Finland · 100 years of the Finland-Sweden Athletics Match

Finnkampen is usually called *Suomi–Ruotsi-maaottelu* in Finnish and *Sverigekampen* in Swedish. It is an international match in which Finnish and Swedish national teams compete against each other in running, jumping and throwing events. Unlike in a championship, not only victories or records count: the placements of the individual athletes are converted into points and added to a team score. As a result, second and third places can also determine the overall victory.

The first competition was held in Helsinki in 1925. Its origins lay in a period when athletics attracted considerable public attention in both countries. Finnish long-distance runners such as Paavo Nurmi had achieved numerous successes at the Olympic Games of the 1920s. At the same time, sport offered Finland, which had been independent only since 1917, an opportunity to appear internationally as an independent state.

The relationship with Sweden also has a particular historical background. Finland belonged to the Swedish Empire until 1809; Swedish remains one of Finland’s two national languages alongside Finnish. The two countries therefore have close cultural and social ties, but also a pronounced sporting rivalry. The international match combines these two aspects: national competition within a regularly recurring joint event.

Over the course of its history, the programme was expanded. In addition to the men’s competitions, separate women’s and junior competitions were introduced. The venues were primarily the Olympic stadiums of Helsinki and Stockholm, with the event generally alternating between the two countries. Finnkampen is therefore one of the few remaining classic international athletics matches to continue despite the modern focus of elite sport on international championships and commercial meeting series. The round anniversary thus gave Finland an occasion to make not an individual sporting achievement, but a long-standing bilateral sporting event, the subject of the coin.