Case study Helsinki Ski Weeks - Bringing cross-country skiing to the people; From case study to concept: A sustainable competition and physical activity concept for cross-country skiing

Abstract

Climate change and global warming have been the topic in the news during the past months and years more and more. This is due to the fact that changes are no longer only affecting remote areas but changes for example in snow cover and length of the snow season has been observed to have changed also in Finland and Central Europe. For this reason, have the Finnish Ski Association, the International Ski and Snowboard Federation as well as the United Nations and many other organizations and institutions around the world explicitly included environmental, social and economic sustainability in their strategic goals, missions and visions to actively work towards protecting the planet and the scarce resources which are left. The task at hand was to create a concept based on the case study analysis of the Helsinki Ski Weeks as organized by the Finnish Ski Association. The concept developed is applicable in a wide range of locations and situations and is adaptable to meet the needs of local organizers. The concepts’ main goal is to bring cross-country skiing close to where the people are, to the centre of cities, in combi-nation with a high-performance skiing competition. The main point of the concept is that a high-level skiing competition as well as the accessibility to skiing tracks for citizens right in the centre of the city can be organized in a sustainable way. For this purpose, a wide range of data and information on the case study was collected and analysed and the concept developed based on the available data. The result is a versatile concept which can be applied by a wide variety of stakeholders to meet their needs. Sports are competing for spectators not only to attend sport competitions and events live but also for their time and attention in front of the television or on social media, as well as with all other content and information which is available. Hence it has become necessary for sport to develop new formats to make the sports more attractive to spectators and participants. The concept presented is one such new format where a cross-country skiing competition is organized in the centre of the city in a short and engaging way.