The Helsinki Olympic Stadium ( fi, Helsingin Olympiastadion; sv, Helsingfors Olympiastadion), located in the Töölö district about from the centre of the Finnish capital

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

, is the largest

stadium A stadium ( : stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand o ...

in the country, nowadays mainly used for hosting sports events and big concerts. The stadium is best known for being the centre of activities in the

1952 Summer Olympics The 1952 Summer Olympics ( fi, Kesäolympialaiset 1952; sv, Olympiska sommarspelen 1952), officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad ( fi, XV olympiadin kisat; sv, Den XV olympiadens spel) and commonly known as Helsinki 1952 ( sv, Helsin ...

. During those games, it hosted

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competi ...

, equestrian show jumping, and the

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

finals. The stadium was also the venue for the first Bandy World Championship in 1957, the first and 10th World Athletics Championships, in 1983 and

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; " Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discover ...

. It hosted the European Athletics Championships in

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses ( February 25, July 22 and August 20) and two total lunar eclipses ( February 10, and August 6). The world population increased by 2.1% this year, the highest increase in history. Events J ...

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nels ...

and

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gat ...

. It is also the home stadium of the

Finland national football team The Finland national football team ( fi, Suomen jalkapallomaajoukkue, sv, Finlands fotbollslandslag) represents Finland in men's international football competitions and is controlled by the Football Association of Finland, the governing body f ...

. The stadium reopened in August 2020 after 4 years of renovation.

History

The Olympic Stadium was designed by the architects

Yrjö Lindegren Yrjö Lorenzo Lindegren (13 August 1900 – 12 November 1952) was a Finnish architect and Olympic Gold medallist. Lindegren was born in Tampere. He graduated as an architect in 1925 from the Helsinki University of Technology, and set up his ...

and Toivo Jäntti. The Olympic stadium, known as an icon of functionalist style of architecture, was featured in the Architectural Digest as one of the best examples of Olympic architecture. Yrjö Lindgren later became himself an Olympic medallist when he received the gold medal for architecture at the 1948 Olympics in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. Construction of the Olympic Stadium began in 1934 and it was completed in 1938, with the intent to host the

1940 Summer Olympics The 1940 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XII Olympiad, were originally scheduled to be held from September 21 to October 6, 1940, in Tokyo City, Empire of Japan. They were rescheduled for Helsinki, Finland, to be held from ...

, which were moved from

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.46 ...

to Helsinki before being cancelled due to

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. It hosted the 1952 Summer Olympics over a decade later instead. The stadium was also to be the main venue for the cancelled

1943 Workers' Summer Olympiad The 1943 Workers' Summer Olympiad, which were to be the seventh edition of the International Workers' Olympiads, were cancelled due to World War II. They were to have been arranged by the Finnish Workers' Sports Federation and held in Helsinki, F ...

. It was the venue for the first ever Bandy World Championship in 1957. The stadium was completely modernized in 1990–1994 and also renovated just before the 2005 World Championships in Athletics. In 2006, an American TV series, '' The Amazing Race 10'', had one of its episodes ending at The Olympic Stadium Tower. As a task, teams had to do a face-first rappel (known as the Angel Dive) down the Helsinki Olympic Tower. Since March 2007, a Eurasian eagle-owl has been spotted living in and around the stadium. On June 6, 2007, during a Euro 2008 qualifying match, the owl delayed play by ten minutes after perching on a goalpost. The owl was later christened Bubi and was named as Helsinki's Resident of the Year. The 50th anniversary of the Helsinki Olympic Games hosted in the Helsinki Olympic Stadium was the main motif for one of the first Finnish euro silver commemorative coins, the 50th anniversary of the Helsinki Olympic Games commemorative coin, minted in 2002. On the reverse, a view of the Helsinki Olympic Stadium can be seen. On the right, the 500 markka commemorative coin minted in 1952 celebrating the occasion is depicted.

Features

Helsingin olympialaiset 1952 - XLVIII-274 - hkm

The stadium's spectator capacity was at its maximum during the 1952 Summer Olympics with over 70,000 spectator places. Nowadays the stadium has 36,251 spectator places. During concerts, depending on the size of the stage, the capacity is 45,000–50,000. The tower of the stadium, a distinct landmark with a height of , a measurement of the length of the gold-medal win by Matti Järvinen in javelin throw of 1932 Summer Olympics. A

youth hostel A hostel is a form of low-cost, short-term shared sociable lodging where guests can rent a bed, usually a bunk bed in a dormitory, with shared use of a lounge and sometimes a kitchen. Rooms can be mixed or single-sex and have private or shared ...

is located within the Stadium complex.

Recent

Major renovation work at the stadium started in the spring of 2016. During renovation all the spectator stands were covered with canopies and the field area and the tracks were renewed. The stadium now also offers extended restaurant areas and more indoor sport venues. The renovation was completed and the stadium was open to the public in September 2020. The projected cost of the renovation was expected to consume €197 million in 2016, €261 million in 2019 and ended up at a price of €337 million, which is €140 million (or 70 percent) more than the original projected cost. The Finnish state and the City of Helsinki are the funders of the renovation.

Events

0,30 mark track and field European Championship stamp of Helsinki 1971

Sport events

* 1957 Bandy World Championship * 1971 European Athletics Championships *

1983 World Championships in Athletics The 1st 1983 World Championships in Athletics were run under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations and were held at the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki, Finland between 7 and 14 August 1983. Summary The overall med ...

1994 European Athletics Championships The 16th European Athletics Championships were held from 7 August to 14 August 1994 in the Olympic Stadium of Helsinki, Finland. Men's results Complete results were published. Track 1986 , 1990 , 1994 , 1998 , 2002 , Field 1986 , 1990 , 19 ...

* 2005 World Championships in Athletics * UEFA Women's Euro 2009 (4 Group matches and a Final) * 2012 European Athletics Championships *

2022 UEFA Super Cup The 2022 UEFA Super Cup was the 47th edition of the UEFA Super Cup, an annual football match organised by UEFA and contested by the reigning champions of the top two European club competitions, the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League. ...

Concerts

References

External links

1952 Summer Olympics official report.
pp. 44–7.
Stadion.fi – Official siteHistory of the stadium

Panoramic virtual tour from the stadium tower
{{Authority control Olympic stadiums Olympic athletics venues Olympic equestrian venues Olympic football venues Football venues in Finland Athletics (track and field) venues in Finland Bandy venues in Finland Sports venues in Helsinki Tourist attractions in Helsinki Towers in Finland Finland national football team

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bot ...

Venues of the 1952 Summer Olympics Functionalist architecture Modernist architecture in Finland Yrjö Lindegren buildings American football venues in Finland 1938 establishments in Finland Sports venues completed in 1938 Töölö UEFA Women's Championship final stadiums