Santasport shaping the future of sports in Rovaniemi

The European Capitals and Cities of Sport Federation (ACES Europe) has awarded Rovaniemi the title of European City of Sport 2020.

While sports and exercise have seen a lot of development in Rovaniemi, the city has its sights firmly set beyond the horizon.

ACES Europe representatives Alberto Bichi and Hugo Alonso visited Rovaniemi in October last year and during the visit, the two-member evaluation team checked out the sporting opportunities in the region and met with representatives from the city and local educational institutions, sports clubs, and businesses. The final evaluation was carried out using the ACES criteria, which considered the region’s sport infrastructure, access to sports facilities, and future development, and investments. Rovaniemi has almost 600 indoor and outdoor sports and physical activity sites, most of which are maintained by the city.

“It [the entitlement] is an acknowledgement of a job well done, so far. On the other hand, it also gives a great boost to the responsibility of further developing and maintaining expertise, facilities, and education for all actors in the field of sports in Rovaniemi,” said Santasport Lapin Urheiluopisto Coordinator Jussi Sirviö while talking to the Daily Finland.

Santasport is one of the 11 sports institutes in Finland and the Olympic Training Centre Rovaniemi is one of the six Olympic Training Centres in the country. It plays a significant role in the development of sports and physical exercise in the city.

“Together with a diverse network of universities, sports federations and associations, research institutes, and other bodies, we are able to offer a wide level of education in multiple fields of sport and wellbeing as well as in different sports – the main focus being on winter sports and skills coaching,” remarked Sirviö.

Although sports education in different forms is our focus, Santasport is also a place for recreational activities, international events and training camps. “It is a place for hundreds of people to take part in wellbeing to world-class sports training daily. As a sports centre, Santasport offers facilities and know-how to people of all ages. Whether you are an elite athlete, a child looking for a hobby or an elderly citizen, you will find something suitable for you at Santasport,” said Sirviö.

Santasport Institute is a unique campus for many reasons. First, it is one the few sports institutes located in the city that provides an excellent possibility for daily sports and wellbeing activities for everyone. Santasport Lapin Urheiluopisto (educational institute) offers a wide range of educational possibilities from vocational education to short courses in wellbeing and excellent sports coaching, he added.

“Vocational degrees and additional training courses in sports form the basis of Santasport Institute’s sports education curriculum. While Santasport itself offers a wide range of vocational training as well as additional and continuing education for sport professionals, we also arrange a number of sport-specific educational programmes on our campus in cooperation with sport federations and associations,” he said.

The Lapland Sports Academy operated by the Olympic Training Centre Rovaniemi helps athletes in all stages of their career to combine schooling and sports. “Our dual career programmes extend from secondary school (from the age of 13) all the way to university level. Our main focus in coaching is on educating athletes about healthy and sporty life and on how to combine school with top-level sports training. Only after taking care of healthy athlete development, we focus on sport-specific skills of young athletes. This principle is also the basis for the Olympic Training Centre’s operations,” said Sirviö.

Santasport is a sport campus with a significant capacity of versatile services. The outdoor sport facilities in the vicinity of Santasport include cross-country skiing tracks and routes like “first snow” skiing trail with seven months of skiing period a year including ski orienteering terrains and the adventure park Huima. On its campus there is an ice sport arena with three separate ice rinks enabling ice hockey, figure skating and, curling. For the summer season, there are facilities for football, trekking, running, mountain biking, and downhill biking.

The pristine nature around the Santasport campus is highly suitable for orientation courses equipped with maps. A disc golf course is also located next to the campus. Here you will also find versatile indoor sport facilities like an indoor athletics track, three ball game fields, gymnastics area, weightlifting centre, judo room, functional strength training areas, gyms, dance rooms, and spinning and CrossFit areas. For relaxation and recovery, the main building on the campus includes swimming hall – spa. In addition, a bowling alley can be utilised for relaxation, too.

“We have specialists and a head of coaching for 13 sport disciplines, multiple top-level outdoor activity experts, lecturers and specialists in nutrition, mental coaching and testing. As a part of the Finnish sports network, our responsibility is to develop general and sport-specific skills coaching as well as winter sports. Snow safety is also one of our areas of expertise,” said the coordinator.

In response to a query about any extraordinary aspect of the institute not common in other places, he said, “The possibility to eat, sleep and practise under the same roof in so many different sports and activities is something you can find in very few places. Also the fact that everything, including the city centre, is at a walking distance, is very rare even in the entire globe. Our strength derives from our network of partners from all over Finland and the world. As a hub for all sports in Lapland, we are able to bring know-how from across the planet.”