“THOSE TIRELESS FINNISH RACERS ON
THEIR FLYING SLATS”
Finnish-Canadians As Forerunners of Cross-country Ski Racing in
Northern Ontario 1920 – 1939.
By
Karl Kinanen
Introduction
Early developments of ski racing
The first ski races in Northern Ontario were organized in the early years of the 20th century. Records of these races are not readily available but the ‘old timers’ recall that local ski races were organized in places such as Beaver Lake and Port Arthur. According to Uno Korpi, ski races were held in the Thunder Bay area as early as 1902 when 11 men and seven women participated.
More sustained growth of cross-country ski racing began in the early 1920s. New sports clubs were founded; for example, the Athletic Clubs of Jehu at Beaver Lake and Kisa at Sudbury, perhaps two of the most successful sports organizations in Northern Ontario during 1920s and 30s. The formation of The Finnish-Canadian Workers Sports Federation in 1925 can be seen as one of the decisive events in the drive toward wide-spread interest in cross country skiing as a competitive sport. The purpose of the newly created organization was:
“…to raise the physical, intellectual and cultural level of workers by promoting an interest in physical activity; and to further the country’s militant labour movement.”
An extraordinary development of competitive cross-country skiing took place among the Finnish-Canadians in Northern Ontario in the early part of this century reaching its zenith during the difficult years of economic depression of the 1930s. Unbelievably, this development has remained largely unreported by sports historians. While the Norwegians in Western Canada had pioneered in cross-country skiing and ski jumping during the 19th century and Herman ‘Jackrabbit’ Johannsen was cutting ski trails in Quebec, the Finnish-Canadians were fashioning a splendidly orchestrated structure of cross-country ski racing. The number of skiers (and spectators) who participated in races would not to be surpassed in Canada until 50 – 60 years later. One of the remarkable features of this development was that the officials and skiers were by and large relatively recently arrived ‘folk skiers’; farmers, farm labourers, factory workers, miners, farm women, maids, cooks and lumberjacks who were quite often unemployed, especially in the ‘hungry thirties’ when ski races were organized for “married men and women, bachelors and unemployed”.
My goal here is to trace highlights of the development of cross-country ski racing in Northern Ontario, especially in the Sudbury area during the critical years between 1920 and 1939. In this way I wish to pay tribute to all the Finnish-Canadian pioneers of cross-country skiing in Ontario. Their deeds are not well known beyond the Finnish-Canadian communities but they established a tradition that has had a lasting influence in cross-country skiing in Canada.
Cross-country skiing has a long tradition in Finland dating back at least 3000 years. Competitive skiing started there in 1879 and quickly progressed to the status of the ‘national sport”. Most Finnish newcomers had some experience in skiing and many of them had competed in the sport. Thus, cross-country skiing in northern Ontario grew out of historical tradition, recreational need and economic necessity. Skis provided inexpensive means of transportation as well as recreational opportunities during the long Winter months. Elsie Kovac of Beaver Lake recalls in her memoirs that the women in the family went shopping on skis, the general store being at a distance of four miles. Sometimes they had to ski quite fast like the woman who was chased by wolves on her return from the store. She escaped from the wolves to ski again.
Membership in the Federation was restricted to sports clubs which were sponsored by the Finnish Organization of Canada, the parent organization of all socialist-oriented Finnish clubs and societies of Canada. The plan was to become a country-wide organization of all labour oriented sports clubs of Canada. This ambitious plan was somewhat premature owing to the small number of labour or socialist oriented athletes in the country. Most of them were in Ontario as The Vapaus (Liberty) newspaper quite correctly stated. Even in Ontario, sporting activity was thought to be quite weak. As it happened, ten sports clubs joined the Federation with a combined membership of between 300 and 400. With the influx of newcomers from Finland in 1920s, the number of clubs and their members grew rapidly reaching 40 clubs and about 2000 members by 1935, the peak year in the life of the organization.
