Suomen Olympiakomitea

A total of 95 athletes have been nominated for the Finnish Olympic Team for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games, 35 women and 60 men. Nominations were made in five sets. The goal of the team was set already at the end of May 2009, when the first nominations were made. The goal is to achieve altogether 12 medals and at least one of them gold.

Starting on 1 January 2010 ÅF has embarked on a major collaboration with the Olympic Committees in Finland, Norway, Switzerland and Sweden. ÅF now takes the step from title sponsor of the ÅF Golden League 2008–2009 to becoming an Olympic partner.

Finnish women’s ice hockey team for the Olympic Games in Vancouver was nominated today. The roster of 21 names consists of 9 players who have previous Olympic experience and 12 newcomers at Olympic level. The team includes 14 players from Finnish clubs and 5 who play collegiate hockey in the United States. One players comes from the Russian women’s league and one from Denmark where she plays in men’s league. The players with most Olympic experience are Emma Laaksonen and Karoliina Rantamäki, who are both going to their fourth Olympic Games. They played already in Nagano 1998 when Finland won bronze medals.

Finnish men’s ice hockey team for the Olympic Games in Vancouver has been nominated. The roster of 23 names includes 15 players who were in the silver medal team in Turin 2006 and 8 newcomers in Olympic tournaments. 18 members of the Finnish Olympic team play in NHL, 4 in KHL (Russia) and one in the Swedish Elitserien. The players with most Olympic experience are Teemu Selänne and Jere Lehtinen, who are going to their fifth Olympic Games. Saku Koivu, Jere Lehtinen and Ville Peltonen have all achieved three Olympic medals before Vancouver.

The board of the Finnish Olympic Commitee nominated six athletes from three different sports to the Finnish Team to Vancouver in the second selection meeting. Anssi Koivuranta, Hannu Manninen, Janne Ryynänen and Jaakko Tallus are going to represent Finland in nordic combined, as well as Sanni Leinonen in alpine skiing and Peetu Piiroinen in snowboarding. Altogether 17 athletes are now nominated, including 11 nominated already in last May. There will be still three nominations: December 30, 2009 men’s ice hockey team, January 13, 2010 women’s ice hockey team and January 28, 2010 final selections of the individual sports.