Elite Sports

Elite Sports in Finland

Finnish people are not only successful in sports but can also justly be called “sports crazy”. The important role of sports in the Finnish society is first and foremost based on Finland’s successful sports history. From the beginning of the 1920’s until the 1952 home Olympic Games, Finland unquestionably belonged to the absolute sport elite in the world. Since the 1970’s, Finland’s success in international sports has started to correspond better to the small size and population of the country.

Studies show that the popularity of elite sports and expectations for success are still high in Finland. According to an extensive national study of physical activities, The National Sports Survey 2009-2010 (Kansallinen liikuntatutkimus), 77% of the Finnish population regards Finland’s success in sports at the international level as fairly or very important.

The sports that most expectations are directed to are the ones in which Finland traditionally has been successful: cross-country skiing (40%), track and field (35%), ice hockey (34%) and ski jumping (22%). High hopes for success are also placed on football (14%) and motor sports (10%).

Sports cover about ten percent of the programs broadcasted by the national TV channels in Finland. However, the large sports coverage on TV has not made Finnish people passive, at least not yet. More than half (57%) of the adult population annually follows sport events live. Finnish men watch sports on the spot more actively than women.

In terms of spectators ice hockey is the most attractive sport, followed by football. Compared to the previous survey (2005 – 2006) number of spectators in the latter has risen notably. After these team sports the most interesting individual sports are track and field and cross-country skiing.

Sports Clubs - Basis of Elite Sports

Sport is the most popular form of citizen activity in Finland, and sports clubs play an important role also as the basis of elite sports.

• 43% (424.000) of Finnish children and young people are engaged in sports clubs
• 10 % (440.000) of the total population are active in sports clubs.
• More than 600.000 Finns take part in volunteer work within sports in some form. The activities are often focused on young people.
• Sports activities are organized mainly by sports clubs and federations. There are around 7 800 sports clubs in Finland and 130 sports federations and other national sports organizations. 97% of the clubs are non-profit making.

There are still rather few professional athletes and coaches in Finland. Less than 3% of the sports clubs (about 200) have professional athletes. There are about 1 000 professional athletes in Finland, athletes whose primary source of income is sports. In addition, since the beginning of the millennium there have been are also approximately 1 500 coaches who earn at least half of their income from coaching.

Economy of Sports

The State of Finland supports sports with its lottery profits, securing the opportunity to do sports for all Finns, especially for families. In 2009 the annual profit of Veikkaus, the government-owned Finnish National Lottery, was 461 million euros, which is divided between science, culture, sports and youth work. The share of each sector varies slightly every year. In the year 2009, the lottery profits were divided approximately in the following way: culture (44,4%), science (18,9%), sports (27,0%) and youth work (9,7 %).

In 2009, the state support for sports amounted to over 100 million euros, of which about 10 million euros were directly aimed at supporting elite sports.  This support included support to the  Finnish Olympic Committee (4 million) Finnish Antidoping Agency, Finnish Paralympic Committee and Finnish athletes, among others. In addition to the aforementioned, in 2009 the state granted support for the national sports federations approximately 18 million of which 25 % is elite sports based.

Besides direct financial support, the state also supports elite sports indirectly through the construction of sports facilities, education, research and educational centers. However, if compared to state support in other countries or other sources of support, the overall level of state support for sports in Finland is lower.

The majority of the governmental support for Finnish sport clubs comes indirectly from public-owned sports facilities. The density of sports facilities in Finland is among the highest in the world – there is one sports facility for 175 people in Finland. Seventy-five percent of the places are owned by municipalities.

(Sources of information: National Sports Survey 2005-2006 (Suuri kansallinen liikuntatutkimus 2005-2006), Finnish Sports Federation – http://www.slu.fi/, Finnish National Lottery and the Ministry of Education and Culture)