Meet Tormi and Janek. The first of them is the mascot of the European Athletics U23 and U20 Championships taking place in Kadriorg Stadium in July, the second… Estonian decathlete Janek Õiglane. It was Janek who chose the right name for the mascot one out of hundreds of name variants.
A total of 160 possible names from Estonia and abroad were submitted to the public name competition via social media and e-mail. Out of all the nominees, the organizing team carefully selected three best name candidates. The pre-selection was based on the premise that the name of the mascot would symbolize the major athletics competitions taking place in Tallinn, would be memorable and easy to pronounce.
As choosing the name is a big responsibility, the right person had to make the choice from the top three – the winner of the 2015 Tallinn U23 European Athletics Championships bronze medal, decathlete Janek Õiglane. The author of the winning name or the “godfather” of the name is Jürgen Lamp.
What is the meaning behind the official mascot name? Tormi means “stormy” in Estonian. “I chose Tormi as the official name of the competition mascot because hopefully, we will have stormy competitions and even better results. The fact that two big competitions are organized at the same place a week apart is such a stormy topic that makes Tormi a very good name and leaves everyone with best memories of the mascot, ”comments Janek Õiglane.
The last major athletics competition of the same caliber took place in Tallinn in 2015, when Janek Õiglane took care of the best result of the Estonian team, winning a bronze medal in the decathlon in the U23 age group.
What does Janek wish for the athletes participating in the competitions? “I wish every young athlete a lot of great emotions, and hope that you are able to enjoy the atmosphere as much as possible and take everything from this competition. From my experience, it can be said that both youth title competitions are very necessary in the transition to adult competitions. Good luck to all athletes! ”
The official international partners of the 2021 U20 and U23 European Athletics Championships are Spar and Le Gruyère, the broadcasting partner is Eurovision and the official cooperation partner is Mondo. The supporters of the competition are Audi, Kalev, NIKE, Postimees, Synlab, Tradehouse, Utilitas and Värska Vesi. The competitions are organized by the Estonian Athletics Association in cooperation with the European Athletics Association, the City of Tallinn and the Ministry of Culture.