At its board meeting held on Friday 12 July 2024, the International Masters Games Association awarded the Winter World Masters Games 2028 to be organised in Lahti, Heinola and Levi.
Lahti aims to bring together around 3,000 adult athletes in 12 different sports in Finland for the greatest Winter Sports festival. The competition will last 10 days. “Such a significant international competition strengthens the reputation of Lahti and the region as an arena for major international winter sports events. This is really top-notch”, says Henna Eskonsipo-Bradshaw, the vitality director of the city of Lahti.
Also IMGA President Sergey Bubka is delighted with the appointment of Lahti as the host for the 5th edition of the Winter World Masters Games: “Lahti has amazing facilities and a good expertise to deliver great Games to our Winter Masters athletes. I am convinced they will do an outstanding job to organise an event that will enable the athletes to give their best performance and create lasting memories.”
Lahti, Heinola and Levi competed with Norwegian Lillehammer for hosting the competition. Lahti region and Levi collaborated on the bid of the competition event, where alpine sports are a mandatory part of the competition program. Alpine slalom and giant slalom are contested in Levi, and Heinola and Vierumäki offer excellent conditions for ice sports such as ice hockey, figure skating, curling, speed skating and short track. In addition, Lahti offers world-class conditions for Nordic skiing. In addition to cross-country skiing, ski jumping and combined, biathlon is part of the master’s competition program.
“From my view, I can say that the best part of this preparation has been genuine and enthusiastic regional and national cooperation – we are really on the move in Finland.” says Eskonsipo-Bradshaw, fresh after the bid was decided in Finland’s favour.
The Lahti region is known for top sports, but also for versatile mass events that engage athletes of different ages and levels in sport. Masters competitions are perfectly suited to the goals of Lahti’s event program. In addition, Lahti was looking for an event that would align with the Finnish government’s program ‘Let’s Make a Move’, which brings together the ‘Sport for life’ values of the IMGA.
At the IMGA we believe that sport is for everyone and for every age. Not only to benefit our health and physical wellbeing by doing sports but even more to benefit our mental health through the community feeling, camaraderie and team play that transpires at our events around the Games. The athletes create a vibe and energy together that is very difficult to describe, you have to experience it, it is very inspirational and a testament to living life to the fullest ” says Jens Holm, CEO of the IMGA.
Cooperation, community spirit and passion for sports and events unite all three application locations. The mayor of Heinola, Jari Parkkonen, highlights the regional attraction, which cooperation in event searches strengthens even more. “Obviously, winning the Games is great for Heinola, Lahti and the entire province.” The Lahti World Winter Masters Games 2028 event is the fifth Winter Sports competition. The previous winter games were held in January 2024 in Lombardy, Italy. In 2020, the competition took place in Innsbruck, Austria.
