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Olympic sports in Finland
Finnish athletes have taken part at every Olympic Games since the 1906
Intercalated Games in Athens. During the first half of the 20th century
Finland was counted among the great powers of Olympic sports. The
most successful Finnish sports at the time were track and field athletics
and wrestling. Finland’s Paavo Nurmi won nine gold and three silver
medals in long-distance races at three Olympic Games between 1920
and 1928.
Helsinki had been awarded the Olympic Games of 1940, which were
cancelled due to the Second World War. Instead, the Finnish capital
hosted the Games of the XV Olympiad in 1952, where a total of 4,925
athletes from 69 countries competed for medals in 149 events.
At the London Olympic Games in 2012 Finnish athletes won one silver
and two bronze medals. The latest Finnish Olympic champion at Sum-
mer Games is Satu Mäkelä-Nummela, who won gold in women’s trap
shooting in Beijing 2008. In the all-time medal statistics of Olympic
Summer Games Finland occupies 14th place with 104 gold, 85 silver
and 118 bronze medals. In the Olympic Winter Games medal table Fin-
land is currently tenth with 42 gold, 62 silver and 57 bronze medals.
Finland has participated at every European Youth Olympic Festivals
since the beginning in 1991 and has twice served as host of the event:
the winter EYOF of 2001 was held at Vuokatti and the summer EYOF of
2009 in Tampere.