The 20-year-old Konsta Helenius from the NHL club Buffalo Sabres became Finland’s great hero when he secured another world ice hockey championship for Finland in overtime last night. The host nation Switzerland had hoped to finally win the world championship gold medals after losing in the finals at the last two championships. But the proud hockey nation Finland wanted it differently and thus secured its fifth world championship title, three of which have been won within the last seven years (2019, 2022 and 2026). Supplemented with Olympic gold medals in 2022 and bronze medals in 2026, Finland, with a modest population of 5 million, has clearly overtaken arch-rivals “Tre Kronor” from Sweden, who once again experienced a very disappointing world championship.<\/p>\n
Ice hockey \u2013 Finland\u2019s national sport<\/strong><\/p>\n Not least because of the climatic conditions with frost and snow for more than half of the year, Finland has always achieved good international results in winter sports such as cross-country skiing, biathlon and ice hockey. For this reason, among other things, it is logical that ice hockey is Finland\u2019s national sport. Football is also the largest sport in Finland in terms of the number of players, but football\u2019s popularity as a spectator sport does not even come close to ice hockey. Today, ice hockey is clearly the most popular sport in Finland, both financially, in terms of spectators and in terms of the media. More than 100,000 children and young people under the age of 18 play ice hockey, of which almost 40,000 children and young people \u2013 4,000 girls and 36,000 boys \u2013 play ice hockey in one of the 350 clubs. This popularity is an important foundation for ice hockey\u2019s position in Finland. The same is true of the number of weekly training hours among young people. More than 70 percent of all children and youth ice hockey players train at least three times a week.<\/p>\n World-class talent development<\/strong><\/p>\n Talent development in Finnish ice hockey, both in the clubs and the federation, is, in my opinion, among the best in the world in team sports. In the 1970s, the Finnish Ice Hockey Association (FIHA) established a national ice hockey training centre at the Vierum\u00e4ki Sports Institute, where regular training camps were held. Each of the regions of Finland sent its junior teams to the camps, and the federation brought together junior teams within different age groups. These training camps gradually developed into the core of Finnish talent development work. The work was based on joint training camps for the best players, testing and development of coaches. Today, the training camps for different age groups are still the core of talent work in Finnish ice hockey. This work is of course supplemented by the basic development of talent in the clubs. However, it is at the FIHA training camps that the greatest talents in the different age groups are selected for the youth national teams. The most well-known training camp is \u201cPohjola Camp\u201d \u2013 an annual training camp in Vierum\u00e4ki that brings together the most talented 14 and 15-year-old players from the different regions. If a junior player participates in the talent system from start to finish, he or she will have participated in more than 100 international matches before the player becomes a senior player.<\/p>\n Skilled youth coaches and high-quality physical training<\/strong><\/p>\n Ice hockey, like other sports in Finland, is based on volunteer work in clubs, both in big cities and in smaller towns all over Finland. There has always been a strong tradition of skilled and well-trained coaches in Finnish ice hockey. Many coaches are educated at the University of Jyv\u00e4skyl\u00e4 and they often have many years of practical experience. In relation to the country’s modest population, Finland has many professional ice hockey coaches who are highly respected and recognized – also abroad. There is also a strong tradition of systematic analysis and research in Finnish ice hockey, both in relation to the individual player and the team. Both clubs and federations have particularly placed great emphasis on the physical part of the game, and individual physical training has a high priority in training children and young people. Today, many clubs have hired professional physical trainers for their talents, so that they can learn to train more effectively during the summer season. The targeted and structured physical training is also the main reason why many young players in Finnish ice hockey make their debut early in the SM league, which is among the best in the world. The physically demanding game in the SM league places great demands on the young players’ capacity in terms of both strength, endurance and speed. It is also crucial that the young talents achieve good skating technique with many tempo and direction patterns. Likewise, the player must be able to deliver and receive the puck under pressure and at high speed at an early age. And then the player must also be able to shoot at goal from many different positions.<\/p>\n The dream of the NHL and the Stanley Cup<\/strong><\/p>\n It is the unique talent development that is the basis for Finnish ice hockey’s success at the Olympics and the World Cup. And it is also the strong talent development that is the reason why many young talents from Finland are recruited to the world’s strongest league \u2013 the National Hockey League. Among these are established NHL stars such as Aleksander Barkov (Florida Panthers), Kaapo Kakko (New York Rangers) and Sebastian Aho (Carolina Hurricanes), who all debuted in the world’s strongest league as 18 years old. Finland will therefore have to do without Sebastian Aho for the 2026 IIHF World Championship, who, together with his two Danish teammates \u2013 Frederik Andersen and Nikolaj Ehlers \u2013 will tomorrow play the Carolina Hurricanes’ first final game out of seven possible against the Las Vegas Knights for the Stanley Cup \u2013 the world’s most prestigious hockey trophy.<\/p>\n Sources:<\/p>\n Jari L\u00e4ms\u00e4: \u201cLions on the Ice: the success story of Finnish ice hockey\u201d, pp. 152 \u2013 167 In: Svein S. Andersen & Lars Tore Ronglan: Nordic Elite Sport. Same ambitions \u2013 different tracks (Universitetsforlaget, Oslo, 2012).<\/p>\n The Finnish Ice Hockey Association \u2013 http:\/\/www.finhockey.fi<\/a><\/p>\n International Ice Hockey Federation – https:\/\/www.iihf.com\/en\/events\/2026\/wm<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"