The founding of the Federation had a positive, although slowly growing influence on cross-country skiing. The number of ski races began to increase as did the number of skiers. The Vapaus began to urge “comrades” to become labour athletes for the sake of not only of their individual benefit but also for the sake of the working class. It also advised on training and other aspects of skiing indicating that although there was hardly a single Finn who could not ski, racing demanded systematic training “so that one could ski easily for one’s enjoyment and the development of the noble sport of cross-country skiing”.
The inspiring development of cross-country skiing in the Sudbury area and other parts of Northern and Western Ontario took place in spite of tremendous obstacles. Economic times were hard for most of the newly arrived immigrants. Money was scarce, equipment largely home made and the prizes were minimal. In one race the first prize was three cups of coffee, the second price two cups, and so on. While many of the ski races attracted only skiers from the local village or town, some skiers began to attend races in more remote communities travelling long distances to ski races – on skis, of course. Finnish-Canadian old timers still talk about the legendary trip of three skiers from Beaver Lake to races at South Porcupine and Timmins in 1931. The skiers accomplished the trip in three and one-half days having skied about 100 miles. A snowstorm covered all the roads and tracks and in many places skiing was quite impossible. The skiers had to slug their way through deep snow on foot carrying their skis and everything else on their backs. They spent their nights in Ontario Hydro’s workers’ cabins. Needless to say, they skied back to Beaver lake after the races.
Participation in ski races began to increase slowly but steadily in the late 1920s. The Federation championship races were organized in Sudbury in 1926. Pauli Jansson won both the 10k and 20k races. The Vapaus immediately called him the best cross-country skier in Canada. Jansson had come to Canada from Finland in 1922 where he had won regional and district championships in cross-country skiing and distance running. Whether Jansson or any other Federation skier was the best in Canada could not be settled until much later when the Federation skiers were able to participate in Canadian Cross-Country Ski Championships. Unquestionably, he was one of the great Finnish-Canadian skiers of that era. On the women’s side, Siiri Ristonen was winning all her races by a wide margin and was undoubtedly the best woman skier in Northern Ontario. She was one the very few women whose skiing career extended over more than one or two years. The lack of women in ski races was deplored by organizers and the media. Some blamed dancing as the culprit for the situation.
One of the notable features of cross-country skiing in the 1920s was the fact that all races were held on level ground or lake ice. Only after 1930 were race courses moved to hilly terrain. Ski races attracted a large number of spectators. Present day Canadian skiers and race organizers would be delighted if they were able to attract 500 spectators to a ski race as happened in Sudbury in 1931 when Pauli Jansson won the 15k. A month later when a crowd of over 300 spectators gathered on Ramsay Lake to watch ski races a policeman arrived attempting to disperse the crowd of ‘agitators’. It took some time before he would understand that people were watching a ski race. He would not believe that it, indeed, was a ski race and not a revolutionary gathering until he saw the skiers ‘fly’ by. Crowds of 150 – 300 were quite common in smaller centres, such as Beaver Lake where the total population did not exceed 250 individuals.
Paradoxical as it may sound, while the economic situation of Canada and quite naturally that of the Finnish-Canadians grew worse in the early years of 1930s, cross-country ski racing experienced its most exciting period of growth. Literally, tens of communities began to organize membership, ‘propaganda’ and Federation races. Relay races of 15x1k were very popular as were races for special groups, such as “married men, bachelors, housewives, heavy weights, and ‘gnarled’ old men”. While the number of skiers even in championship races had been between ten and 20 skiers during the previous years, many races now began to attract 50 or more skiers reaching an all time high of nearly 100 skiers in the Federation Championships 1933 in spite of a “horrendous” snowstorm during the races. It should be noted that the Canadian Cross-country ski championships attracted rarely more than 20 skiers at the time. Perhaps The Vapaus’ reporter was justified in writing that the Finnish-Canadian skiers were the true champions of Canada, although they were not able to participate in the bourgeoisie or any open ski races. The Federation rules were very strict in that respect; a skier could be disqualified for life for participation in ski races that it did not sanction it as happened to one of the founders of the Beaver Lake Jehu, L. Laine. Undaunted, he promptly established another sports club, Beaver Lake Beavers which joined the Canadian Amateur Athletic Union.
