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  • Juhishamatti@mastodon.world
    Jun 13, 2026, 8:06 PM

    Jukola is the annual orienteering competition in Finland during a mid-June Finnish summer night and it's pretty much the best sports thing in the world.

    Thousands of participants, everyone from the top of the world to people who go to forest once a year if even that, compete in the same relay competition.

    The start, as pictured in the screencap below, is so beautiful. Almost 2000 athletes with headlights start to run into the forest.

    I've had the pleasure of being there in-person twice.

    Hundreds of meters long line of light in the darkness of summer evening going through a path into the forest, shot from high above.
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Replies

  • Juhishamatti@mastodon.world
    Jun 13, 2026, 8:10 PM

    The competition starts at 23 in the evening and runs until the morning. The competition is split to 7 legs between 7 and 16 kilometers for a total of 81.8 km.

    It's been pouring rain for most of the day so the forest is gonna be damp and wet and slippery.

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  • Juhishamatti@mastodon.world
    Jun 13, 2026, 8:33 PM

    I was in Jukola for the first time in 1993 when I was 5. (Not competing, mainly just running around the camp site.)

    It was love at first sight and I've been watching it ever since every year.

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  • Juhishamatti@mastodon.world
    Jun 13, 2026, 9:21 PM

    This is sports entertainment at its best.

    edit. to be specific, this is not a missing video feed. it's the darkness of the night. eventually, someone with a headlight emerges from the darkness.

    A darkness of the night with pretty much nothing visible but an on-screen graphic about first leg finish and time 1:18:39.
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