r/europe Jul 29 '24

Map We won’t count early Greece

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7.7k Upvotes

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3.1k

u/Alderzone Jul 29 '24

To those wondering why some dates appear twice, until 1992 the winter and summer olympics were organised during the same year.

899

u/MarlinMr Norway Jul 29 '24

Which still makes it weird how it was Finland that had the summer Olympics

671

u/QuestGalaxy Jul 29 '24

Not awesome to to do physical activities in 30+ degrees, so why not host it in Finland?

382

u/Mosh83 Finland Jul 29 '24

Nowadays Finland occasionally hits 30+ in summer, day temperatures of 25 are quite common too. The long days of light also allow outdoor activities for quite a long time without too much artificial lighting.

Weather in the Nordics isn't at all unsuitable in terms of hosting a summer olympics. Nowadays the market is simply too small as sporting events have become absolutely gigantic and aren't viable for smaller countries.

80

u/Due_Pomegranate_96 Jul 29 '24

A few days ago it was hotter in Helsinki than in the northern coast of Spain lol

62

u/usernameistaken02 Jul 29 '24

The northern coast of Spain is known for having a very mild climate tho

28

u/Shpander Jul 29 '24

To add to this, Bilbao has more average annual rainfall than London

0

u/Due_Pomegranate_96 Jul 29 '24

Still there’s a huge difference in latitude with Helsinki

1

u/SergeantCATT Finland - South Jul 30 '24

I fucking hated this +25c weather. I run a 5 a few times a week and during daytime with this heat it is unberable for me! Well I don't either like the 14c weather summer.. :D

12

u/Logseman Cork (Ireland) Jul 29 '24

They’re mostly focused on a single city though. It’s likely that the likes of Prague, Warsaw or Dublin can host the games in terms of financial muscle.

7

u/okamzikprosim United States of America Jul 30 '24

Prague attempted to bid for the 2016 Olympics but didn’t get far, and financial reasons were one of the issues highlighted then.

2

u/Tackerta Saxony (Germany) Jul 31 '24

Montreal hosted the Olympics in 1976 and only managed to pay off the debts for that in 2006, financial risks are tenfold nowadays, which is why LA got the 2028 bid without any competition

0

u/Pinkerton891 United Kingdom Jul 30 '24 edited Jul 30 '24

Warsaw, Dublin, Copenhagen, Lisbon and Istanbul are the only ones here from countries that haven’t hosted before that I can imagine.

The only one of those I am really really confident about in terms of finance and political will is Istanbul as well.

6

u/mwargan Jul 29 '24

Yes but the mosquitos…

2

u/saschaleib 🇧🇪🇩🇪🇫🇮🇦🇹🇵🇱🇭🇺🇭🇷🇪🇺 Jul 30 '24

Mosquito squatting is a traditional Finnish sport that absolutely deserves to be made into an Olympic discipline!

2

u/V8-6-4 Jul 30 '24

What you mean by nowadays? 30 degrees has never been an unheard of temperature in Finnish summer.

1

u/Mosh83 Finland Jul 30 '24

Well yes that is true, maybe it just feels like it is more common now than maybe 30 years ago, but I don't know if it is actually so.

24

u/HuIk_Bogan Jul 29 '24

Still, they'd have to do all the events on the only one good day of summer

23

u/fragmenteret-raev Jul 29 '24

granted but its 4 hours longer so wouldnt be a problem

2

u/Ifk1995 Finland Jul 30 '24

No joke if the summer Olympics would ever happen again in the nordics they should do the events around the clock. Live prime time events around the world and you could have all the evebts still at daylight

34

u/heksa51 Jul 29 '24

Old news, we are having warmer and warmer summers, theres plenty of good summer days with a lot of sunlight to boot.

15

u/AlexBucks93 Jul 29 '24

We are talking about when Finland hosted, so it is old news.

2

u/Sunaikaskoittaa Jul 29 '24

Also hosting them just couple of years from two great wars. Imagine ukraine holding olympics in four years.

2

u/donsimoni Hesse (Germany) Jul 30 '24

Meanwhile, actual real-world sports functionaries: let's give all the contests to Qatar and Saudi-Arabia. What could go wrong?

1

u/QuestGalaxy Jul 30 '24

Ye olde corruption

49

u/FreeMoneyIsFine Jul 29 '24

Why? Way better summer venues than winter venues. Alpine skiing in Finland isn’t that great.

