Helsinki 1952: Olympic venues overview
Nineteen competition venues were used for the Olympic Games Helsinki 1952, 14 of which remain in use today. Ten of the competition venues were existing, seven were new and two were temporary. All the new venues remain in use. The two temporary venues have been dismantled, while two of the existing venues have been demolished and one has been repurposed.
Many of the venues used at Helsinki 1952 had been built or were in the process of being built for the 1940 Olympic Games when the Second World War broke out in September 1939. The buildings included the Olympic Stadium, the Swimming Stadium, the Rowing Stadium and the Velodrome. Though the global conflict caused the cancellation of the 1940 Games, these venues were well maintained in the intervening years and required only completion or renovation in preparation for their use at Helsinki 1952, a deciding factor in the decision to award the Games of the XV Olympiad to the Finnish capital.
The venues built for the cancelled 1940 Olympic Games are still in use today and have become historic and architectural landmarks on the Helsinki skyline, and integral parts of the city’s Olympic heritage.
The village, initially built to accommodate 3,200 athletes in 1940, was converted to accommodate 500 families after the cancellation of the Olympic Games, alleviating a housing shortage. The second Olympic Village, constructed for the 1952 Olympic Games, was used for social housing after the event, a function that both villages continue to serve today.
A shining example of modern Finnish architecture and an abiding symbol of Helsinki 1952, the Olympic Stadium remains one of Finland’s premier sports venues. This multi-purpose venue has staged two IAAF World Athletics Championships and three European Athletics Championships. It underwent extensive renovation work in 2019 with the aim of making it the country’s foremost sporting, cultural, entertainment and tourism hub.
Used to store herring and root vegetables during the war, the Swimming Stadium finally opened in 1947. As the country’s first outdoor aquatics complex, it remains open to the public in the summer months, attracting nearly 300,000 visitors a year. The Swimming Stadium underwent extensive renovations in 2013.
Completed in 1946, the Velodrome serves as the home track for a local cycling club and caters for lacrosse, field hockey, and the home games of the Finnish capital's American Football teams.
The other existing venues used at Helsinki 1952 include Exhibition Halls I and II (gymnastics, wrestling, boxing and weightlifting), Harmaja and Liuskasaari (sailing), and the Olympic Football Tournament stadiums, situated in the cities of Turku, Tampere, Kotka and Lahti. All these venues are still in use. The two Exhibition Halls welcome a wide range of sports, while Liuskasaari remains a popular sailing site and regularly hosts regattas. The stadiums in Turku, Kotka and Lahti are all home to football clubs playing in Finland’s top two divisions. Tampere Stadium has staged several European and world athletics youth championships, and provided Finland’s national football team with a temporary home while the Olympic Stadium was being refurbished in 2019.
The Westend Tennis Hall in Espoo, the venue for the fencing competitions at Helsinki 1952, was converted into a school after the Olympic Games before being destroyed in a fire in 1967. It was an existing venue, as were the other two Helsinki 1952 venues no longer in use: the Malmi Rifle Range, built for the 1937 Shooting World Championships and closed in 1993, and the Huopalahti venue. Both hosted the shooting competitions in 1952.