In Kuortane, it’s already the 84th time in the “Midsummer Games”.
Kuortane has about 3,500 inhabitants. About six percent of them perform a unique trick in international athletics every year.
Kuortanene’s “midsummer races” will be held this year for the 84th time. Saturday’s event is the third highest rung at the silver level. The highest-quality competition in Finland is the gold-level Paavo Nurmi Games of Turku held only on Tuesday.
It’s largely about the threat from Ostrobothnia: damn it, we’ll take care of this.
– Pride is known for knowing and being able to. In all other silver level events, there are a few more guys in the village than people. After all, it’s a pretty strong show of strength from Kuortane, says the person responsible for the event’s athlete acquisition for 30 years Tero Heiska.
Talkoo work is a disappearing folk tradition. It is unique that not counting a couple of people from the 200-person background team of the Kuortanene Games, all the others do the work for free.
– The culture is strong when there is still quite a lot of commitment. Almost all of our administrators are from Kuortane.
150,000 euros
In South Ostrobothnia, traditional “Midsummer races” will be held next Saturday, a week before the midsummer festival. Tomi Natri / All Over Press
The athlete budget for the Kuortanene Games is around 150,000 euros. About 70,000 euros in prize money is being distributed. The amounts are defined in the rules of the silver level competitions.
– When you compare our event to domestic GP races, yes, those GP races are in much bigger cities but with smaller budgets.
The locations of the domestic GP games in 2023 are Jyväskylä, Joensuu, Oulu, Lappeenranta and Tampere. The events belong to the bronze level, where prize money must be around 25,000 euros. In Jyväskylä at the beginning of June, the athlete budget was around 55,000 euros.
The Kuortanene Games have 18 main cooperation partners. The deals form the cornerstone of the budget together with the TV contract.
– 25 percent of the revenue has been calculated in the budget for entrance ticket revenue, Heiska says.
Starting money transfer
Entrance ticket revenues make up about 25 percent of the budget for the Kuortanene Games. Photo from 2021. Jussi Saarinen
According to the rules of the silver level, there must be athletes from at least four different European countries in field sports and longer running distances. Three different countries are enough for the running distances of eight athletes. Finland is included in the land count.
Travel and accommodation will be reimbursed for a considerable part of the international athletes.
This year, a few Finnish first-team athletes have complained that Kuortane does not pay enough starting money.
– I claim that Kuortane is quite high when comparing the start money payments of Finnish race organizers from the last 30 years. We pay a few hundreds to, among other things, athletes who don’t even get a euro from the rest of Finland, comments Heiska.
The brightest stars grab the four-figure starting money compensation.
– It belongs to those who have a value competition medal around their neck or have made it to the final of the value competition, says Heiska.
This year, the “Midsummer competition” is a week before the midsummer festival, because the International Athletics Federation did not grant an orderly permit for Midsummer Saturdays. In the summer of 2024, the Kuortanee event is returning to the “right time”.