Daniel Ståhl: “Finland is a fantastic country”

In top sports, Finland’s most popular Swede is, of course, a discus thrower with Turku-based roots. Daniel Ståhl29.

When a man enters the throwing ring, he hocks Finnish slogans.

– Finnish content appears in me when I compete. I will never give up. And before every throw, I think in my mind: “bump on” and “forward,” Ståhl says.

The discus thrower sits on the terrace of the restaurant of Kuortane Sports College in the sun and glances at the landscape.

– Finland is a fantastic country, he gets excited.

– Kuortane is a really great place and this Olympic sports park is perfect for top sports. I have a really good time here, the reigning Olympic champion and world champion continues.

The Finnish athletes have taken Turku Taina Laakson to the boy’s own. When Ståhl competed in the Paavo Nurmi Games on Tuesday, he received the loudest applause at the event.

Swedes have often said that Ståhl enjoys even better in Finland and with Finns than in his home country.

Is it so?

– That’s a good question. I like to compete almost anywhere. Perhaps the enthusiasm of the Finnish public is due to the fact that Finland is a hard throwback. Here, throwing sports are more interesting than in Sweden, because Finland has more culture in the spear, ball, hammer and puck than in Sweden, Ståhl, who speaks fluent Finnish, answers.

We also have more culture in Ståhl’s second bread than in the neighborhood: she plays with her grandmother from Turku Leila Laakson with regular Kimble. The classic game is made in Finland.

– The winnings are pretty even. Before Paavo Nurmi Games, my grandmother and I played cards, because Kimble is in Stockholm.

The Finnish phenomenon

The discus thrower grew up in Stockholm but now lives in Växjö.

– Växjö Lakers has done well in the Swedish SHL, but my favorite teams in hockey are Djurgården and Turku Palloseura, Tami Tamminen Ståhl, who sweated as a child in hockey school, says.

There are still strong ties to Stockholm with more than just a favorite team, as the parents and big sister live in the western neighbor’s capital.

And Stockholm has a particularly close place to Ståhl: the weightlifting hall of the Stockholm Athletics Club. There is the Finnish community.

Ståhl’s training friends are men who have moved from Finland to Sweden for work or study: a weightlifting coach who left Imatra in the 1970s Jussi Tukiainena power buyer from Savonlinna Jari Paajanen and a student from Parais Jesper Lehtinen.

– Four guys who laugh and shout in Finnish. I am there at home when I raise with them. Hard workout, hard shout and hard humor.

Finally, a small detail about the Ståhl Finland phenomenon.

– Daniel competed with us for the first time in 2020. After the race in the canteen, he thanked us for a well-kept race trip, said he would come again next year and shook hands. The point was clear, laughs Kuortane, who was responsible for the athletes’ contracts for 30 years Tero Heiska.