Successful entry into open races
The day came, however, when the Finnish-Canadian Workers Sport Federation skiers were able to participate in an open ski race. This occurred in January 1936 when seven Federation skiers competed at North Bay in the Laurentian Ski Club race. To quote The Vapaus:
“The superiority of the Finnish skiers in these races where they conquered the first eight places was an unexpected surprise to the Laurentian Ski Club as well as to other skiers. Seven of the first eight skiers were members of the Finnish-Canadian Workers Sport Federation clubs.”
The winner of this race was A. Back who later in that same year won the Canadian Cross-country skiing championship. The next five were also from the Finnish-Canadian Workers Sports Federation. This prompted N. Piispanen (Tekonimus), a well known Beaver Lake skier and a columnist of The Vapaus to write that the workers Sport Federation skiers found better competition in local races than in National championships. Judging by the results of many local competitions at Beaver Lake, Sudbury, Timmins, and some other places, the boast may not be without foundation.
Finnish-Canadian skiers were on their way to dominating Canadian Cross-country skiing during the remaining years of 1930s and for a period of 15-20 years after the World War II. Even before 1936 Finnish born skier E. Penttilä had won three successive Canadian Championships between 1929 and 1931. He later returned to Finland.
The years after the founding of the Finnish-Canadian Workers Sports Federation were highlighted by the spread of cross-country skiing throughout Northern Ontario and the development of an effective organizational structure for ski racing. It is not surprising that the number of ski races and racers steadily increased in the early years of the 1930s. Dozens of races were organized in northern Ontario with impressive lists of participants. One ski club organized ten ski races during 1933. The largest recorded number of skiers in a single race was 83 at a Beaver lake competition in 1933.
Declining participation
A slow but steady decline in the number of participants began after 1935 while the elite skiers – Back, Jansson, Tikkanen, Salminen, Tulkku, Paananen and others –continued to dominate both the Federation and Canadian open races. The Sudbury Star began to pay attention to Finnish skiers. It published a picture of Impola, Jansson and Tulkku under the heading: “Made Clean Sweep for Sudbury in Long Grind” and reported on the North Bay race. By 1938 The Star noted that skiing had made great strides in the Nickel Belt and had become a major sport there. It attributed this development to the Nickel Belt Finns, “those tireless Finnish racers on the flying slats”.
The decline of mass participation in races, in which the Finnish-Canadian Sports Federation took great pride, became a growing concern in Finnish-Canadian communities. “Tekonimus” lamented the narrowing of the cross-country ski front: “The youth sleeps, if we put it plainly, and the future looks very dark once the older skiers leave the tracks. I wonder if the interest in skiing has been diluted?”
Undoubtedly skiing was diluted. The second generation Finnish-Canadians were not as keen on skiing as their parents had been. The number of newcomers from Finland dwindled to practically zero during the 1930s. The older skiers were still winning but they could not go on forever. With the deepening of the depression, many gave up skiing owing to the lack of ski equipment. The Finnish-Canadian Workers Sports Federation went through a difficult period of reorganization and many sports clubs experienced declining memberships as well as a change of emphasis away from cross-country skiing toward more traditional Canadian sports, such as hockey, baseball, etc. Some new skiers did emerge, for example, L. Huuki, W. Johnson, A. Ranta, who would carry the Finnish-Canadian skiing tradition during and immediately after the World War II. But the major revival of skiing would have to wait until the war was over and a new group of Finnish immigrants arrived in Canada starting in 1948. It seems though, that the level of participation and enthusiasm of the halcyon days of 1933 – 36 would never again be reached, not even in the 1950s or 60s when Finnish born skiers would renew their domination of Canadian cross-country skiing. But that is another story!
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Note: I am indebted to a number of Finnish-Canadians who have shared information, pictures, their own skiing experiences and other materials. I shall mention only a few: Elvi Duncan, Uno Korpi, Fred Ronka, Antti Ranta, Bill Johnson, Eino Tikkanen and Bill Salminen. Mauri Jalava and The Sports Pioneers publication have also been very helpful.