Most recognisable Finnish building turns 70 today

Olympic Stadium saw its first competition in 1938

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Anyone with half an interest in sports will probably be able to tell you that the Olympics were held in Helsinki in 1952, but this is not to say that Helsinki's Olympic Stadium would be around 56 years old.
      The very first track and field competition was held in the Stadium on June 12th, 1938, and it rained - just like it rained at the opening ceremonies of the 1952 Olympics.
     
The Olympic Stadium, with its familiar tower, was built with an eye to "another Olympics", the games of 1940, which Helsinki sought to get.
      Building work began in 1934, but when the IOC decision came over the host-city, Helsinki lost out to Tokyo by 36 votes to 27.
      Then history and war took a hand. Japan's invasion of China in 1937 brought about the country's withdrawal, under international pressure, and in 1938 Helsinki was asked to step in as the runner-up.
     
By this stage, with the pressure having been earlier lifted from the builders' necks, the work was seriously behind schedule - money had also been hard to come by for the project.
      By June 1938, when the first athletics meeting was held in the venue, the grandstand on the back straight did not exist at all, and was replaced by a large white concrete obstruction to prevent freeloaders getting too good a view from outside.
      Between 1938 and 1940, the missing grandstand was added, and the entire structure was lifted so as to accommodate more spectators.
      This to some extent modified the relationship between the 72-metre tower and the rest of the building.
     
As it happened, 1940 turned out not to be the actual deadline for Helsinki, since the outbreak of World War II threw a large spanner into the works.
      The Finnish capital eventually got to host the Summer Olympics in 1952, after London had its turn in 1948.
      Over the years since then it has seen its share of major international competitions, including two IAAF World Championships, in 1983 and 2005.
      At the time of the Olympics, the capacity was temporarily increased to 70,000, but since then the stadium has been able to accommodate around 40,000 spectators for athletics and also for international football matches.
     
More recently, it has also been a regular venue for rock artists in the "stadium" category, after Dire Straits appeared there in 1992. Other big names to have played the Olympic Stadium include the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, U2, and Paul McCartney.
      In fact the Rolling Stones played here as early as 1970, when their show was witnessed by around 5,000 people, one-tenth of the number who saw them in 1995.
     
The Olympic Stadium is generally regarded as the best-known Finnish building abroad, and it also contains a good deal more besides a running track, a grass field, and thousands of seats.
      There is a Youth Hostel at the end of the A-Stand, several companies have offices in the building, and the Finnish Sports Museum is located here.
      The most recent significant addition to the structure was the somewhat controversial (there were those who felt the original design was sacrosanct) roof over the D-stand on the back straight, which was built for the 2005 Athletics World Championships.
      And a good thing it was: then, too, the clouds opened, even to the point of causing an interruption to the track and field events.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  IAAF World Championships end on a drier note, but the Olympic Stadium comes up short (15.8.2005)
  Wrangle over temporary roof for press stand at Olympic Stadium resolved (16.3.2005)

See also:
  The Olympic Stadium: Built for an Olympics that didn´t happen (18.11.2003)

Links:
  Helsinki Olympic Stadium (Wikipedia)
  Olympic Stadium website

Helsingin Sanomat