The Heritage Plaque celebrates the unique history of the Finland-Sweden match
Tonight at the 1952 Olympic Stadium in Helsinki, in the first of two competition days, Finland vs Sweden, in the international match, the history of the annual competition was recognized with a world heritage plaque for athletics.
The competition – the last surviving, but especially still flourishing, international athletics meeting between two countries in the world – was founded in Helsinki in 1925. The history of the match only began at the Olympic Stadium, which was opened only in 1938. , but the nearby Zoo sports field. The zoo is the home track of the local club Helsinki Kisa-Veikot and serves as a warm-up space for the Olympic Stadium.
On June 19, 1924, Paavo Nurmi broke the 1500 and 5000 meter world records less than an hour apart at the Zoo. A little over a year later (September 5-6, 1925), Nurmi was part of the Finnish team that took on Sweden for the first time in the current annual competition.
“The World Athletics Heritage plaque announced today celebrates the unique history of the annual two-day Finland-Sweden match,” said World Athletics Director Sebastian Coe. “Born in 1925, this dual-national international player is a successful historical anomaly. mostly invitational meets. I am delighted that the match between these two great athletics nations continues to flourish, attracting large and enthusiastic crowds and similar broadcast audiences.
World Athletics Council member Antti Pihlakoski officially handed over the athletics world heritage plaque on behalf of Sebastian Coe to the Finnish and Swedish Athletics Federation, represented by the vice presidents of the Finnish Sports Federation Riikka Pakarinen and Rami Urho and Svensk, at an event organized at the Olympic Stadium. Caroline Gedin and Stephan Hammar, vice presidents of Friidrott. The commemorative plaque is now permanently on display at the Zoo.
The World Athletics Heritage Plaque is a place-based recognition awarded for “outstanding contributions to the global history and development of athletics and non-stadium athletics such as cross-country, mountain, road, trail and ultra running, and race walking.
Women’s 100m race Finland–Sweden at the international match 2019 (© Frankie Fouganthin)
A love-hate relationship
The annual match, which is traditionally played alternately in Finland and Sweden, started in 1925 with Finland’s victory. Sweden won the next two competitions in 1927 and 1929. The 1920s and 30s were a time when the historical love-hate relationship between these two Nordic neighbors, now essentially softened, was perhaps at its worst. In 1931, after fistfights between athletes, the Finns withdrew from further games.
The relations did not improve the following year, when the IAAF, whose president was Swedish at the time, banned Nurmi from participating in the Olympics due to his professionalism. As such, the next match was not held until 1939. The second meeting was held in 1940, and then from 1945 the competition became an annual fixture. Not even the Covid-19 pandemic could stop the match.
Tensions still arise from time to time. At the Olympic Stadium in 1992, all six competitors (three per country) in the men’s 1500 meters were disqualified for bumping and shoving. There’s nothing wrong with that, but the intense rivalry probably explains why this matchup is still important for both countries.
Spectators bring flags and banners to wave, horns and shouts to sound, faces painted and hair dyed in national colors. In the not-so-health-and-safety-conscious past, fans would smuggle flares and fireworks into the stadium stands to help their celebrations.
Known to the Finns as the “Sweden match” and to the Swedes “Finnkampen”, as a spectator experience this athletics match is more closely related to football or ice hockey than an inviting athletics meeting.
The historical win table is currently:
Men’s match (from 1925): Finland 46-35 Sweden.
Women’s match (from 1953): Finland 25–41 Sweden.
One major oddity that surprises many non-Nordic observers is that, despite both nations’ illustrious history in athletics, no world record has ever been achieved in the match. One explanation is that times, heights and distances are relatively small in this race, where the battle for points is everything. As long as the Finn beats the Swede or vice versa, nothing else really matters in The Match.
Chris Turner for the World Athletics Heritage List