Beijing Olympics The Finns in Beijing live the TV competition so much that the footsteps broke in four places – “Finish! Paint!” the crowd encouraged the Lion to the ambassador in the snowy garden

Sport|Beijing Olympics

Beijing

Finland Ambassador of China Leena-Kaisa Mikkola really hopes that the Finnish men will win the Swedish men in hockey. Who would want to disappoint their guests?

Namely, Mikkola has invited more than a hundred Finns from his Finnish apartment to the winter garden to watch the expected hockey match.

There is another batch, and it does not look good. Sweden forges one goal after another and the Finns sit on ice.

Finnish spectators in Beijing are grimacing for a game projected on a big screen in the garden, but they are still gossiping.

A joint view of the game will be needed. They live in the Olympic city but can’t get to the right auditoriums because of Corona time.

“It feels really awful,” says a Pomarkku employee at ABB in Beijing Christer Ekholm.

“The Olympics are part of the reason I’m here. When I last signed an employment contract two years ago, I thought I could also watch the Olympics. ”

He would have bought tickets for a curling that he loved, that required nerves and tactics. And of course hockey.

An optician from Kuopio who lived in Beijing for 17 years Katja Kinnunen would have bought tickets for hockey and figure skating. Until the last minute, he hoped China would have sold tickets to those living in Beijing. But no.

Kisoja has lived in Beijing at home in front of the television with strong feelings.

“Of course, Iivo’s skiing was watched. Iivohan is from Kuopio, Puijo ski club. It felt good, ”says Katja Kinnunen.

One woman says that her husband could not get in now, because while watching the Finnish women’s puddle game, the man excitedly kicked the table. The footstep broke at four points.

Working at Nokia Susanna Patja says that when living abroad, it seems to be more sensitive to Finnish issues than when it is in Finland.

The garden the crowd roars in their hockey shirts as Sweden scores again. 3–0!

There is a homely white area around it, as it has rarely received a lot of snow in Beijing today. Susanna Patja’s Dutch neighbors believed that this opportunity would be canceled due to the snow, which was a nonsensical idea for a Finn.

In addition to watching the game, you can eat pea soup made by the Finnish restaurant Moi in Beijing and creamy and jam-filled buns. According to the ambassador’s opening speech, it is the real Finn, and the almond-colored one is Swedish.

The Finnish and Swedish ambassadors to Beijing have made a joint video before the game, in which they declare that the best team will win. Leena-Kaisa Mikkola speaks Swedish and in the video Helena Sångeland Finnish. The Swedish ambassador has his roots in Finland.

Mikkola says that at events in many countries, he and the Swedish ambassador use Finnish as their secret language.

The video conveys a wonderful Nordic team spirit, but in the game, the athletes mercilessly punch each other.

Consul Saara Gripin The backpack of the Finnish racing team hangs on the shoulder of an incentive hockey shirt. If necessary, he will go to a race bubble isolated from the rest of Beijing, ie where the Finnish athletes, the rest of the team and the journalists are. There are about 400 of them.

The need for a consul’s help could arise, for example, if many Finns are injured at the same time, Grip says. On bubbly grounds, one does not go to Bubble, as returning from there among other Pekingese requires three weeks of quarantine.

In advance, the embassy guided Finns coming to Bubble from Beijing’s strict interest rate rules, but there has been less work during the race than in the normal race, Ambassador Mikkola says.

There would have been a lot of tourists in the city at the usual, interest-free time, and that is when there is a demand for consular services.

There would also have been events during standard time. Mikkola in particular would have liked to have organized a joint event for the race team and the Finns in Beijing here at the ambassador’s residence.

It would have been a memorable moment.

Now the athletes are in the bubble, the rest of us here in the bubble-free garden.

These too winter garden parties are becoming memorable. The third installment is underway, and Finland is gaining momentum just before the end of the game.

“Paint! Paint!” the crowd encourages in the snowy yard.

Finland will win 4–3 in extra time. There are screams and roar in the park. A couple of tears appear.

Ambassador Måola’s mobile phone will receive a congratulatory message from Ambassador Sångeland.

The best team has won.

The garden a music video dear to Mikkola will be shown on the big screen after the game. In it, Finnish soldiers sing:

My Finland is under the stars

My Finland is completely open

I found it while I was wandering around the world

My Finland is the most beautiful country on the groundof

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