First time 1990: World Cup in Kontiolahti for more than 30 years

The chairman of the Kontiolahti Athletes Kimmo Turunen says that the team building the Biathlon World Cup and other events is a warm-hearted community.

“There is a lot of unsolicited work. The heart of the club beats," says Turunen.

Six races in five years

In 2022, the World Cup event will be held in Kontiolahti first in March. In November-December, the World Cup opens in Finland. It will be the 16th time that Kontiolahti will host a World Cup competition.

The next time the world cup tour will come to Kontiolahti in November-December 2024, even then for the opening of the season. This is how Kontiolahti will organize six World Cup competitions in 2020-24

"We have done a lot of things correctly for a long time. We have developed and created culture and traditions. This is quite a demonstration of trust," says Turunen.

Everything starts with the shooting club

Turuse has relatively recent experience of how the spirit of the community in a community of less than 200 members absorbs it. In 2014, his daughter, who was in the first grade, got to know eco-gun shooting at school. At that point, the daughter suggested to her father an ampersand club organized by KontU.

"Very quickly I got the feeling that this is pretty cool and that the group has a good mood. Then I asked if I could come to the 2015 World Cup to do something", Turunen recalls the beginning of his own "badness".