Mikkola Makes Light of Share in Developing Paavo Nurmi--First Knew Great Finnish Runner as a Novice

"It is perhaps unbelievable but Nurmi, when I first saw him, was no better than those Freshmen", said Coach Jakko Mikkola of the University track team, to a CRIMSON reporter Saturday, as he pointed to a group of first year men struggling around the board track at Soldiers Field against a bitter wind.

Mikkola has been given considerable credit for developing the great Finn, but he modestly makes light of his part in turning Nurmi from an ordinary runner into an Olympic champion. He said, "Nurmi owes much to his persistence and our methods of training which brought out his latent abilities. I coached him from 1918 to 1920, and of course last summer at the Olympics, but by that time he could coach himself.

"I saw him first", continued Mikkola, "way back in 1917 when he was only 20 years old, and it was much colder than today, even", he continued. "We have no board tracks, no indoor running in Finland and poor Nurmi was racing over a trail packed with snow. Of course, usually we do not run at all during the long winter, and Nurmi always walked 20 to 30 kilometers every day to keep in training.

"He was very persistent and I became interested in him as he improved. I put him through the regular course of training, which we follow in our country. That includes the Finnish bath, which every runner in Finland must take about twice a week.

"Nurmi had a small shed of his own in which he put a stove with stones, heated red hot, on top. He used to go in and take his bath. He'd get up on a shelf above the stove and pour water onto the stones. After he got well steamed up he would take a--what is it you say?--a 'bouquet' of sticks and flay himself.

"When the Finnish runners went to Paris, Paavo took his bathhouse with him. He said he would not be able to run well without it. He even wanted to bring it with him all the way to America but it was too far."

Coach Mikkola expressed a hope that Nurmi would stay in this country till spring, but he denied that he had any information from Nurmi himself. "I am sure that if Paavo does stay till spring he will come to Harvard, especially since there is a Finnish bathhouse in Quincy.