Athletics has historically been an important part of both Finnish sports history and national identity. Hannes Kolehmainen has been said to "run Finland onto the world map" at the 1912 Summer Olympics , and from the 1920 Summer Olympics to World War II Finland was the second most successful country in athletics, as only the United States managed to collect more Olympic medals. Javelin throw is the only event in which Finland has enjoyed success all the way from the 1900s to this day. Thus, it is currently the most popular athletics event in Finland.

Finnkampen ( Swedish , literally The Finn Battle ), Suomi-Ruotsi-maaottelu ( literally Finland-Sweden-international ) or Ruotsi-ottelu (among Finland-Swedes Sverigekampen ), literally The Sweden Battle , is a yearly athletics international competition held between Sweden and Finland . It is, since the late 1980s , the only athletics international (with only two participating countries) still held at a professional level.