 | |
| Host city | Vuokatti |
|---|---|
| Country |  Finland |
| Nations | 40 |
| Athletes | 1,111 |
| Sport | 7 |
| Events | 28 |
| Opening | 11 March 2001 |
| Closing | 15 March 2001 |
| Summer | |
| Winter | |
The 2001 Winter European Youth Olympic Winter Festival was an international multi-sport event held between 11 and 15 March 2001, in Vuokatti, Finland.
| 2001 European Youth Olympic Winter Festival Sports Programme |
|---|
|
| Event | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boys slalom | Patrick Kueng  Switzerland | Manuel Sandbichler  Italy | Kurt Pittschieler Italy |
| Girls slalom | Jessica Lindell-Viharby  Sweden | Chiara Costazza Italy | Therese Borssen Sweden |
| Boys parallel slalom | Manuel Sandbichler Italy | Thomas Perrier  France | Steve Missillier France |
| Girls parallel slalom | Ana Drev  Slovenia | Michaela Kirchgasser  Austria | Tone Jersin Ansnes  Norway |
| Event | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boys 12 km | Tobias Strohm  Germany | Ondrej Moravec  Czech Republic | Henri Leinonen Finland |
| Girls 10 km | Kathleen Lindau Germany | Maria Kosinova  Russia | Maija Hietamies Finland |
| Boys 7,5 km sprint | Alexandre Koudriachev Russia | Andrei Nikolaev  Belarus | Robert Wick Germany |
| Girls 6 km sprint | Sabine Hocheder Germany | Kathleen Lindau Germany | Mervi Markkanen Finland |
| Mixed relay 4x5 km | Team Russia Russia | Team Czech Republic Czech Republic | Team Germany Germany |
| Event | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boys 10 km classic | Vadim Sannikov Russia | Hans Gronnvoll Norway | Luca Orlandi Italy |
| Girls 5 km classic | Petra Markelova Czech Republic | Tatiana Chugaeva Russia | Iryna Nafranovich Belarus |
| Boys 15 km free | Nikolai Fokin Russia | Vadim Sannikov Russia | Federico Clementi Italy |
| Girls 10 km free | Tatiana Chugaeva Russia | Irina Terentjeva  Lithuania | Valentina Novikova Russia |
| Boys sprint | Yuri Ostrovski Russia | Oyvind Anmarkrud Norway | Vadim Sannikov Russia |
| Girls sprint | Tatiana Chugaeva Russia | Maria Magnusson Sweden | Vesna Fabjan Slovenia |
| Mixed relay 5x10 km free | Team Russia Russia | Team Finland Finland | Team Norway Norway |
| Event | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boys | Team Russia Russia | Team Switzerland Switzerland | Team Finland Finland |
| Event | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boys K90 | Janne Happonen Finland | Maximilian Mechler Germany | Akseli Kokkonen Finland |
| Girls K90 | Daniela Iraschko Austria | Helena Olsson Sweden | Anette Sagen Norway |
| Team K90 | Team Finland Finland | Team Austria Austria | Team France France |
| Event | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boys Cross | Francesco Sandrini Italy | Dominik Fiegl Austria | Michael Schreilechner Austria |
| Girls Cross | Thea Stenshagen Norway | Verena Domenig Austria | Heidi Kurkinen Finland |
| Boys Half-pipe | Toni Marcus Turunen Finland | Iikka Bäckström Finland | Antti Autti Finland |
| Girls Half-pipe | Paulina Ligocka  Poland | Elin Viken Holvik Norway | Heidi Kurkinen Finland |
| Event | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boys 500 m | Alessandro Magnabosco Italy | Remco Olde Heuvel  Netherlands | Konrad Niedzwiedzki Poland |
| Girls 500 m | Ioulia Bouchoueva Russia | Marcela Kramarova Czech Republic | Maren Haugli Norway |
| Boys 1500 m | Remco Olde Heuvel Netherlands | Konrad Niedzwiedzki Poland | Ihor Makavetski Belarus |
| Girls 1000 m | Ioulia Bouchoueva Russia | Mari Hemmer Norway | Mariska Huisman Netherlands |
* Host nation (Finland)
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Russia (RUS) | 11 | 3 | 2 | 16 |
| 2 | Finland (FIN)* | 3 | 2 | 8 | 13 |
| 3 | Italy (ITA) | 3 | 2 | 3 | 8 |
| 4 | Germany (GER) | 3 | 2 | 2 | 7 |
| 5 | Norway (NOR) | 1 | 4 | 4 | 9 |
| 6 | Austria (AUT) | 1 | 4 | 1 | 6 |
| 7 | Czech Republic (CZE) | 1 | 3 | 0 | 4 |
| 8 | Sweden (SWE) | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 |
| 9 | Netherlands (NED) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Poland (POL) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | |
| 11 | Switzerland (SUI) | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 12 | Slovenia (SLO) | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 13 | Belarus (BLR) | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| France (FRA) | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| 15 | Lithuania (LTU) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Totals (15 entries) | 28 | 28 | 28 | 84 | |
Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, opposite Estonia. Finland covers an area of 338,145 square kilometres (130,559 sq mi) and has a population of 5.6 million. Helsinki is the capital and largest city. The vast majority of the population are ethnic Finns. Finnish and Swedish are the official languages, with Swedish being the native language of 5.2% of the population. Finland's climate varies from humid continental in the south to boreal in the north. The land cover is predominantly boreal forest biome, with more than 180,000 recorded lakes.
