Team Finland - Profile

Highlights:

Finland made its Paralympic debut at the inaugural Games in 1960, and has won a medal at every edition of the Paralympic Games at which it has competed except for 1968. In recent years, however, it has seen relatively little success compared to its glory days of the late 1970s and 1980s, where it won 50 or more medals on multiple occasions. This downward trend continued at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, where the NPC managed just three medals, one of each kind.

Harri Jauhiainen is among the most successful Finnish Paralympic athletes in terms of gold medals won. He claimed gold medals in athletics between 1980 and 1988, with his most successful Games coming in 1984 when he won the 100m, 400m and 1500m in the A6 category. He also won two silver and two bronze.

Matti Launonen joins Jauhiainen as one of Finland's most impressively decorated Paralympians, and he won his medals across three different sports in a 32-year Paralympic career.

Launonen won at least one medal at eight consecutive editions of the Paralympic Games, starting with a silver medal in swimming in 1972. The vast majority of his medals were won in table tennis, including two gold, but he also won silver medals in athletics' pentathlon event on two occasions.

Paralympic table tennis player Kimmo Jokinen finished his career with medals across four Games between 1984 and 2000. He won two gold medals in 1984, one in 1988 and another two in 1992.

At recent Games, sprinter Leo Pekka Tahti has led the charge for Finland on the athletics track. He won the NPC's only gold in 2016 in the T54 100m, his fourth consecutive Paralympic title in the event.

Very few of Finland's gold medals have been won by female athletes. The most recent women to win a gold medal were Marjaana Vare in the women's F42-46 javelin at the 2004 Paralympic Games and Minna Leinonen who won the SH2 mixed air rifle prone event in the same year.

Additional Information: Website
https://www.paralympia.fi/

Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/paralympiakomitea

Anthem Title: Maamme [Our Land]

Anthem Composer: Words by Johan Ludvig Runeberg and Paavo Eemil Kajander. Music by Fredrik Pacius.

Anthem Inducted: 1848

Official NPC Name: Finnish Paralympic Committee

Founding Date: 1994

IPC Recognition Date: 1989

Delegation President: Sari Rautio

First OG/PG Appearance: 1960

Number OG/PG Appearances: 15 [Tokyo 2020 included]

Summary: