25 years ago …
Towards a TV sport
In December 1995, the Finnish broadcasting company Yle started the preparations in Vaskiluoto, Vaasa, with the live-broadcasted Park World Tour premiere 13/6/1996 in sight. Journalist and commentator Leif Lampenius (pictured on the right of TV director Raimo Piltz, on the site two weeks before the event), recalls the first steps of an important evolution:
Long since, it was a major privilege to play a tiny role in the early years of the PWT. I do really think about all that, now and then, and it still feels valuable for me.
I remember how interesting and inspiring it was to work with all the broadcasting productions of a new type. We felt we joined something that certainly was going to be important in the evolution of the sport of orienteering.
It felt like a kind of trend setting. And I think it really was. Especially I remember the early stages in Vaskiluoto in Vaasa, in the fortress island of Suomenlinna in front of Helsinki, and the one in the city centre of Jyväskylä with its ridge. And I recollect them with warmth.
At that time people in general did not necessarily believe in orienteering as a TV sport. But changes of that viewpoint started. And, as we know, during the following decades much more has happened. And that has been a very enjoyable progress. Orienteering is today an exciting TV sport. A happy story.
Leif Lampenius, TV journalist and commentator Borgå, Finland
Find the stories behind the 25 Park World Tour years in the book “Made for loving it”. Order it here.