Roope Samuel Suomalainen (born 6 September 1973 in Kotka) is a retired Finnish sailor, who specialized in the

Laser A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word "laser" is an acronym for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation". The fir ...

class. He represented his nation

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 B ...

in two editions of the Olympic Games (2000 and 2004), and has also been training throughout most of his sporting career for Kotka Yacht Club ( fi, Kotkan Pursiseura) in his native Kotka. Suomalainen made his official debut at the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, where he placed seventeenth in the

class with a net grade of 127, surpassing Hungary's Tamas Eszes by a single mark in total. At the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

, Suomalainen qualified for his second Finnish team, as a 30-year-old, in the

class by placing fourteenth and obtaining a berth from the 2003 ISAF World Championships in Cadiz, Spain. Unlike his previous Olympics, Suomalainen could not upgrade his feat with a nineteenth-place effort in a fleet of forty-two sailors, recording a net score of 160.

References

External links

* * * 1973 births Living people Finnish male sailors (sport) Olympic sailors for Finland Sailors at the 2000 Summer Olympics – Laser Sailors at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Laser Sportspeople from Kotka {{Finland-yachtracing-bio-stub