Lotta Kemppinen has been chosen as the Helsinki Athlete of the Year. On 7 March 2021, Kemppinen won silver in the women’s 60 metres at the European Athletics Indoor Championships held in Toruń, Poland. Kemppinen has also twice broken the Finnish record for the 60 metres, which now stands at 7.16 seconds, recorded by Kemppinen on 20 February 2021. She represents the Helsinki-based HIFK-Friidrott rf athletics club. The Helsinki Athlete of the Year is also awarded a EUR 10,000 stipend, which is given out annually on Helsinki Day.
On Helsinki Day, awards will also be given out to the Helsinki Sports Club of the Year, the Helsinki Coach of the Year, and the Young Helsinki Athlete of the Year.
The winner of the Helsinki Sports Club of the Year is the orienteering club Helsingin Suunnistajat ry. The club has taken equality into account extensively in its operations. The club has prepared a responsibility programme entitled ‘Reilu peli - Eettiset periaatteet’ (‘Fair Play – Ethical Principles’), which is based on the shared values of the club: we engage in recreation together, we can be trusted and we strive for openness and the ideals and goals of Fair Play, the code of ethics that the entire sports community is committed to.
Even amid the coronavirus pandemic, the orienteering club has managed to provide its adult athletes, children, young people and fitness enthusiasts with a wealth of opportunities to continue engaging in the sport and even find new ways of doing so. One of the club’s aims is to maintain and increase the number of young orienteerers by organising a wide range of activities with different goals. The Helsinki Sports Club of the Year is awarded a EUR 5,000 stipend.
The Helsinki Coach of the Year is Saara Niemi, the coach of the women’s Naisten Liiga ice hockey team of HIFK. Niemi has played an important role championing and raising the profile of women’s ice hockey. In just a short period of time, she has managed to coach her team from a regional division into Naisten Liiga, the elite league for women's ice hockey in Finland, where HIFK came in third during the 2020–2021 season. The Helsinki Coach of the Year is awarded a EUR 2,500 stipend.
The Young Helsinki Athlete of the Year is badminton player Nella Nyqvist. Nyqvist has broken through to the top of her sport internationally at a very young age. In November 2020, she won the bronze medal at the European Junior Championships for U19 players at the age of 14, becoming the only person in the history of the championships to have won bronze at such a young age. In addition to winning medals, Nella is already ranked the top player in Finland and has a spot on Finland’s national adult team. The Young Helsinki Athlete of the Year is awarded a EUR 2,500 stipend.
