Concerning the year 1972 and the Summer Olympics in Munich, he says, “That was when the TV licence fee still worked. Lasse Virén and Pekka Vasala both won.”
The race quickly became a top level race with international competition: four-time Olympic champion Lasse Virén of Finland won at the second edition and he was followed by further foreign Olympic medalists in New Zealand's Rod Dixon and Michael Musyoki of Kenya.
Lasse Hallström | Lasse Virén | Lasse Paakkonen | Lasse Åberg | Lasse Marhaug | Lasse Strömstedt | Lasse & Geir | Lasse Berghagen | Viren J. Shah | Lasse Qvigstad | Lasse Petterson | Lásse Kvernmo | Lasse Hoile | Lasse Dahlquist | Lasse Braun | Inger and Lasse Sandberg |
In 1998 Porter played Finnish distance runner Lasse Virén in Without Limits, a biographical film about American distance legend Steve Prefontaine.