Vintage nordic ski racing videos

Here is a fascinating video of the 1958 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships, 15km men's race which was held in Lahti, Finland. It was the first championships to use electronic timekeeping where results were timed to the tenth of a second rather than the full second.

The race was won by  Veikko Hakulinen (FIN) in a time of 48:58.3.  Pretty fast considering the heavy looking wooden skis, and the outfits!

Not to be outdone, here is a video of the 10 km women's race in the same Championships, complete with fetching outfits, and interesting commentary.

The race was won by  Alevtina Kolchina (URS) in a time of 44:49.0.  

Even better, here we have some exciting footage from the 1936 Winter Olympics, men's 4 x 10 km relay.    These Olympics were held in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany just a few years before the start of WW2.  Sixteen teams were entered.

The race was won by Finland in a time of  2:41:33, just 6 seconds ahead of the second place team from Norway.