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.Finland at the Paralympics, International Paralympic Committee

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.Finland at the Paralympics, International Paralympic Committee

Medals

Summer Paralympics EventGoldSilverBronzeTotalRanking1960 Summer Paralympics 1 0 0 1 15th 1964 Summer Paralympics did not participate1968 Summer Paralympics 0 0 0 0 - 1972 Summer Paralympics 0 2 1 3 28th1976 Summer Paralympics 12 20 18 50 13th1980 Summer Paralympics 8 19 13 40 17th1984 Summer Paralympics 19 13 27 59 15th1988 Summer Paralympics 11 23 16 50 22nd1992 Summer Paralympics 8 6 12 26 20th1996 Summer Paralympics 4 5 4 13 30th2000 Summer Paralympics 1 3 6 10 43rd2004 Summer Paralympics 4 1 3 8 33rd2008 Summer Paralympics 2 2 2 6 40th2012 Summer Paralympics 4 1 1 6 27th2016 Summer Paralympics 1 1 1 3 56th2020 Summer Paralympics 1 3 1 5 52nd2024 Summer Paralympics 0 1 3 4 71st Total 76 100 108 283 21

Winter Paralympics EventGoldSilverBronzeTotalRanking1976 Winter Paralympics 8 7 7 22 3rd 1980 Winter Paralympics 16 7 12 35 2nd 1984 Winter Paralympics 19 9 6 34 2nd1988 Winter Paralympics 9 8 8 25 4th1992 Winter Paralympics 7 3 4 14 5th1994 Winter Paralympics 6 7 12 25 7th1998 Winter Paralympics 7 5 7 19 9th2002 Winter Paralympics 4 1 3 8 9th2006 Winter Paralympics 0 0 0 0 -2010 Winter Paralympics 0 1 1 2 17th2014 Winter Paralympics 0 1 0 1 16th2018 Winter Paralympics 1 0 2 3 16th2022 Winter Paralympics 2 2 0 4 13th2026 Winter Paralympics 0 2 0 2 20th Total 79 53 62 194 6

Multi-medalists Finnish athletes who have won at least three gold medals or five or more medals of any colour. No. Athlete Sport Years Games Gender GoldSilverBronzeTotal1Jouko Grip1980-20029M1250172Tanja Kari1988-19944F62083Leo-Pekka Tahti2004-20246M51284Lahja HamalainenIce sledge speed racing1980-19842F40375Matti Launonen1972-20048M274136Toni Piispanen2012, 2020-20243M2215

See also Finland at the Olympics

References