A3 Book section, Chapters in research books
Jämäkkä toiminnan mies : Kustaa Levälahti urheilujohtajana (2014)
Kustaa Levälahti (1882–1963)

Virtanen, A., & Roiko-Jokela, H. (2014). Jämäkkä toiminnan mies : Kustaa Levälahti urheilujohtajana. In H. Roiko-Jokela, & E. Sironen (Eds.), Urheilu ja sota (pp. 113-124). Suomen urheiluhistoriallinen seura. Suomen urheiluhistoriallisen seuran vuosikirja, 2013-2014. https://www.suhs.fi/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Virtanen-Aarni-Roiko-Jokela-Heikki-J%C3%A4m%C3%A4kk%C3%A4-toiminnan-mies-SUHS-vsk-2013-2014.pdf

JYU authors or editors

Virtanen, Aarni
Roiko-Jokela, Heikki

Publication details

All authors or editors: Virtanen, Aarni; Roiko-Jokela, Heikki

Parent publication: Urheilu ja sota

Parent publication editors: Roiko-Jokela, Heikki; Sironen, Esa

ISBN: 978-952-67440-3-2

Journal or series: Suomen urheiluhistoriallisen seuran vuosikirja

ISSN: 1237-3133

Publication year: 2014

Number in series: 2013-2014

Pages range: 113-124

Number of pages in the book: 256

Publisher: Suomen urheiluhistoriallinen seura

Place of Publication: Helsinki

Publication country: Finland

Publication language: Finnish

Persistent website address: https://www.suhs.fi/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Virtanen-Aarni-Roiko-Jokela-Heikki-J%C3%A4m%C3%A4kk%C3%A4-toiminnan-mies-SUHS-vsk-2013-2014.pdf

Publication open access: Openly available

Publication channel open access: Delayed open access channel

Publication is parallel published (JYX): https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/85724

Abstract

K. E. Levälahti was Lieutenant Colonel, gymnastic teacher, librarian and sports leader of Finland’s Civil Guard. Levälahti served as the Director of Finland’s Sports Institute at Vierumäki in the years 1939–1949. He also led Finland’s Olympic teams in the 1920s–1930s. With Arvo Vartia and Lauri “Grindstone” Pihkala he was one of the leading sports personalities in Finland (It was Levälahti who invented Pihkala’s nickname in 1907). The approach in this article borders to the research problematic of Erkki Vasara’s doctoral thesis: what were the goals and values of Levälahti’s sports ideology? Here his ideology is compared with the ideas of Professor Arvo Vartia and sports philosopher Lauri Pihkala. Where Lauri Pihkala was an ideologue and philosopher, Levälahti was a robust man of action. He organized sports events, such as the Helsinki Olympic Games in 1952. He wrote works of gymnastics, sports equipment and sports in general. As a practical man Levälahti resembled Arvo Vartia but Vartia’s ideas of sports had a significant social dimension. Vartia did not develop any consistent philosophy of sports, but as a social ideologist he was closer to Pihkala’s than Levälahti’s mode of action.

Keywords: sports leaders; influential sports figures; Whites (Finnish civil war); values (conceptions); biographical history; sport history

Free keywords: Levälahti, Kustaa

Fields of science: