‘The Best Distance Runner the World Has Ever Produced’: Hannes Kolehmainen and the Modernisation of British Athletics

摘要

At the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, Finnish long-distance runner Hannes Kolehmainen captivated British audiences following his sensational three gold medal performances. In the backdrop of a disappointing British showing in the Swedish capital, Kolehmainen's heroics revealed the inexorable forces of globalisation and the rising competitiveness of international sport. Mindful of their nation's declining standing in world sport, Britain's Olympic leaders launched an ambitious scheme to revolutionise the nation's amateur sporting culture. In this era of proposed reform, the British hailed Kolehmainen as a paragon of modern athletic and scientific excellence, a counterforce to the dilettantish and unmethodical British amateur sportsman. Reformers conceived that only by replicating the foreign, ‘working-class’ methods employed by Kolehmainen and his compatriots could Britain, the founding nation ofglobal sports culture, reclaim its position as the arbiter of international sport.View full textDownload full textKeywordsHannes Kolehmainen; amateurism, specialisation, modernisation, sporting decline, Olympic gamesRelated var addthis_config = { ui_cobrand: "Taylor & Francis Online", services_compact: "citeulike,netvibes,twitter,technorati,delicious,linkedin,facebook,stumbleupon,digg,google,more", pubid: "ra-4dff56cd6bb1830b" }; Add to shortlist Link Permalink http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09523367.2012.679026