throwing, the Finns were, absolutely pre-eminent, taking the four'first places in. javelin-throwing, and the two first in discus-throwing and in putting-the-shot. The gold medals ,for the pentathlon and the.three-step jump also went tb Finland.

The result in general athletics achieved by Finland in the Antwerp Games are best shown by the points scored, which were as follow for the principal countries:—(l) United States 210, (2) Finland 106, (3) Sweden 95, (4) England 89, (5) France 35, (6) Italy 29,; (7) South Africa 24, and so on. These are the results according to the special system of marking used at Antwerp, giving 7 points for the first ]place, 5 for the second, and 4, 3, 2, and 1 for the next four respectively. The old system of marking gave 3> points for the firafc place, 2 for the second, and 1 for thel .third; and, if this system be adhered! to, the results are as follow: (1) United States 59, (2)" Finland 38, (3) England' 24, (4) Sweden 19. The number of victories won by the different: nations n-ay alsoi be quoted, and was as follows: (1) Unitsid States and Finland 9 each, (3) England i 5, (4) Italy 2 (both for walking),' (5) Sweden, France, South Africa, Canada, and Norway 1 each. (Tile numbers of points given above differ slightly from those sometimes given in other accounts. As far as'we have been able to make out, cross-court try. , racing forms a double event. Ab the programme of'the Olympic ;Gamfes showed, it was both an individual andii'a team race. The discrepancy, however, only affects the results insofar that, i£ the cross-country be regarded as a team race only, Finland has only 8 victories to /'record, against 9 for the United States.) \ .-.

All the above results on points agree as to the magnificent achievements of Finland, which in general athletics is second to the United i States alone—and the States may practically be regarded'as a continent in themsalves. But' it is also interesting-to scrutiraise more closely the different systems of marking. We find that the fewer place's are taken in account, the more favourable to Finland the result appears. H the first six are counted, the United States appears nearly 100 per cent, stronger uhan Finland, but. if only three are taken, 'the difference is slightly over 50 per cent, while, if only the winners count; the two countries are equal. The significance o? this is that the Finnish team was extraordinarily strong for its numbers; it was pre-eminent in quality; it won its points mainly by

taking the beat places, not with the help of the more modest ones; it comprised a number of victors, and: exceedingly few who did not distinguish themselves. (The same may fa,lso be said of the English , .team, if not to the same degree. It also achieved very fine results, though it was comparatively small.) , The Finnish athletes created a great sensation at Antwerp, and their praises were siing in'the press not of.Belgium j alone, but of the, whole world. They were regarded as splendid representatives of a people which possess an unexpended reserve of primitive strength, and at the same time has attained a high standard o£ athletic culture, with unusual technical perfection in certain sxercises. . This is particularly true of javelin-throwing, a graceful and peculiarly northern exercise, which came first on the Antwerp programme, and gave the Finns an opportunity of making a-splendid beginning to their victorious career. As already stated, the four representatives of.Finland took the four first places, all throwing more than 62 metres, while the victor, the marvellous Myyra, created a new and magnificent Olympic record with 65.78 metres. Nildander, faipale, and Forhola too, who bore the colours of Finland in discus-throwing and putting-the-shot, were, still finer exponents of massive, primeval strength. Kolehniainen, the man of tough endurance, Nurmi, and some others, are.also admirable, types of a different character. The 1 principal Finnish successes, both at. Antwerp and in 1912 at Stockholm, .•" were gained in throwing and in long-distance running, and this'fact is significant of the national temperament. But' yet Finland also achieved fine results iri exercises which demand quickness, lightness, lissomness, and all-round excellence, for example/ Tuulo's victory in the three-step leap, and especially Lehtonen's decisive victory in the. pentathlon. ' The lastnamed was described by various experts as the most harmoniously-built athlete present at the Games. The view of Finnish athletics presented by the above-mentioned competitions,' finds an important complement in wrestling. If the Finns are eminent in general athletics, they are yet, above all, a nation of wrestjers. Their phyiscal and mental qualities alike make them well fitted for this form of athletic exercise. They have the strength and toughness which refuse to lose grip^ and they have the contemplative character to think out new holds, and to' penetrate deep into the spirit of wrestling. Thus it came about that, out of the 30 points allotted to Greco-Roman wrestling "at Antwerp, .* 19 fell to Finland, while all the other nations shared the remaining 11. The Finnish achievements in catch-as-catch- , can wrestling were ■ scarcely less remarkable. This' is a specially American form,- and had never been practised in Finland, but after a scanty training, this country also, entered for that event, with the result that it won 8 points, while the United States won 9.

