Sport in Finland
[3] Ice Hockey World Championships 2016 final Finland-Canada, 69% Finnish people watched that game in TV MTV3-channel.
[4] The Finnish national team has won the World Championship four times, in 1995, 2011, 2019 and in 2022 and is considered a member of the so-called "Big Six", the unofficial group of the six strongest men's ice hockey nations, along with Canada, Czechia, Russia, Sweden and the United States.
[6][7][8] Some of the most notable Finnish players are Teemu Selänne, Jari Kurri, Jere Lehtinen, Teppo Numminen, Tuukka Rask and brothers Saku and Mikko Koivu.
[9] Football tops ice hockey in the number of registered players (115,000 vs. 60,000[10][11]) and as a popular hobby (160,000 vs. 90,000 in adults and 230,000 vs. 105,000 in youth[12][13]).
The city of Jyväskylä in the Central Finland region has often served as the main venue for Finnish rally competitions.
F1 was popularized in Finland in the 1980s by Keke Rosberg, who in 1982 became the first Finnish Formula One World Driver's champion, and reached its peak when Mika Häkkinen won the championship twice in 1998 and 1999.
Other forms of motorsport popular in Finland include Grand Prix motorcycle racing, which reached its peak in the early 1970s before the death of Jarno Saarinen.
Developed by Lauri "Tahko" Pihkala in the 1920s and often considered as a national sport of Finland, pesäpallo has a steady popularity around the country, especially in the Ostrobothnia region.
In 1979 Juhani Wahlsten invited two coaches, Wendy King and Evelyn Watson, from Dollard-des-Ormeaux, a suburb of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, to teach girls of various ages how to play ringette.
The ski national week then organized an annual tournament to bring together all the ringette teams.
Today, Finland is one of the top countries in figure skating - the teams have done well in international competitions for years.
FIS Nordic World Ski Championships Seefeld 2019 - Men 15 km Interval Start Classic.
Finland has been the most successful nation in Ski jumping at the Winter Olympics, having won ten golds, eight silvers and four bronze medals.
Although traditionally not as strong as Norway, Sweden, Germany and Russia in biathlon, Finland has had world-class competitors in this discipline.
In recent years Finnish skiers have enjoyed success in the technical disciplines of alpine skiing.
The first wrestling club was the Helsingin Atleettiklubi founded in 1891, and the Finnish championship series (SM-kilpailut) were organized for the first time in 1898.
[25] However, the most famous Finnish boxer of the 1930s was Gunnar Bärlund, who was the second challenger to world champion Joe Louis in the professional boxing heavyweight rankings.
[28] The amateur WC medal has been achieved by Tarmo Uusivirta 1978 and 1982, Jyri Kjäll 1993[29] and Joni Turunen 1995 and 2001.
In judo, Finland's only World Championship medal has been achieved by Juha Salonen, who in 1981 took bronze in the heavyweight category.
[31] As Finland appeared at the 2014 Basketball World Cup for the first time, the sport received a huge boost and major public attention.
As in many countries worldwide, Finland has shown some major improvements in its professionalization of the game of basketball recently.
Its Korisliiga sends teams to European competitions and has drawn the interest of an increasing number of talents especially from North America but also from Southeastern Europe.
[33] Fiba Europe Cup in the 2022-23 season, Karhu Basket become the first Finnish club to advance to the final four.
[35] According to the Finnish Research Institute for Olympic Sports (KIHU), it is more popular among Finns than ball golf, volleyball, basketball and tennis.
[37] Harness racing in Finland is characterised by the use of the coldblood breed Finnhorse along with modern light trotters such as the Standardbred.
Modern racing started in the 1960s, when light breeds were allowed to enter the sport and Parimutuel betting gained foothold as pastime.
Nowadays harness racing remains popular, with the main events gathering tens of thousands of spectators in the country with a population of some 5 million.
Jarkko Nieminen is the highest-ranked Finnish tennis player ever in the world and the only Finn to win an ATP singles tournament.
The sport is still popular in Finland, and 20–30 tournaments under the Finnish Billiards Association are organized every year.
[40] Janne Immonen, Jari Isometsä and Harri Kirvesniemi were convicted in October 2013 by the Helsinki District Court.
