Paavo Nurmi

Spend a winter holiday in Pelkosenniemi. Ski in the fell landscapes.

Starting with a long and lyrical overture, evoking the origins of the Olympic Games in ancient Greece, Riefenstahl covers twenty-one athletic events in the first half of this two-part love letter to the human body and spirit, culminating with the marathon, where Jesse Owens became the first track and field athlete to win four gold medals in a single Olympics.

Traffic education to prevent accidents in a documentary film introducing Traffic Safety Week.

Machine manufacturing of glass bottles at the Riihimäki Glass Factory and use of finished milk bottles.

Kanervala, located in Särkisalo, was a summer resort for railway workers. The drama documentary presents Kanervala in the summer.

Polyteekkarifilmi (Polytekarfilmen) is a Finnish silent documentary film dating from 1924. The subtitle of the documentary is "The story of sport, polytheists and the gods of Olympia". The film aimed to raise travel funds for Finnish athletes traveling to the Paris Olympics.

Skiing and ski lessons at the Vuokatti Sports Institute.

The film teaches us the basics of swimming jumps.

Photos from the III Railway Workers' Song and Music Festival in Jyväskylä in 1953.

The Finnkampen is the oldest surviving international competition in athletics. Sweden and Finland have competed against each other since 1925 in a mixture of respect and love-hate. This documentary by Lotta Fahlberg delves into the history of the Finnkampen, where we get to see the hustle and bustle both on the track and behind the scenes, and the Swedish ups and downs over the years.

Coaching athletes and training physical education instructors at the Pajulahti and Vierumäki sports institutes.

A person who can swim has the cheapest life insurance against the dangers of water and the right to enjoy a joyful summer.

Running competitions. A car is given to Paavo Nurmi.

Using newsreel footage, this Sportscope entry chronicles the race toward running's four-minute mile, highlighting several important contests. It starts in the 1920's, when Finland's Paavo Nurmi set the record for the distance at 4 minutes 10.4 seconds. It continues through Roger Bannister's first run under 4 minutes in 1954, and ends in spring 1956, when Australia's Joe Bailey became the first to break 4 minutes on US soil.

A celebration of the finest moments from the world's largest and most historic sporting event, released to coincide with the return of the Olympic Games to their Greek roots as Athens became the venue of the 28th modern Olympics in August 2004. Contrasting bygone heroes with modern-day sports stars, the film offers an insight into the event's past, present and future, and features footage of all its most defining moments, from black US athlete Jesse Owens' defiance of both the odds and the prevailing political regime when he won four gold medals in Berlin in 1936 under the watchful eye of Adolf Hitler, to Carl Lewis's repeat of Owens' incredible quadruple win in Los Angeles in 1984.