Espoo - Sports

Sports

At the 1952 Summer Olympics, the city's Westend Tennis Hall hosted the fencing events.

Espoo is home to several premier league sports teams. The Espoo Blues play at Barona Areena in the SM-liiga – professional ice hockey league. The club was established in February 1984 as "Kiekko-Espoo" and played their first season in 1984–1985 in the Finnish Second Division. In 1988 they achieved a place on the Finnish First Division and in 1992 they celebrated their promotion to the SM-liiga. The club and the team changed their name in 1998. The name came from the dominant colour of their home jersey. The full name of the club is Blues Hockey Oy.

The Blues are a contender for the title almost every year, but have yet to win the series. They have come second several times though, most recently in 2011.

Another sports club from Espoo, FC Honka, is a football club based in Tapiola in southern Espoo. It was promoted into the Finnish premier division (Veikkausliiga) for the first time in its history at the end of the 2005 season. The manager of the club is Mika Lehkosuo, and it plays its home matches at Tapiolan urheilupuisto. Originally founded in 1953 as "Tapion Honka", it changed its name into FC Honka in 1975.

FC Honka is largely known in Finland for its extensive youth scheme with over 1000 young players playing in various age groups.

Espoo is the birthplace of 2007 Formula One World Champion Kimi Räikkönen, former Dallas Stars forward Jere Lehtinen (three time NHL Selke Trophy winner), former Formula One driver JJ Lehto, professional downhill mountain biker Matti Lehikoinen, professional ten-pin bowling star Osku Palermaa and 2009 European Figure Skating Champion Laura Lepistö.