The Winter War was a war between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939, three months after the outbreak of World War II, and ended three and a half months later with the Moscow Peace Treaty on 13 March 1940. Despite superior military strength, especially in tanks and aircraft, the Soviet Union suffered severe losses and initially made little headway. The League of Nations deemed the attack illegal and expelled the Soviet Union.
The Moscow Peace Treaty was signed by Finland and the Soviet Union on 12 March 1940, and the ratifications were exchanged on 21 March. It marked the end of the 105-day Winter War, upon which Finland ceded border areas to the Soviet Union. The treaty was signed by Vyacheslav Molotov, Andrei Zhdanov and Aleksandr Vasilevsky for the Soviet Union, and Risto Ryti, Juho Kusti Paasikivi, Rudolf Walden and Väinö Voionmaa for Finland. The terms of the treaty were not reversed after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The Karelian question refers to the debate within Finland over the possible reacquisition of this ceded territory.
The siege of Leningrad was a prolonged military blockade undertaken by the Axis powers against the Soviet city of Leningrad on the Eastern Front of World War II. Germany's Army Group North advanced from the south, while the German-allied Finnish army invaded from the north and completed the ring around the city.
Simo Häyhä, often referred to by his nickname, The White Death, was a Finnish military sniper in World War II during the 1939–1940 Winter War against the Soviet Union. He used a Finnish-produced M/28-30 and a Suomi KP/-31 submachine gun. He is believed to have killed over 500 enemy soldiers during the Winter War, the highest number of sniper kills in any major war. Because of this, he is often regarded as the deadliest sniper of all time.
Matti Ensio Nykänen was a Finnish ski jumper who competed from 1981 to 1991. He is one of the most successful ski jumpers of all time, having won five Winter Olympic medals, nine World Championship medals, and 22 Finnish Championship medals. Most notably, he won three gold medals at the 1988 Winter Olympics, becoming, along with Yvonne van Gennip of the Netherlands, the most medaled athlete that winter.
The Finnish Democratic Republic, also known as the Terijoki Government, was a short-lived communist puppet state of the Soviet Union in occupied Finnish territory from December 1939 to March 1940.
The Sweden men's national ice hockey team is governed by the Swedish Ice Hockey Association. It is one of the most successful national ice hockey teams in the world and a member of the so-called "Big Six", the unofficial group of the six strongest men's ice hockey nations, along with Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Russia and the United States.
The Finnish men's national ice hockey team, nicknamed Leijonat / Lejonen, is governed by the Finnish Ice Hockey Association. Finland is one of the most successful national ice hockey teams in the world and a member of the so-called "Big Six", the unofficial group of the six strongest men's ice hockey nations, along with Canada, the United States, the Czech Republic, Russia, and Sweden.
Janne Petteri Ahonen is a Finnish former ski jumper and drag racer. He competed in ski jumping between 1992 and 2018, and is one of the sport's most successful athletes of all time, as well as one of the most successful from Finland. Ahonen won two consecutive World Cup overall titles, the Four Hills Tournament a record five times, two individual gold medals at the World Championships, and the Nordic Tournament once. Nicknamed Kuningaskotka, he has been described as the greatest ski jumper to have never won an individual medal at the Winter Olympics.
Cold-weather warfare, also known as arctic warfare or winter warfare, encompasses military operations affected by snow, ice, thawing conditions, or cold, both on land and at sea, as well as the strategies and tactics used by military forces in these situations and environments.
