The Finnish time machine

Today I accomplished a pilgrimage that has been a dream of mine since 1972. He was a relatively unknown athlete, simply a policeman from a small town in Finland. In recent years, he has been a successful national politician. He is presently serving his 3rd term in the Finnish Parliament.

The world knows him however as the winner of four gold medals at the 1972 and 1976 Summer Olympics, Munich and Montreal. For a few days in 1972 - and again in 1976 - Lasse Viren was acknowledged as the greatest athlete in the world.

After the 1972 Olympics, the tall, bearded Finn returned to his life of police work in the small town of Myrskyla. The bulk of his training was running alone in the Finnish woods, 150 miles a week. This was a prodigious mileage (even today), and equalled among his peers only by David Bedford.

In these two Games Viren won a series of thrilling finals, culminating in the Montreal 5,000 metres when he just held off the finest competitors in the world in what remains without doubt the greatest distance race of them all.

Viren prepared for the Olympics in a way that unique and ahead of its time. He was ruthlessly disciplined, totally focused. Today he is widely considered to be a founder of modern athletics, the prime exponent of peak performance.

Britain's Brendan Foster later described Viren's 1972 and 1976 Olympic doubles as among the five greatest athletics feats of all time.

Viren and his wife still live in Myrskyla, an hour's drive north-east of Helsinki. It has a population of just over 2,000. There's a statue of Viren in the centre of the town, seen in my blip today.

Larger statue.

On the front of the statue it simply says Olympic Champion, and the years, places and events. I know this is not what you could call a truly amazing looking statue. But the record says it all. How many athletes get a statue erected to them in their home town and in their own life time? No other athlete has won these 2 events in consecutive Olympic Games.

I have now discovered the correct name of the gum nuts that I blipped last Saturday. See explanation now at the bottom of that journal.