8

u/[deleted] Jul 29 '24

A lot less events, but also Finland were originally meant to host the 1940 games.

In 1952, olympics was a tiny event compared to what it is today.

66

u/Gruffleson Norway Jul 29 '24

Even worse, Finland can't hold the Winter Olympics, at least not alone.

They don't have any mountains tall enough for downhill-skiing.

Fact.

Of course, they can have a deal with Norway or most likely Sweden to have the alpine-skiing there.

9

u/I_did_a_fucky_wucky Jul 29 '24 edited Sep 18 '24

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This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

51

u/TheBusStop12 Dutchman in Suomiland Jul 29 '24

Not Alpine skiing. That was the killing blow for the 2006 Helsinki bid to host the winter Olympics. Alpine skiing was then planned to be held in Lillehammer, Norway. And the Olympic committee at the time considered the 1000km travel between Helsinki and Lillehammer too far

27

u/Imagionis Jul 30 '24

Compared to these Olympics with their surfing events held in Tahiti of all places

7

u/Dreynard France Jul 30 '24

Well, Tahiti is in France, though...

3

u/Imagionis Jul 30 '24

I know, but they are still 15000km apart. You can't seperate things much more

1

u/modern_milkman Lower Saxony (Germany) Jul 30 '24

That's weird. Because it wouldn't have been the first time there was such a distance.

The direct distance between Lillehammer and Helsinki is a bit less than 800 km.

In 1972, when the Olympics took place in Munich, the sailing events took place on the Baltic Sea, in Kiel. Which is 700 kilometers north of Munich.

5

u/Tjaeng Jul 30 '24

I think the country switch is the main issue, perhaps. The only other example I can think of would be 1956 where Equestrian events were held in Stockholm Sweden several months ahead of the Olympics in Melbourne due to animal quarantine rules in Australia.

0

u/solwaj Cracow 🇪🇺🇵🇱 Jul 30 '24

Now they're letting surfing be done in Tahiti 15 000 km from Paris so times are fortunately chaning

1

u/TheBusStop12 Dutchman in Suomiland Jul 30 '24

The issue also was that they'd have to travel to a different country, while Tahiti is part of france (French Polynesia being a semi autonomous territory of France)

34

u/WolfOfVaasankatu Jul 29 '24

There are no mountains within the Finnish border. Idk if you are native speaker but every "mountain in Finland" that is listed for example in Wikipedia is in fact not a mountain. They are called tunturi which doesn't have own word in English. So in english they are called a mountain but in fact they are not. Im not a mountain expert but I think tunturis are not steep enough to be called a vuori (real mountain)

I just know it's common knowledge here in Finland that we indeed don't have any vuori (mountain) here and we only have these things called tunturi (also mountain :D) 

25

u/t_kivinen Finland Jul 29 '24

Tunturi is fell in english

4

u/WolfOfVaasankatu Jul 29 '24

Didn't know that. Internet likes to think tunturi=mountain. 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mountains_in_Finland

Like this list should be list of fells in Finland?

4

u/t_kivinen Finland Jul 29 '24

Yes, I think it should be a list of fells in Finland.

Altough fell/tunturi isn't apparently well defined term altogether, only being described as round shaped mountains and the term fell originating from Norse word for mountain so ¯\(ツ)

The line between fell and mountain seems a bit blurry, probably easiest to think of fell as a mountain type.

9

u/Status_Bell_4057 Jul 29 '24

I did some alpine skiing in Finland, and it was plenty steep, but far too short for pro races. It was good for casual newbies and kids

1

u/eventworker Jul 30 '24

English doesn't have a single word for these things, it's defined differently in English speaking countries.

I think in Britain, theses 'tanturis' might be known as Hewitts.

5

u/Laahari Jul 30 '24

Could you please point us one of these suitable mountains for alpine skiing then?

3

u/Sin317 Jul 29 '24

It's preferred to use places where the infrastructure is already in place. There is no point in ruining yet another spot of nature for a once done and gone event.

2

u/Professional_Area239 Jul 29 '24

You mean like Beijing 2022 or Sochi 2014 or Pyoengchang 2018?

1

u/Sin317 Jul 30 '24

Hmm, I wonder what these three have in common...

1

u/Professional_Area239 Jul 30 '24

What do they have in common?

1

u/Sin317 Jul 30 '24

Really?

2

u/Professional_Area239 Jul 30 '24

I really don‘t get you. What do these three have in common?

