The Flying Finn's American Sojourn: Hannes Kolehmainen in the United States, 1912–1921

Abstract

Abstract:Shortly after he won three gold medals and one silver medal in distance running events at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, Finland's Hannes Kolehmainen immigrated to the United States. He spent nearly a decade living in Brooklyn, plying his trade as a mason and dominating the amateur endurance running circuit in his adopted homeland. He became a naturalised US citizen in 1921 but returned to Finland shortly thereafter. During his American sojourn, the US press depicted him simultaneously as an exotic foreign athlete and as an immigrant shaped by his new environment into a symbol of successful assimilation. Kolehmainen's career raised questions about sport and national identity -both Finnish and American -about the complexities of immigration during the floodtide of European migration to the US, and about native and adopted cultures in shaping the habits of success. His return to Finland ultimately turned the American 'melting pot' narrative on its head.

A Systematic Review of Research on Sport Migration

“…Related to track and field articles, eight are related to elite sport and sports workers. However, two studies have analyzed the migration of a specific athlete during the first half of the 20th century, the case of the Finnish runner Hannes Kolehmainen (Viita, 2012;Berg & Dyreson, 2012). Regarding the most recent mobility, athletics studies have focused their efforts mainly on athletes originating from Kenya, and their destinations were mapped in different countries, such as the United States, European nations, and Qatar (Chepyator-Thomson, 2003;Njororai, 2010;; other African countries, such as Ethiopia, have also been studied, consolidating themselves as important places of origin for migrant athletes (Chepyator-Thomson & Ariyo, 2016).…”

The History of Physical Activity in the Past, Present, and Future of Kinesiology’s Big Questions, Hot Topics, and Prospects for Integration

“…As historians have detailed, Finland, Sweden, and Norway were in the latter half of the nineteenth century the first modern nations to develop endurance running (and skiing) traditions and those sports have become longstanding national pastimes in Nordic countries. Indeed, Finland in the early twentieth century occupied the place in modern imaginations of human foot racing prowess that Kenya now holds-the land of Olympic champions and running phenoms (Berg & Dyreson, 2012;Vettenniemi, 2012).…”