Last year’s brightest and best sports moments will be remembered on Thursday, January 16. At the sports gala. tunes into the gala atmosphere in Areena from 6:00 p.m. The live broadcast on TV2 starts at 8 p.m.
Lauri Markkanen achieved the Sportsman of the Year title a year ago with a crushing avalanche of votes, but this time the voting may turn out to be more even.
There are many top names, but this year the team athletes have been praised highly. Ice hockey player Alexander Barkov achieved the Stanley Cup as a captain and football player Lukas Hradecky Bundesliga championship also as captain of his team.
Among the individual athletes in recent years, the winner of the Wimbledon doubles championship stood out Harri Heliövaara and a judo World Cup bronze medalist Luukas Saha.
Urheilu asked former Athletes of the Year who is this year’s athlete and why. Many of the people reached out to admitted that they do not know how to take a stand on the selection of the Athlete of the Year.
– I have to say that I have been so far away from following sports on a broad front all last year that I can’t take a stand on that, together Iivo Niskanen with the title achieved Sami Jauhojärvi tightly.
Chosen as Sportsman of the Year in 1977 Pertti Ukkola is on the same lines. According to him, it is very difficult to name one, when the choice was made among team athletes.
– When individual athletes are successful, it is much easier. Let the professionals choose the best. I have to be satisfied with that and wonder on the spot that That’s how it went, wrestling legend Ukkola throws.
Neither Kaisa Mäkäräinen and Pertti Karppinen are unable to nominate one person as Athlete of the Year. 2021 title achieved Matti Mattsson is the first to have an opinion on the matter.
– My choice is Alexander Barkov. Winning the Stanley Cup and still being the captain raised the bar. Yes, in my opinion, it is one of the hardest achievements in Finnish sports from last year, says Mattsson.
Aino-Kaisa Saarinen realizes that Lauri Markkanen has not been in as good a mood lately as in the previous season. However, he sees that the achievements of many other team athletes are evaluated based on the previous season.
– I would choose Markkanen because he played well last season. He made a great new contract, Saarinen justifies and refers to Markkanen’s record 238 million dollar contract.
Minna Kauppi you can see that the question is terrible and difficult this year as well, because there are many great athletes. He bets that the winner will come from the team side and believes that Hradecky and Barkov will be strong.
– Anyway, I want to raise my own sport, that is Miika Kirmulan For a long time, the EC bronze was a brilliant performance in the field of Finnish men’s orienteering. So let’s choose Miika, for example.
A wrestler who won Olympic silver in Athens Marko Yli-Hannuksela also nominates his candidate from martial arts, judo.
– There are several options for the title recipient, but my candidate is Luukas Saha. The reasons are the World Cup medal of the global summer Olympic sport.
What did your selection as Athlete of the Year mean?
Urheilu asked the legends they reached out to, what being chosen as Athlete of the Year once meant and still means to them. The value of the achievement had increased over the years, but some mentioned that the performances as an athlete were more important.
Sami Jauhojärvi, skiing
– The selection came as a bit of a surprise, because Iivo and I were the first couple to be selected as Athlete of the Year with our Olympic victory in the pair relay. It’s a very big honor and it felt good, because we didn’t think that we would be chosen as Athlete of the Year together.
– I also had the idea that Iivo would be chosen, because he still finished fourth in the individual distance at the Sochi Olympics.
Pertti Karppinen, rowing
– I see that what I achieved was important to me. The choice of Sportsman of the Year is not so important because I think it is difficult to compare them. Everyone has their preferences.
– In some sports it is difficult to achieve a world championship or Olympic gold, and in some you can get more than one at once. Some sports are also practiced more in the world than others.
– However, this selection of Athlete of the Year brings sport into the limelight, but personally, I see it as more important how one succeeds.
Minna Kauppi, orienteering
– I already said then and I still say that as an athlete it is always my own performances and successes that mean the most. Those are their own dreams.
– As a tribute especially to our sport, which is not always the first to win those awards, it was an extremely big deal.
Matti Mattsson, swimming
– It was an extremely wonderful thing. I was pretty close already in 2013, and then I set my goal that one day I want to be Sportsman of the Year. It finally came from 2021.
– It means a lot to me. Even though it’s a contested award, who gets it and what the measure is, it still feels like a great honor.
Kaisa Mäkäräinen, biathlon
– I remember best that at that time the team sports were still in the same voting, so behind me was, among other things, the national hockey team of the Lions that won the world championship that year. It seemed a bit absurd that my own personal achievements were compared to a big team sport.
– Of course, it is a big achievement, the importance of which has somehow only increased several years after that. Then I was living my own hectic sports career. It was one gala night, a prize to take home and towards the next games.
Leijonat finished third in the 2011 Athlete of the Year vote. Starting in 2019, the team has no longer been able to vote for Athlete of the Year.
Aino-Kaisa Saarinen, skiing
– After all, it was a really great show of appreciation, at least in my opinion, for my best season and best performances. It felt really good.
Pertti Ukkola, wrestling
– In those days, there were tough names on the wall when it was Lasse Virén, Karppinen PerttiMietaata (Juha Mieto) and partners. It was a really big deal back then. Back then, in the 1970s, sports were kind of narrow, that the successful ones were in individual sports.
Marko Yli-Hannuksela, wrestling
– The choice came then in 2004 and perhaps as a small surprise. Its importance was great then, and over the years it has only grown and grown.
– It is the biggest recognition that an individual athlete can receive in Finnish sports. Let that say it all.
Last year’s brightest and best sports moments will be remembered on Thursday, January 16. At the sports gala. tunes into the gala atmosphere in Areena from 6:00 p.m. The live broadcast on TV2 starts at 8 p.m.