Rolf Haikkola, Mikko Ilonen, Minna Kauppi, Tommi Mäkinen and Leo-Pekka Tähti have been elected to the Finnish sports Hall of Fame.
Five new members have been elected to the Finnish Sports Hall of Fame. The selections were announced on Sunday at ‘s Sports Studio.
The new members of the gallery of honor will receive their Uno uprights as usual at the Sports Gala on Thursday. Rolf Haikkola is recognized posthumously.
Rolf Haikkola (1927–2024)
Haikkola is the first individual sports coach to enter the Hall of Fame. He will go down in history in particular Lasse Virénin as a coach. Under Haikkola’s coaching, Virén became a four-time Olympic champion between 1972 and 1976.
In his own sports career, Haikkola achieved e.g. Finnish youth champion in skiing and in the top ten in endurance running in the world statistics in the 1950s.
Haikkola worked at the Finnish Sports Confederation from 1977 to 1986 as financial manager and CEO and was instrumental in getting the first World Athletics Championships to Helsinki in 1983.
Mikko Ilonen
Ilonen is the first golfer to be elected to the Hall of Fame. The pioneer of Finnish golf won the 2007 European Tour event in Jakarta. In total, he won five races on the European Tour.
In golf’s most prestigious Major tournaments, Ilonen played 14 times and reached a joint seventh place in 2014, which is still the best achievement of Finns at the Major level.
Ilonen represented Finland at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, when golf returned to the Olympics after a 112-year hiatus.
Minna Kauppi
Nine-time world champion in orienteering, Kauppi is one of the most successful Finnish athletes of the 21st century and the most successful Finnish orienteer of all time.
In the years 2004–2013, he won a total of 17 World Championship medals, 10 European Championship medals and 21 adult Finnish championships. Kauppi anchored the Finnish women to five world championships in the relay. Four times he lifted Finland from the chasing position to champion.
In 2010, he was the first Finnish orienteering athlete to be selected as Sportsman of the Year.
Tommi Mäkinen
Mäkinen achieved four consecutive world rally championships between 1996 and 1999. He has won the first world championship in rally history both as a driver and as a team manager.
Toyota won the championship as team manager in 2018. During Mäkinen’s time as team manager and advisor, Toyota achieved four drivers’ and three manufacturers’ championships.
Mäkinen is the only one to reach the Jyväskylä World Rally Championship five times in a row.
Leo-Pekka Tähti
With his five Paralympic victories, wheelchair curler Tähti is the most successful Finnish athlete of the 21st century in the Paralympics or the Olympics. He won medals in six Paralympics from 2004 to 2024.
In 2012, at the Paralympics in London, Tähti set a 100-meter world record of 13.63, which is still valid.
Tähti has had a significant impact on the appreciation and recognition of para sports.
In 2016, Tähti was the first – and so far the only – athlete with a disability to be elected Athlete of the Year. He has been named overall athlete of the year four times.
The Finnish Sports Gala can be seen live on on Thursday, January 16, starting at 8 p.m.