2016

Björn, Ismo; Itkonen, Hannu

The purpose of the article is to analyse the expansion of Finnish ski jumping. The main research questions are: who were the early actors in Finnish ski jumping; which were the social backgrounds of the ski jumping pioneers; and which were the changing goals of ski jumping actors. The article draws on different documents like histories, newspapers and assorted material. The ski jumping in Finland started in the 1880s by Norwegian sport pioneers. The first national ski jumpers were students at Sortavala teacher seminar, soldiers of army and middle-class jumpers in south Finland. The influence of Finnish White Guard for the expansion of ski jumping was very important since the 1920s. For sport organizations ski jumping was one bravery demanding sport in the whole sports family. Before the World War II the Finnish ski jumping was not an internationally successful sport.