Lahti Ski Games
| Lahti Ski Games | |
|---|---|
| Organizers | Lahti Ski Club, Lahti city and Finnish Ski Association (since 1950) |
| Location | Lahti |
| Country | Finland |
| First Games | 1923 |
| Games cancelled | 1930, 1940 and 1942 |
| World Championships | 1926, 1938,1958, 1978, 1989, 2001 and 2017 |
| Attendance record | 450 000 |
Lahti Ski Games is a yearly international winter sport event. The games last for three days, during which participants compete in cross-country skiing, ski jumping and Nordic combined. In the nearly 90-year history of the Lahti Ski Games the fireworks seen on Saturday night have become one of the highlights of the event. The goal of establishing the games was to get a competition similar to the Holmenkollen Ski Festival in Finland. The Lahti ski & ski jump stadium is together with Holmenkollen in Oslo possibly the best stadium for such events in the world. From the large covered seater stand can the attenders see the skiers, first at the top of the hill on the opposite side, after a couple of seconds without possibility to see then, they then come out of a part of the surrounding woods, down a slope which ends in a dangerous left turn, and now the skiers are inside the stadium the long U-turn with the finish just below the covered stand. Most of the hill below the slope which leads into the stadium and 2/3 of the "final U", is terraced with stands. If necessary, presumably close to 100.000 people can watch the end of the races inside the stadium. Within Nordic Skiing is Lahti something like what old Wembley stadium was during an FA-cup final. Also the ski-jumping arena is large, but there are quite a few of that kind also elsewhere.
The idea for the games came from a Finnish legend, Lauri Pihkala in 1922. He wrote an article about a competition equal to the Holmenkollen Ski Festival after the double win of Anton Collin and Tapani Niku at Holmenkollen the same year. In the article Pihkala suggested Lahti as the location for the competition because of the city’s location and grounds.
The first Lahti Ski Games was held 3–4 February 1923. From the very beginning volunteers have played a big part in arranging the games. At the first Lahti Ski Games only Finnish competitors attended the event, but it was still a success. From then on the citizens were encouraged to flag during the competition weekend so that the city would look its best.
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