On February 5th, the Estonian Sports and Olympic Museum will open a new ice sports exhibition, "Shine Bright Like the Ice".

In Estonia, when thinking about winter and sports, snow and skiing usually come to mind first. However, the pioneering and significant advances in winter sports here have been made on ice and skates.

 The very first Estonian championships in any sport took place on February 11, 1910, when Estonia's best speed skaters were announced in Tallinn. The first Estonian champion among men was Artur Kukk, and the first female champion was Emma Uhl.

During the 1928 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, where Estonia first debuted, they sent only speed skaters Aleksander Mitt and Christfried Burmeister. Since Mitt started a little earlier, he became the first Estonian to compete in the Winter Games.

The first female Estonian athlete was figure skater Vaike Paduri, who became the champion of the USSR in 1945. Speed ​​skater Ants Antson was the first Estonian to win a title in a major international winter sports competition.

In 1964, he was crowned European champion, and a few weeks later in Innsbruck, he became the first Estonian to win a Winter Olympic gold medal. The youngest and oldest Estonian athletes to have participated in the Olympic Games are figure skaters: Olga Vassiljeva was 14 years and 103 days old when she competed at the 1992 Albertville Winter Olympics, and Eduard Hiop was 46 years and 50 days old at the 1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen Winter Games.

The winter of 2024 brought Estonia a large harvest of medals from various ice sports title competitions and proved that the glory of our ice sports does not have to be sought only in the 20th century. A successful 2024 for Estonian ice sports began on January 7th, when Marten Liiv won silver at the European Championships in 500 m speed skating.

Just a few days later, on January 12th, Aleksandr Selevko brought Estonia its first ever adult title medal in figure skating, winning a silver medal in the singles event at the European Championships. A silver medal from the World Championship joined the previous two medals on April 27th, when Marie Kaldvee and Harri Lill won a brilliant award in the mixed doubles curling.

These silver medals won in a short window of time became an incentive to look back at the most outstanding achievements of our ice sports throughout the 21st century.

The exhibition surrounding you will display medals and success-related items from international competitions of athletes who have represented Estonia in both youth and adult categories, focusing on four ice sports included in the Winter Olympic Games program: speed skating, figure skating, curling and ice hockey. With only a year left before the next Winter Olympic Games, we are keeping our fingers crossed that the brilliant achievements on the ice are here to stay!