Radio | News week in plain Finnish | Saturday 18.1.2025

Athlete of the Year 2024.

The topic of this week’s news is the Sports Gala. The Sports Gala awarded the best Finnish athletes of the past year on Thursday. Ice hockey player Alexander Barkov was chosen as the best athlete of the year.

We will now tell you more about last year’s best athletes. We will also tell you what major sports competitions are happening this year.

Athlete of the Year Alexander Barkov

Ice hockey player Aleksander Barkov is Finland’s Athlete of the Year 2024. The selection was made by sports journalists. The selection was announced at the Sports Gala on Thursday. Barkov is the first ice hockey player to be selected as Finland’s Athlete of the Year.

Alexander Barkov plays ice hockey in the NHL in North America. Barkov’s team, the Florida Panthers, won the NHL championship, or Stanley Cup, last year. Barkov is the team captain.

Other awards

Many other awards were also presented at the sports gala. People said the greatest sporting moment of the year was when Alexander Barkov lifted the Stanley Cup.

The team of the year was the Finnish men’s under-21 football team. The team qualified for the European Championship, which will be played in Slovakia this summer.

The Coach of the Year is Tuomas Iisalo. Iisalo coached the Parisian basketball team last year. The team won the basketball Eurocup.

Major sporting events of 2025

Many big sports competitions will be held again this year.

It’s been a long time since a national team tournament was played in ice hockey, with NHL players participating. Finland is participating in the 4-nation tournament, which will be played in North America in February. The World Ice Hockey Championships will be played in Sweden and Denmark in May.

The World Cross-Country Skiing Championships begin in Norway at the end of February. The World Orienteering Championships will be held here in Finland in July. The competitions will be held in Kuopio.

The World Athletics Championships are in Japan in September.

Repetition

The topic of the news week was the Sports Gala. Let’s recap the most important things.

Ice hockey player Alexander Barkov was chosen as the best athlete in Finland last year. The team of the year is the youth national football team. The Coach of the Year award went to basketball coach Tuomas Iisalo.

This year, for example, the World Ski Championships will be held in Norway and the World Athletics Championships in Japan.