Except in general athletics and; in wrestling, Finland was, on the whole, poorly represented at the seventh Olympiad. This was partly because the country can, in fact, not yet .compete with the world champions in some spheres, and partly also because financial , considerations made it impossible to send representatives. For. this reason, there is now only- one more. Finnjsh victory to mention, namely, that.jin figure-skating. A figure-skating competition formed part of the Olympic programme, and Mr. and Mrs. Jakobsson won the gold medal for skating in couples. In short, on the total result of all the events of the games, Finland took the fourth place, the point's scored being: ."United States 346, Sweden

197, England 158, Finland 142, France 87, Italy 76, Norway 70, etc. But this is, in iteelf, a very creditable result. : ■ -.':

The view of Finnish athletics afforded by the Antwerp Games, with all its richness and splendour, is not yet complete. The achievements of 1921 have something, to add, even in....the field of genera] athletics. Nurmi was the principal hero of that-year. ' Ha created a new world record for the 10,000 metres, beating fairly decisively the old record, which was held by Bouin. ■ He also ran the English mile in 4min 13.9 sec, or only 1.6 seconds more than the world record. Thus »t see that , his running powers are of wide application. Generally speaking,/ however,, the main feature of the 1921 season may be described as "shortening the front," i.e., considerable progress' was made in those branches of ath-1 letics in which Finnish athletes had; not previously attained any great' dis-' tinction, especially short and mediumlength running. Thus Wilen, one of the most competent, all-round athletes' of the country, ran 400 metres afc! Stockholm in .49.4 seconds, and was} generally described as "the best quar-) ter-miler in the North." Some people,/) at least, in Finland, are inclined' to,' regard Haro as "the best eprinter in: the North." He is not quite unknown I on the Continent either, since the au-1 tumn of 1921, when he entered for a) 250 metres race in Paris, and won it. But the main reason why. the Ant-' werp Games only furnish an incomplete view of Finnish athletics, is that they* represent almost exclusively summer exercises. Practically all the athletiof sports' which flourish in the gloriousl, northern winter are excluded. Mt. ancVl Sirs. Jakobsson's victory in figure-skat-ing was the only hint of the athletic skill which the Finns display on ice and snow. Skate-racing is much, more, ! important than figure-6kating, and here the battle for the world hegemony has bin between the Norwegians and Finns, though Bussians and Swedes have also made strong bids for it now and then. , Thus the championship of the North, i •which is equivalent to the world championship, was won by Tuomainera in 1919j and 1921, while the European champion,ship in 1922 fell to Thunberg. But fax more important than any skating, is ski-1 ing, which is the real national sport of Finland, as also of Sweden and Norway. And in this field, the Finns can claim to be pre-eminent in all the world. They have long been unsurpassed over level or,slightly broken country,, and they i have now come to equal the Norwegians on difficult, hilly country, as is shown by the fact that a Finn, Collin, won the Holmenkollen 50 kilometres race in 1922, while another Finn, Niku, came in : second. They'are also about equal to ' the Norwegians and Swedes in ski-jump- ' ing, for in this year's international match between those three countries, a Finn carried off the individual victory, while as a nation, Finland took the second place, bet-ween Noi-way and' Sweden. •