History

1973

Race that was planned between Hämeenlinna and Hyvinkää was cancelled due to lack of snow in 1973. New route was decided to go from Hämenlinna to Lahti, 75 km.

1974

1st Finlandia-hiihto from Hämeenlinna to Lahti. The amount of participants surprised everyone except coordinator Risto Rytökoski, who was the only one who expected more than 1000 skiers. Celebrities and olympic champions, they took part to this first event.

1975

First time lack of snow. Start was transfered from Hämeenlinna to Lahti, route was shortened to 50 km.

1976

Over 3500 participants from 14 countries. Pauli Siitonen won the race for the first time and was the king of Finlandia for the next 5 years.

1977

Bad conditions, water on ice. Start was transferred to other location in Hämeenlinna.

1978

Slushy start area. Despite working on it, slush became water. Skiers started from clean ice, but their feet and skiis were soaking wet. Worldloppet, that Finlandia was part of, was founded in Uppsala to be central organization of ski-marathon.

1979

Great weather. For the first time we had to limit the amount of participants to control to growth of the race. Top limit of participants was decided to 7000 skiers. 1978 World Ski Championships Arena, Lahti Ski Stadium, created a magnificent surrounding for the race.

1980

8000 participants. Women´s winner, Sisko Kainulainen, won the race 6 times in a row, and 12 times overall.

1981

Good weather conditions, 9670 participants. For the first time, winner was not Finnish. Matti Kuosku, SWE, won men´s race.

1982

Amazing 10 000 skiers took part. Prince of Japan, Tomohito, took part. Because of the exotic serving during the race, he had his own “taster” with him to taste to drinks and food before the Prince.

1983

10 year Anniversary. Limit of participants was calculated to 12 500 participants. This number was exceeded in August already. Because all foreign participants were taken, the amount skier reached 13 400. Ice on the lake was measured constantly to make sure it would hold the under this kind of crowd and trucks.

1984

Finlandia was taken to Guinness Book of World records as the biggest skiing event in the world. 13 226 participants, for some reason medal went out, and some participants got their medal by mail.

1985

500 000 cardboard cups , 15 000 litres of blueberrysoup and 2000 volunteers. Reppu-Finlandia for the first time, a day before actual Finlandia. Coldest winter of the century. -24 c at the startarea. Reppu-Finlandia took place in even colder weather, – 29 c.

1986

For the first time the amount of participants was lower than last year due to cold weather. Now it was – 18 c. New technique, free, was allowed for the first time and both techniques were used at the same time.

1987

New starting time was 9.00am instead of 8.00am. A car was drawn between participants, winner was Oiva Repo from Söörmarkku

1988

First skiers to reach 15 entries to Finlandia were awarded to be “ski councillors”. Classic technique was now the main technique of Finlandia and skiing supervisors were seen along the track for the first time. Competition office moved to Lahti Sports Hall, from the way of World Ski Championship Office.

1989

Because of World Ski Cahmpionships, Finlandia took place later than used to. Start was transfered from Lake Katumajärvi, Hämeenlinna to Lake Vesijärvi, Lahti and again to SportCenter due to fact that it was raining a lot. In middle-Europe races were cancelled due to lack of snow, but Finlandia was kept. Moonlight-Finlandia took place for the first time.

1990

Snow conditions took Finlandia to Lahti again, now track was 45 km long. This time free technique race took place one day before Finlandia.

1991

This time conditions were great and Finlandia was as usual, Hämeenlinna-Lahti.

1992

Finlandia was a part of Finland´s 75th independence celebration. That is why some participants used old wooden skies.

1993

Once again, start was in Lahti. Track was 50 km. Participants were given “proof of snow”. On the day of the race, weather was great and everything went well. Finlandiahiihto was registered as association with members Finnish Skiing Association, Finnish Ski, Ski Club of Hämeenlinna and Ski Club of Lahti.

1994

Good conditions, normal race.

1995

Warm weather. Route was shortened again. This time the start was at old horserace track near the Sport Center. Rumours about Finlandia moving permanetly to Lahti were heard but later denied. Finlandia Cycling event was added to Finlandia-family.

1996

Normal route again. Hämeenlinna-Lahti. Weather was good, little frost.

1997

Normal route again. Hämeenlinna-Lahti. First TV-coverage in Eurosport.

