Sport is considered to be one of the main pastimes in Finland , and many Finns attend various sporting events on a regular basis. Baseball is the national sport in Finland, although hockey and Formula 1 are the most popular sports in terms of viewers and media coverage.
Content
- 1 Popular Sports in Finland
- 1.1 Hockey
- 1.2 Football
- 1.3 Motorsport
- 1.4 Motorsport
- 1.5 Biathlon
- 1.6 Athletics
- 1.7 Other sports
- 2 See also
- 3 notes
- 4 References
Popular Sports in Finland
Hockey
The most popular sport in Finland is hockey. The national team won the world championships in 1995 , 2011 and 2019 . On May 26, 2019, she is in third place in the IIHF ranking . In Finland, 52 597 hockey players are registered, which is approximately 1% of the country's population.
Soccer
Football in Finland, unlike most European countries, is not the most popular sport, as it is inferior to hockey, which is very popular in the country. [1] Football is inferior to hockey by the number of registered players (115,000 against 60,000) [2] [3] and as a hobby (160,000 against 90,000 in adults and 230,000 against 105,000 in youth). But the popularity of football is constantly growing, especially among girls and women, where the annual growth rate in recent years has been more than 10 percent. [4] In 2006-07, 19.9 percent of registered players were women. According to a Gallup poll, about 400,000 people include football in their hobbies.
Motorsport
Motorsport became popular in Finland in the 1950s. A lot of Finnish pilots won in various rally championships over the past half century, and the Finnish WRC stage - the Thousand Lakes rally - gathers 500 thousand spectators annually. Another type of motorsport where pilots from Finland are very successful is Formula 1 . The title of champion of this series obeyed three pilots - in the 1980s, Keke Rosberg became the champion, in the 1990s - Mika Hakkinen , in the 2000s - Kimi Raikkonen . A lot of pilots from Finland perform in other, less prestigious, highway-ring automobile championships.
Motorsport
Motorcycles are also very popular in Finland. So Jarno Saarinen and Mika Kallio at one time were very strong pilots in the highway-ring championships under the auspices of FIM . Speedway racing is also very popular in the country.
Biathlon
Biathlon is very popular among Finns. Every year, in the framework of the Biathlon World Cup in Kontiolahti , competition stages are held. The World Biathlon Championships were held there in 1990, 1999 and 2015. The most titled Finnish biathlete is the world champion, three-time winner of the Big Crystal Globe, Kaisa Mäkäräinen .
Athletics
Athletics is a historically important part of Finnish sports history. From the 1920 Summer Olympics until World War II, Finland was the second country after the United States in the number of Olympic medals. Javelin throwing is the only discipline in which Finland has enjoyed success all the way from the 1900s to the present day. “Flying Finn” Paavo Nurmi at the beginning of the 20th century having won 9 gold and 3 silver Olympic medals in middle and long distance running is the most titled athlete in the history of the Olympic Games (as of 2019) and the third among Olympic athletes of all sports.
Other sports
Finland’s national ice hockey team most often takes 3rd place in the world championships, having once managed to become a champion, in 2004 surpassing Russia and Sweden - both irreplaceable leaders of this sport.
The most popular recreational and sporting events: floorball , walking, jogging and skiing. Orienteering is not very popular, the Finnish orienteer Minna Kauppi was even chosen as the athlete of 2010, as the best athlete in the country among all sports. [5]
Statisticians note an increase in bodybuilding among schoolchildren (in 1995 - 23 thousand boys, in 2010 - 63 thousand). [6]
See also
- Flying Finn is the nickname given to Finnish athletes who have achieved outstanding success in sports.
Notes
- ↑ Lajeja paikan päällä vähintään kerran vuodessa seuraavien määrä lajeittain 19-65-vuotiaiden keskuudessa . Kansallinen liikuntatutkimus 2005-2006 . Ministry of Education (2006). Date of treatment February 13, 2010. Archived on August 27, 2012.
- ↑ Suomen Palloliitto unopened (unavailable link) . Football Association of Finland. Date of treatment February 13, 2010. Archived February 12, 2010.
- ↑ Info (inaccessible link) . Finnish Ice Hockey Association. Date of treatment February 13, 2010. Archived February 27, 2010.
- ↑ Jalkapallo kasvussa Suomessa ja maailmalla unopened (unavailable link) . refers to FIFA Big Count 2006 . Football Association of Finland (June 19, 2007). Date of treatment February 13, 2010. Archived July 6, 2007.
- ↑ Minna Kaupille valinta Vuoden urheilijaksi oli täydellinen, iloinen yllätys. (fin.) . - Award ceremony "Athlete of the Year". Date of treatment January 16, 2011. Archived February 23, 2011.
- ↑ Swinging muscles, boys strive to improve their status // © Yle Uutiset = Yle News Service. = Website of the television and radio company Yleisradio Oy (yle.fi) April 17, 2012. (Retrieved April 17, 2012)