Taivallahti rowing stadium was used for canoeing but not for rowing during the olympics due to unstable conditions. The tower of the Olympic Stadium can be seen in the distance.
On June 28th 1952 Finland won two golds, one silver and one bronze medal in canoeing and there were only 2088 ticket holders who witnessed Finland’s best day of its own olympics! This was of course better than those 1666 ticket holders who earlier saw Finland’s two canoeing golds.
Finns wanted to win gold medals in athletics, especially in long distance running and javelin, so this was the wrong sport for most Finns. In Beijing 2008 Finland’s biggest gold medal expectations are in javelin as well. Recently Tero Pitkämäki has struggled with his technique but he is still the favourite to win the gold.
Among the gold medalists in 52 was Sylvi Saimo who was the first Finnish woman to win a gold in summer events. Until very recently I though she was the only Finnish gold medalist in Helsinki. It somehow seems that the others have been forgotten.
Before this project I didn’t even know that the rowing stadium existed. After a quick googling almost the only meaningful reference to it was a blog entry in Finnish that wished that the stadium would be used for something. Apparently there are some rowing competitions and singing events. Its location is very nice so it shouldn’t be too hard to think of something.
I am going to say it again: I am loving this series!