1998

Reppu-Finlandia in good weather, but the Finlandia itself was transfered in one-day-notice to Lahti. In 18 hours the whole organizing team was transfered to Lahti and even participants who went to Hämeenlinna were taken to Lahti in time. Temperature reached +8 c.

1999

Last Finlandia from Hämeenlinna to Lahti. Also Reppu-Finlandia was arranged for the last time. First microchip timingsystem was tested.

2000

Start again transferred to Lahti. This time two weeks before actual start. After the race the decicion was made to transfer the race permanently to route Lahti-Hollola-Lahti because of constant warming of the weather. Start was transfered 5 times during the 90´s. Finlandia-sauvakävely was founded.

2001

First race on the new course. Not only the route was new, but also the race logo was renewed. Amount of participants raised again. Due to lack of snow, race took partly place in sparetrack. Routes of 53 km nad 28 km. World Ski Championships were held in Lahti and Finlandia took place two weeks earlier than used to. It took a lot of planning since between Finlandia and Championships there was only 5 days.

2002

New better course was fixed in December already. New internet-based competition office system was built up. Snow began to melt week before the race and volunteers held a massive snowjob. Course was prepared as 44 km track. Finlandia-train took athletes to Sport Center for the first time.

2003

30th Anniversary. Beautiful weather, 60 km and 30 km courses, classic technique. Preparations went well as the race. It was decided that Finlandia-hiihto association was terminated by next summer.
Negotiations concerning Finlandia-hiihto 2004 started immediately. Finnish Skiing Association made an offer to Lahti Ski Club and Hollolan Urheilijat -46 to organize the event technically and administratively for the next 5 years. Both parties accepted the terms.

2004

About 5400 skiers registered for the race in the year 2004. The conditions were difficult concerning the tracks. Even if the work with the tracks had been started early, the warm weather made the tracks soft quickly.

2005

Finlandia-hiihto 2005 was skied in a sunny weather. Over 5500 skiers registered for the race, so there were a bit more skiers on this year than in the last one. Skiers from over 25 different countries took part in the race and the arrangements went well. The cold weather kept the tracks in good condition and the fastest skier on the route of 60 kilometers was the Estonian Meelis Aasmäe with his time of 2:53,38. The Finnish Jukka-Pekka Ojala placed second and the Finnish Kari Varis reached the finish line third. The fastest woman was the Finnish Satu Salonen with her time of 03:18,34. This year the layout of the event area was changed and the race office was situated in the main building of the Lahti Sports Centre. The meals were served in a Grand Tent near the start area.

2006

A fresh Olympic winner from Torino, Andrus Veerpalu from Estonia, won the classic 62km race. The second to cross the finishing line was the Russian Aleksei Ivanov and the third place was taken by Jaak Mae from Estonia. In women’s competition the winner was Satu Salonen from Finland, the second was Sirkka Ehmrooth and third Susanna Nevala, both also from Finland. The Finlandia-hiihto organization made a decision that free technique would be implemented once again in the next year’s race. The medal for this years Finlandia-hiihto featured the new railroad track from Helsinki to Lahti, due to it being opened for traffic just recently.

2007

Finlandia-hiihto lasted for two days. The 62 kilometer route using classic technique had to be shortened to 50 kilometers due to lack of snow. The same route was then used the next day for skiing the free technqiue 50 kilometers. On both days the first to cross the finishing line was Kari Varis from Finland, who became the first person to win two races during the same Finlandia Ski Marathon. The victory didn’t come easy to Varis, though: during the 50km free technique race the spectators witnessed a close fight which came on to seconds. Finally the same time was clocked for the three best skiers of that particular race. All skiers who finished the race received a medal, this time the theme was “Finnish Parliament 100 Years”.

2008

This year 62 km race was shortened to 50km due to the lack of snow. The weather was in favour for classic style skiers. On Sunday the condition became hard because of the rain. Last year’s winner Kari Varis won both races. This time the theme on the metal was “Finnish ski association 100 years”.

2009

Women and children under 16 years old (20km free style) were in Finlandia ski marathon for the first time ever in Finlandia history. On Saturday the races were 62km and 32km, on sunday 50km and 20km. Niklas Colliander was the winner for classic 50km and last year’s winner Kari Varis took the first place of 50km free style. The metal theme was “Sibelius house” for this year. The competitors were all together 5183.