According to Tallinn Mayor Jevgeni Ossinovski (SDE), the events of the European Sports Capital have been primarily designed with local residents in mind. “We encourage citizens to be more active and live healthier lives. We offer diverse opportunities to try different sports and are creating additional facilities for sports activities in the city,” said Ossinovski.

The Sports Capital’s main program is divided into twelve themed months. January, focuses on skiing, and will provide residents with the chance to try ski jumping, snowboard cross, cross-country skiing lessons, and practice at a biathlon shooting range on artificial snow brought to the Song Festival Grounds.

Indoor activities during the month will include ski waxing workshops and the opportunity to explore ski sledges designed for people with mobility impairments.

The skiing day activities will take place on Saturday, January 18 between midday and 4 p.m. Pre-registration is required for those who wish to take part in cross-country skiing lessons and waxing workshops, and is possible from January 13 online here.

At 5 p.m., Finland’s 2006 Eurovision-winning metal band LORDI will take to the stage.

The European Capital of Sport’s main program continues on Saturday, February 22 with a combat sports day at Sõle Sports Center. March will focus on ice sports, April on hiking and Nordic walking, May on running, June on cycling, July on beach sports, August on ball games, September on orienteering, October on fitness, November on brain games, and December on disc golf.

Detailed descriptions of all the sports days will be published a month before each event online here.

“The goal of these sports days is to allow people to explore different activities in a relaxed environment and find a new hobby. There’s no need to worry about competition, as the events are introductory training sessions,” said Ossinovski.

Step Challenge starts strong

On January 1, the “7,000 Steps” challenge began in the Estonian-developed fitness app FitSphere. The aim of the year-long challenge is for participants to collect 2.4 million steps each, which is an average of just under 7,000 steps per day.

In the first week, more than 5,300 participants registered, collectively taking 250 million steps – equivalent to five trips around the Earth. The total number of steps taken by participants in the challenge are displayed in real time here.

First major competition starts this week

The international major competition program, led by sports federations, gets underway this Saturday, January 11, with the Estonian U-20 ice hockey team competing in the I Division B group tournament at Tondiraba Ice Hall. Estonia’s opponents include Japan, Ukraine, Italy, Poland, and South Korea.

From January 28, the Tondiraba Ice Hall will also host the European Figure Skating Championships. Among the Estonian competitors are Niina Petrõkina in the women’s singles and brothers Aleksandr and Mihhail Selevko in the men’s singles.

“In Tallinn’s major sporting events, it is possible to cheer for top athletes in their fields, who serve as role models for many, especially our young athletes. We can certainly support our own athletes participating in these events by showing them the encouragement of a home audience,” said Ossinovski.

In total, Tallinn will host more than twenty  international sports events in 2025.

More information is available here and here.

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