The Chinese women's national ice hockey team represents China at the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) World Women's Championships, the Asian Winter Games, and other international competitions. The women's national team is governed by the Chinese Ice Hockey Association. China's national women's program is ranked twentieth in the world by the IIHF and has 808 active players as of 2020.
Toni Markus Nieminen is a Finnish former ski jumper who competed from 1991 to 2004, with a brief comeback in 2016. He is one of the most successful ski jumpers from Finland, having won both the World Cup overall title and the Four Hills Tournament in 1992, and three medals at the 1992 Winter Olympics. He remains the youngest ever Winter Olympic gold medalist, at 16 years and 261 days. Additionally, he is known for being the first male ski jumper to land a jump surpassing 200 metres (660 ft), which he achieved in 1994 with a world record of 203 m (666 ft) on the ski flying hill in Planica.
Jaakko Tapio Tallus is a nordic combined athlete from Finland who won gold and silver medals at the 2002 Winter Olympics and a bronze medal at the 2006 Winter Olympics. He also earned three medals at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in the 4 x 5 km team events with one gold (2007) and two bronze.
Hannu Kalevi Manninen is a Finnish nordic combined athlete. Debuting at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer at the age of 15, he took his first medal three years later at the age of 18 when he won silver in the 4 × 5 km team event at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships. At the 2002 Winter Olympics, he won a gold medal in the 4 × 5 km team event at the age of 23. He has five other Nordic skiing World Championships medals, earning three golds and two bronzes. He has two other Olympic team medals as well.
The history of the Jews in Finland goes back to the 1700s. The country is home to some 1,800 Jews, of which 1,400 live in the Greater Helsinki area and 200 in Turku. Most Jews in Finland have Finnish or Swedish as their mother tongue, and many speak Yiddish, German, Russian and Hebrew. Jews originally came to Finland as Russian soldiers who stayed in Finland in the 19th century after their military service ended. There are Jewish congregations in Helsinki and Turku with their own synagogues built in 1906 and 1912. The Wiborg Synagogue built 1910–1911 was destroyed in air bombings during the first day of the Winter War in 30 November 1939. Since data collection began in 2008, incidents of antisemitism have been on the rise in Finland. The number of incidents are likely under-reported as Finland does not account for specific forms of hate speech that incite violence or hatred.
Kittilä Airport, Finnish: Kittilän lentoasema, is a Finnish airport located in Kittilä inside the Arctic Circle. It handles general aviation and mostly seasonal international traffic and is one of the main airports in Northern Finland. During the winter, Kittilä receives visitors from countries such as Germany, France, United Kingdom, Russia, Ukraine, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Spain and Canada. It carried 363,161 passengers in 2019 and 206,251 passengers in 2020 being the fourth busiest airport in Finland.
The FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2001 took place February 15–25, 2001 in Lahti, Finland for a record sixth time, previous events being held in 1926, 1938, 1958, 1978 and 1989. These championships also saw the most event changes since the 1950s with the 5 km women and 10 km men's events being discontinued, the 10 km women and 15 km men's events return to their normal status for the first time since the 1991 championships, the debut of a combined pursuit as a separate category, the addition of the individual sprint race for both genders, and the debut of the ski jumping team normal hill event. Extremely cold weather cancelled the women's 30 km event. The biggest controversy occurred when a doping scandal hit the host nation of Finland, resulting in six disqualifications. This would serve as a prelude to further doping cases in cross country skiing at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City the following year.
The 2001 World Junior Figure Skating Championships were held from February 26 to March 2 at the Winter Sports Hall in Sofia, Bulgaria. Medals were awarded in men's singles, ladies' singles, pair skating, and ice dancing. Due to the large number of participants, the men's and ladies' qualifying groups were split into groups A and B.
The climate of Finland is influenced most by its latitude: Finland is located between 60 and 70 N. Because of Finland's northern location, winter is the longest season. Only on the south coast and in the southwest is summer as long as winter. On average, winter lasts from early January to late February in the outermost islands in the archipelago and the warmest locations along the southwestern coast – notably in Hanko – and from early October to mid May in the most elevated locations, such as northwestern Lapland and the lowest valleys in northeastern Lapland. This means that southern portions of the country are snow-covered about three to four months of the year, and the northern for about seven months. The long winter causes about half of the annual 500 to 600 millimetres precipitation in the north to fall as snow. Precipitation in the south amounts to about 600 to 700 millimetres annually. Like that of the north, it occurs all through the year, though not so much of it is snow.
