6533b7d8fe1ef96bd126a18f

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Why Did the ‘Flying Finns’ Walk? A Footnote to the History of Athletics Training

subject

description

In the twenty-first century, distance runners invariably train by running. A few generations ago, however, virtually all elite runners were dedicated walkers; they sought to improve their running prowess by vigorous walking exercises. As idiosyncratic as their training philosophy retrospectively sounds, it needs to be assessed in its original context. Of all modern sports, distance running seemed a particularly suspicious activity to contemporary observers, as suggested by evidence from Finland and other leading sporting nations. A grown-up person dashing about in skimpy clothes easily ended up being classified as a mental case. Serious athletes therefore chose walking work-outs over unabashed displays of running. Interestingly, the pedestrian fad arrived in Finland from the Anglo-American centres of sport, which should give rise to a reconsideration of the actual modernity of early twentieth-century athletics. In fact, Paavo Nurmi and many other Finns still propagated brisk walks towards the mid-twentiet...