Lahti Ski Games

At the end of February, Lahti for three days played host to the Salpausselän Kisat (Lahti Ski Games). 

I went there bright and early on Saturday to watch a full day of the events at the games. It was an absolutely beautiful day and not too cold. Walking up to the stadium, there were lots of Finnish flags, and then inside the gates there was a row of stands with food and items to cheer on your country.

I went to the games with some of my other friends; my German exchange student friend, and two of the two other German au pairs who were in my Finnish class. It was nice and worked out well. It was so nice seeing foreigners around though. There were many Russians, and also people from Poland and Germany, etc. I just love when there are all of the flags flying high in the stadium though, it's one of my favorite sights.

Here is a map of the complex where all of the different seating and events would be held. There were lots of differen't cross country skiing events, also biathlon, and ski jumping.

We got there at the beginning of the day so we could watch all of the different rounds of the events. I was really excited to get to use my American flag too. We taped it onto a walking stick as an improvised pole and I waved it strongly throughout the day in support of Team USA.

Some of the skiers going past on one of the different routes. I actually met another American while I was watching in this area, because they saw the flag. I also had some Finnish people ask me if I was a "real" American or just someone with the flag, and had a few compliments on the flag as well.

Watching some of the preliminaries for the ski jumping. There were an indvidual and team competions throughout the day. All over the complex, there were different events going on.

One of the heats getting ready to take off for the cross country skiing. One of the Americans took the gold medal, and ultimately the Americans did pretty good.

Some of the mascots for the ski games. I don't really know what they were supposed to be, but they were pretty funny.
I also entered a team spirit contest, but since I was the only American, I was my own team. It was still good though, being able to cheer and show my spirit.

The Finnish flag is waved over the fence as skiers go bye in the background, heading towards the finish line within the stadium.

In the afternoon, I meet up with one of my Finnish friends Elisa, on my right, and her sister. It was really nice to have them there with me. We would watch the team ski jumping competition which was the main event of the day and the highlight of the night.

The sun went down as the competition carried on. It was so exciting and packed with fans. The American team didn't make it to the finals, but it didn't matter too much, because I still waved my flag high above the crowd. One of my friends from school actually saw the flag and came over to see if it was me.

The competition lasted for about an hour or two and was really exciting. In the end, Germany ended up winning the team final.

We got really lucky where we were standing, because the awards stand ended up being directly in front of us. It was so cool to see my first professional ski competition (ski world cup), and then have an awards ceremony happen right infront of me. Everything was so exciting and a wonderful expirence.

From one of the three ski jumps, a snowmobile rider did a flip and came down into the stadium, starting off the finale featuring fireworks. It was really the perfect ending to the night standing there with my friends watching the beautiful fireworks light up the night skies. It was such a great competition! Go USA!