First Winter Olympic Winner

The first champion of the Winter Olympics to be honoured on a postage stamp was the skier Kalle Jalkanen. It was at the Winter Olympics at Garmisch Partenkirchen in 1936. The most exciting part of the Games was the last stage of the 4 x 10 kms skiing relay. At that time the Norwegian team were 1.22 minutes ahead of the Finns. But Jalkanen put on an unbelievable spurt and nort only made up for the lost time, but even overtook his opponent, the great skier, B. Iversen. To mark this great triumph Finland brought out a set of stamps in 1945 dedicated to Jalkanen.

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