Skiing World Cup

This weekend I attended the Skiing World Cup that took place in my city of Lahti. This 3-day event was the real deal, all sorts of athletes from all over the world competing in nordic skiing (sprinting/distance) and ski jumping from Lahti's famous ski jumps (below).

These jumps are huge!



The nordic sprints were thrilling in particular. I'm not sure about the results in each event, but Finland finished third in Women's sprint.



A great action shot.

Despite being a "World Cup", this was a distinctly Finnish event. All sorts of vendors were selling the traditional Finnish sausage ("makkara") and the cheers for the Finnish athletes were sometimes overwhelming! There were many foreign spectators, especially from Poland but even some from Japan. Oh, and the few Canadian skiers didn't even qualify for the final rounds... not that they stand much of a chance against these Scandinavians, Austrians, Germans, Swiss and most... other countries.

I don't have any great photos from the ski jumps since the skiers are almost too small to notice. On the Saturday I went with my host family to watch but today (Sunday) I met 3 German Rotary friends and a Brazilian friend to spend the day with. I will post some pictures of us later.

Another week of school ahead. Spring is already here in Finland, as the snow is melting quite quickly. I hope it doesn't come back, I've had enough of this dark, cold Finnish winter.