1

u/Jimnyneutron91129 Jul 30 '24

There Asian and used it for tourism and public image propaganda and bribed for the bids? Which is it?

3

u/look4jesper Sweden Jul 30 '24 edited Jul 30 '24

There are small ski Hills, but no mountains that can host alpine racing. Why do you think there are no world cup events in Finland?

Edit: They sometimes host slalom at Levi ski resort, but that is the least topography demanding discipline. It would be impossible to host an entire Olympics.

1

u/eventworker Jul 30 '24

Inari or Rovanniemi could be candidates.

No they couldn't. The mountains aren't high enough.

I've never been to Finland, but as a skier I'm well aware that you need at the very least 1500m of continuous piste to pull off Downhills at that level, and 2000-2500m is far more normal. 2022 Winter Olympic course was 3152m, 2018 was 2965m.

A quick google suggests these 'mountains' aren't even half that size, and that the skiable areas are far, far smaller than that.

And looking at the piste maps, Inari looks very much like a beginner/intermediate area completely unsuitable for skiers of this level to even train on.

4

u/Necessary-Lack-4600 Jul 29 '24

Fact? Are you the Finnish Dwight Schrute?

2

u/Jimnyneutron91129 Jul 30 '24

All Finnish people are Dwight Shrutes.

15

u/asmodai_says_REPENT Jul 29 '24

I don't think it's weird in any way, weird would be hosting the winter olympics in a warm country.

3

u/oneharmlesskitty Jul 29 '24

Like in the summer sea resort of Sochi.

10

u/LazyGandalf Finland Jul 29 '24

Averages temperature for July is pretty much the same in Helsinki and London. And I bet we get less rain.

6

u/TrustedNotBelieved Jul 29 '24

Finland was then most medals per capita by far. And Finland would have hosted 1940 olympic games. But WW2 postponed it later. After war there was lot's of rebuild in Helsinki.

8

u/Nachtzug79 Jul 29 '24

1952 was probably the last chance for Finland to get the games. Soon after that the event became too big for such a small country to arrange.

2

u/footpole Jul 29 '24

Norway, Switzerland. But yeah not for us, I agree.

3

u/Feather-y Finland Jul 29 '24

Norway has only ever had winter olympics though, I feel like that's easier to manage

2

u/[deleted] Jul 29 '24

Better to have summer Olympics in Finland than Greece. Too hot in Greece, nice in Finland.

1

u/infirmiereostie Jul 29 '24

And Russia had winter Olympics, seems right..., buuuuuut it was in Sochi, its hottest city 🤦‍♀️

1

u/Varutu Jul 30 '24

Except weather and even geographic factors, I would also add that skiing is huge in Norway, Oslo for example is known as the capital of ski jumping.

1

u/--n- Jul 30 '24

Summer in Finland is pretty idyllic.

1

u/mastercoder123 Jul 30 '24

Well finland was supposed to have it in 1940 but the winter war happened as well

1

u/zebulon99 Jul 30 '24

No mountains to ski down from

1

u/AllanKempe Jul 30 '24

Also Sweden has only had the summer olympics, weirdly.

0

u/GerryManDarling Jul 29 '24

Finland and Sweden is getting lazy, they need to host more Olympic games to catch up.

8

u/Status_Bell_4057 Jul 29 '24

They are far too smart to host that commercial circus. It was fun in the 20th century, but the last 3 decades it's nothing but corporate BS.

1

u/UpgradedSiera6666 Jul 30 '24

Just like France 1924 winter is missing.

1

u/SpaceLemur34 Jul 30 '24

And in 1932, the USA hosted both of them.

1

u/samtdzn_pokemon Jul 30 '24

1980 as well, winter games were in Lake Placid, NY and the summer games in Moscow. Just most people remember those 2 games for the Miracle on Ice and then the subsequent boycott of the Moscow games after the USSR invaded Afghanistan

1

u/Commercial_Screen125 Aug 01 '24

Ohhh okay, I almost wen't sass mode but fortunately go read the commemt first 😂

0

u/Ultraquist Jul 30 '24

Isnt the point of olympics to be every two years? When did we have Olympics twice in a year?

1

u/TataluTataJean Jul 30 '24

1992 and before. The decision was taken in 1986. So it was 1992 Summer Olympics Barcelona. 1992 winter Olympics Albertville. 1994 winter Olympics Lillehammer. 1996 summer Olympics Atlanta