The Permanent Exhibition of the Sports Museum of Finland has over 1,000 objects on display, covering a time span of more than 2,000 years. The oldest exhibit dates from the 5th century B.C., the newest ones are from our times. The two most cherished items on display are the gilded spike shoe of Paavo Nurmi and the medal collection of Matti Nykänen.
In the Virtual Viren Running Simulator the museum guests can join the famous final lap of the 5,000-metre final at the Montreal Olympic Games of 1976 - and perhaps beat our champion Lasse Viren.
At Kino Nurmi, the video theatre of the Sports Museum, the museum guests can watch clips from the greatest moments of Finnish sports. A separate video program presents the history of Finnish motor sports.
The Permanent Exhibition includes four multimedia programs in English, focusing on the Olympic Games of 1952 in Helsinki, Finnish Olympic history, the Olympic Stadium and pesäpallo (Finnish baseball).
The gilded shoe of Paavo Nurmi
Paavo Nurmi (born 13 June 1897, died 2 October 1973) was the greatest long-distance runner of all time. He won a total of nine gold and three silver medals at three Olympic Games in the 1920's.
The gilded shoe of Paavo Nurmi is the most famous exhibit of the Sports Museum. The spike shoe was gilded for the 1939 New York World's Fair. It was put on display in the Finnish Pavilion in order to promote the 1940 Olympic Games in Helsinki. These Games were cancelled due to the Second World War, however.
Paavo Nurmi donated the gilded shoe to the Sports Museum in 1943, when the Museum was opened in its present location at the Olympic Stadium.
You can find more information on Paavo Nurmi at:
www.stadion.fi/paavonurmi100/pnhome.htm
The medal collection of Matti Nykänen
Matti Nykänen is the most successful ski jumper of all time. Between 1981 and 1990 he won a total of 20 medals at World Championships and Olympic Winter Games. At the Olympic Games in Calgary in 1988 Nykänen won gold in all three ski jump competitions.
Matti Nykänen's medal collection was acquired by the Sports Museum in 1995 by help of a public subscription. The collection includes five Olympic medals, 15 World Championship medals and 22 Finnish Championship medals - a total of 42 prizes.
Olympic medals: One gold and one silver from Sarajevo 1984, three gold from Calgary 1988.
World Championship medals: 15 medals in all, seven of which gold, ranging from the gold at World Junior Championships of 1981 to the silver at Ski Flying World Championships of 1990.
Finnish Championship medals: 22 medals in all, 13 of which gold.
Virtual Viren Simulator
Step on the running mat and challenge the four-time Olympic champion Lasse Viren to a duel on the final 200 metres of the 5,000-metre final of the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal! Don't worry, you get a handicap of up to 50 metres! Or you can choose to start from scratch, but then you have to run the 200 metres in under 27 seconds to win!
Running on the mat, you can see yourself on the screen as a top athlete in fierce sprint, a jogger, a feet-dragging walker, a man on all fours or as a lifeless figure lying on the ground - all depending on your speed.
You can also cheer on the runners by help of a clapping device.
Multimedia programs
There are four English-language multimedia programs in the Permanent Exhibition of the Sports Museum. They include a total of almost 2,000 photographs, nearly an hour of video footage and a huge amount of information in texts and audio clips.
Finland at the Olympic Games
This program looks at the history of the Olympic Games and the Olympic Movement and introduces the greatest Finnish Olympic heroes of all time.
The Olympic Games in Helsinki 1952
This program takes the visitor back to the atmosphere of the "last real Olympic Games". The Olympic city of 1952, the various venues and all the sports are presented. The program also includes a list of all medal winners.
Enter Helsinki 1952 Olympic Games site
The Helsinki Olympic Stadium
The past and present of the Olympic Stadium are highlighted in this program. It takes the visitor to a virtual tour of the Stadium: to the Stadium tower, to the commentators' booth and to the top of the grand scoreboard.
Pesäpallo
This program serves as an introduction to the game of pesäpallo, or Finnish baseball. The visitor will learn about the history and the present of the game, about its rules and basic principles.