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Finland at the Paralympics

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Finland at the
Paralympics
IPC codeFIN
NPCFinnish Paralympic Committee
Websitewww.paralympia.fi
Medals
Gold
155
Silver
151
Bronze
169
Total
475
Summer appearances
Winter appearances

Finland participated in the inaugural Paralympic Games in 1960 in Rome, with a single representative, swimmer Tauno Valkama - who won gold in his sole event, the 50m crawl. The country was absent from the 1964 Games, but returned in 1968, and has participated in every subsequent edition of the Summer Paralympics. Finland has also taken part in every edition of the Winter Paralympics, from the first in 1976.[1]

Finland's 'awakening' to the Paralympics came in 1976, both at the inaugural Winter Games (where it finished third on the medal chart), and at the Summer Games, where it won fifty medals - forty-seven more than it had at the previous summer edition. The country performed strongly throughout the 1980s, then began to decline, in terms of both medal hauls and ranking. In 2004, Finns won only eight medals - the first time since 1972 that they had won fewer than ten. At the Winter Games, Finland was initially a major power, ranking in the top 3 until 1988, and in the top 10 until 2002, despite a gradual yet steady decline. At the 2006 Winter Games, Finland failed to win a single medal; the country won only a silver and a bronze in 2010.[2]

Medals

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Multi-medalists

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Finnish athletes who have won at least three gold medals or five or more medals of any colour.

No. Athlete Sport Years Games Gender Gold Silver Bronze Total
1 Jouko Grip  Athletics
 Cross-country skiing
1980-2002 9 M 12 5 0 17
2 Tanja Kari  Athletics
 Cross-country skiing
1988-1994 4 F 6 2 0 8
3 Leo-Pekka Tahti  Athletics 2004-2024 6 M 5 1 2 8
4 Lahja Hamalainen Ice sledge speed racing 1980-1984 2 F 4 0 3 7
5 Matti Launonen  Athletics
 Swimming
 Table tennis
1972-2004 8 M 2 7 4 13
6 Toni Piispanen  Athletics 2012, 2020-2024 3 M 2 2 1 5

See also

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References

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