The objects of this study include sports journalism, the stories of sports heroes, and the drama of journalism that is bringing these heroes to the headlines. Sports journalism is seen here as a part of Finnish culture. At the same time it is an elementary part of journalism culture in Finland. Furthermore, this the first Ph.D. study concentrating on sports journalism in Finland.
This study crosses the borders of many different fields of science. In the tradition of journalism studies this belongs to the area of genre studies within media history. On the other hand this study has connections with the scientific areas of physical education, sports history and cultural studies. The products of journalism, the texts, are the focus of this research. My aim was to study how sports journalism is involved in the making of sports heroes, and how the drama of journalism is elevating these sports heroes. One of the central themes in this study was to register the evolution of the heroes, from
distance runner Hannes Kolehmainen to the Swedish icehockey coach Curt Lindstrom. The method used in this study was textual analysis. By means of close reading I studied the meaning of the texts and their connections to the culture. I wanted to study how the heroes and their Finnish nationality are combined. The heroes whose heroism is studied through the texts include Hannes Kolehmainen, Paavo Nurmi, Tapio Rautavaara, Veikko Hakulinen, Lasse Viren, Keijo Rosberg, Marja-Liisa Hamalainen (later Kirvesniemi) and Curt Lindstrom. The material was gathered from newspapers, radio recordings and video tapes. The newspapers were Helsingin Sanomat, Turun Sanomat, Työmies, Suomen Sosialidemokraatti, Demari. A traditional sports weekly Suomen Urheilulehti was also among the research material. The two radio recordings date back to 1948 (London) and 1960 (Squaw Valley). The TV-programmes that were analysed included two A-studio (YLE) programmes from 1994, and the third TV-programme was a Suunvuoro-programme (MTV3) in 1995. The nature of media made Finnish sports heroes is two fold. The heroes from Hannes Kolehmainen to Lasse Viren played an important role in uniting the nation. The media played a part in this uniting function. Starting in the 1980s the role of the heroes has changed. The heroes are fighting for their own welfare, and they are representatives of the fan groups of special fields of sports. At the same time Finnishness has gained a new, lighter and more carnivalistic nature instead of the old, far from humorous patriotism. The way the heroes are described in the sports texts can be defined as a result of oppositional dichotomies. There is always a place for heroism, when small ones fight against big ones. This study could not make a difference to the nature of the heroes' stories, whether they were dealing with the struggle or the celebrations of the sportsman's career. On the other hand the sports heroes have had a close connection with nationalism and national traditions all the way back to the 1970s. The Olympic victories of Hannes Kolehmainen in 1912 were part of the small country's, governed by the Russians at that time, symbolic struggle to gain independence. Declaring Paavo Nurmi professional turned out to be a symbolic struggle between Finland and Sweden. The javelin gold medal winner Tapio Rautavaara in 1948 could beat the American favourite, but it was also the first time an athlete representing the labour sports clubs in Finland managed to win Olympic gold. Veikko Hakulinen was the golden anchor of the Finnish skiing relay team in 1960. Hakulinen beat the Norwegian anchor against all odds. Here we had Finland and Norway fighting each other, but also there was a question of the contribution of a single member of the team to the success of the whole team, so the polarity was between one single person and a group of people. The victories of Lasse Viren in 1972 brought Finnish distance running back to the world top, back to the same position where it had been in 1936, when Germany had previously hosted the Olympic games. Keijo Rosberg won the Formula-1 World Championship title in 1982. It was time to discuss what is sport, and what is not sport; there was a dilemma of traditions and development, and a question of Finnishness and non-Finnishness. With her Olympic victories in 1984, Marja-Liisa Hamalainen lifted female sports to the same level as male sports in Finland. The male-female composition became even more concrete as Marja-Liisa was dating with another world class skier Harri Kirvesniemi. The many centuries long history of Finland as part of the Swedish kingdom made grounds for the strong celebration in 1995 when Finland won, for the first time, the World Championship title in ice-hockey. The tournament was played in the capital of Sweden, and the head coach of the winning Finnish team was a Swede, Curt Lindstrom. Immediately he became a national hero in Finland.
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