Sports – the Finnish way

In March I had the opportunity to be a volunteer in EYOF Vuokatti Winter Games 2022, in Finland, a country well known for its fine education. I could only presume the sport domain equals the name of their education system, and so it was.

For those less accustomed with the sport events, the multi-sport EYOF or the European Youth Olympic Festival happens every 2 year and has, likewise as the Olympics, both summer and winter editions. The programme is fully supported by the European Union through the European Olympic Committee and dedicated to the young athletes. More details and the scheduling for the following events can be found on www.eyof.org.

Coming back to Vuokatti edition, I was selected as a volunteer for the sport info desk. It was the first time I attended a winter edition of any kind of sport event as well as the first time in an EYOF competition. One of the facilities offered by the organisers to the volunteers was the “floor accommodation”, which was free of charge, yet involved in bringing your own sleeping bags.

This sleeping arrangement was in a sport hall and I can truly say I have no regrets about it. Sharing the sleeping place with others is much fun and a way to bond easier with other volunteers, have people to have fun with, plan activities for the free time, expand your network in the field, and in the end, make friends.

The purpose of this article though is to share my insights about the Finnish system related to sports, from what I’ve seen at this venue. More information about the volunteering experience at EYOF can be read as well on the blog, in another article. I was totally impressed with the amount of sport materials this school had, given that the total population of Vuokatti is around 6.000 people, so the pupils cannot be that many.

The main sport hall had a vast surface of having fit 3 parallel basketball or volleyball courts, rings, ropes and espaliers, while the adjacent 2 rooms had the sport material in cause: volleyball nets and pillars, gates for handball, football or floorball, huge amounts of volleyballs, footballs, basketballs, dices, cones, ladders, table tennis sets and tables, hurdles, juggling equipment, tennis and badminton racquets, yoga and gymnastics mattresses, and the list can go on. In another small room, there was hopscotch, number squares, more ladders and other imprinted games on the floor.

Pretty much everywhere you’d look it would make you feel like a kid in a toy store with everything handy, fully accessible to us to play with. In fact, the kind gentleman in charge with the hall opened all the lockers for us to have access to everything they had.

The 4 locker rooms for pupils were equipped with showers and were spacious enough to fit the pupils of one class. Separate, the teachers’ room had as well a locker with shower. Additional there were other toilets too, including for those with disabilities, a not very common aspect met in Romania, although it should be.

At the ground floor there was as well a small kitchen for the staff where you could literally cook, store food and enjoy the benefits of a fully equipped kitchen, which came very handy for us, those sleeping there. Upstairs, there was a classroom equipped with a projector and a smart board.

In the outside yard, one could find more basketball courts, climbing items and slides, a skating rink and a hockey rink, both with tribunes around. Starting from the school area, there was also a ski track, which most probably it can be used more than half a year and pupils do learn how to ski in schools, as we were told now that “the weather is good outside so they do winter outdoor sports at the moment”.

I did not have the luck to attend any sport class here, yet from what I’ve seen being at this venue and wandering around the town, Finns enjoy doing sports outdoor and put a big emphasis on that. There are ski tracks leading to everywhere, including on the frozen lakes, and as surprising as it was for me, they even ski down to the supermarket or to the places they want to reach as well. Of course there were lots of shops from where you could rent skis, snowboards or snowshoes for your winter adventures, yet these are mostly for the tourists and those avid of winter sports as the locals have their own already.

I must say I learned that Vuokatti is an important centre for the winter sports in Finland, with an Olympic training centre, highly functional for I would guess 9 months/year outdoor. When the Finnish summer is not kind to the outdoor winter sports, Vuokatti has the solution for skiing as well, by having stored during the cold winter the snow in their 2.4 km ski tunnel, which of course, is used during the warm season to continue the practice in skiing. Frequent winter competitions happen here, such as cross-country skiing, alpine skiing, jumping, biathlon, Nordic combined, snowboarding, figure skating, ice hockey or short-track, as Vuokatti has slopes, ski tracks and an ice rink, all at high standards.

Going to the leisure activities, people also jog or ride bicycles, hike and walk very often for which they even have small “camping” sites with a fire and already cracked wood for it. You could easily find many trekking routes all around, marked with various levels of difficulty, accessibility of skis/walking, places to stop, info points or indoor/outdoor sleeping places. Needless to say, I’ve been walking up and down on various tracks, along the lakes, through the forests, enjoying the wonderful nature, both day and night.

If it is to talk about the natural health care Finns have, I must mention the ice bathing and sauna, a very common habit here. There are special places on lakes with cut ice into a small pool, where you can dip yourself into or even swim if you’re brave enough, and then warm up and activate your blood circulation into a hot sauna nearby.

All in all, I am very happy to have had the chance to experience the sport life of Finland in Vuokatti and I’m definitely very impressed (and jealous) with all the sport facilities they have and use.

#v4volunteering #EUSolidarityCorps