Strange bedfellows: women's gymnastics and slalom

Female gymnasts were important pioneers in the development of Finnish Alpine skiing

Jari Kanerva

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By Jussi-Pekka Reponen
     
      One would not automatically assume that the Finnish traditional women’s low-impact recreational gymnastics and Alpine skiing would have anything much in common.
      But, sure enough, they do.
      Female gymnasts played an important role during the early years of Finnish Alpine skiing, and especially in the development of recreational slalom.
     
The significance of women in this development becomes apparent in Jari Kanerva’s doctoral thesis “The Early Stages of Alpine Skiing in Finland. Slalom and fell-skiing in Finland from the 1920s to the 1960s.”
      In Kanerva’s opinion, until now a common conception has prevailed that before the 1950s came along, hardly anything had happened on the Alpine skiing front in Finland.
      “Earlier historical research suggests that Alpine skiing started when the first slalom competition was held in the country in 1934. This material shows that already in the 1920s there was knowledge in Finland about the different turning techniques. And what is surprising is that it was women who started teaching these things in gymnastics circles. This point, which has not received wide attention previously, is an interesting and important one”, says Kanerva.
     
Kanerva is familiar with slalom and Alpine skiing as a researcher but also as a doer: he is a former regional level downhill skier and a former national team assistant coach, acts presently as a local team coach, and is also a veteran skier.
      Kanerva's doctoral dissertation, which took him seven years to complete, was put together during his spare time. As his day-job, he works as the head of education and communication at the Finnish Society of Sport Sciences.
     
So what caused female gymnasts to get interested in slalom, a discipline that they later referred to as “wriggling”?
      Already in the 1920s, the members of Suomen Naisten Liikuntakasvatusliitto (the Finnish Women’s Physical Education Federation - the predecessor of the present Finnish Gymnastics Federation) started to take an interest in forms of physical exercise other than just gymnastics.
      One such discipline was cross-country skiing. Soon "crossover" gymnastics exercises that were performed while wearing skis and holding ski poles were incorporated into their routines.
     
"The women gymnasts were terribly keen on following what was happening on the sports front in Sweden and elsewhere in Europe. There was a constant friction and controversy between competitive and recreational sports. They even developed their own "performance badge" system to compete with competitive sports”, Kanerva summarises.
      Some content had to be attached to this badge system.
      "First there was the women’s sports badge, later came the skiing badge and others. Because the women believed firmly in training and development, they soon invented specialised training courses for each discipline. Just like there were courses in gymnastics, training was soon provided for skiers as well.”
      The skiing know-how was acquired from abroad. The first destination was Sweden, where teaching of modern skiing techniques had commenced as early as in 1924.
      The Swedes had modified Austrian Colonel Georg Bilger’s ski teaching programme to fit their own needs, especially the fell conditions.
      “In other words, the Finns started following a method that came from Austria via Sweden.”
     
Next the women started looking for suitable places for skiing and “wriggling” in particular on the fells of Lapland.
      “In a way, this was the first step towards ski and winter sports tourism. The women had to organise their trips to Lapland from the ground up. The first leg of the journey they travelled by train, the next by bus, and the last part by reindeer-driven sleigh. Even in this respect they were pioneers.”
      Men only got interested in downhill skiing after the women had done the groundwork.
      “The Finnish Ski Association had hardly anything to do with coaching in the 1920s. Its activities consisted primarily of cross-country skiing and competing. As so often is the case in male-dominated competition cultures, even in skiing the men cut corners and simply started competing immediately.”
     
     
Jari Kanerva defended his doctoral dissertation at the University of Helsinki, Faculty of Humanities on Friday January 21st.
     
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 21.1.2011

More on this subject:
 FACTFILE: The first groomed ski-slope was in Kauniainen of all places

Links:
  Jari Kanerva: From Trackless Snow to Worldcup Racing (.pdf file)
  University of Helsinki, Doctoral Dissertations: Alppihiihdon alkutaival (Abstract)

JUSSI-PEKKA REPONEN / Helsingin Sanomat
jussi-pekka.reponen@hs.fi