Orienteering is really for everyone – you can try it as a runner (in one the categories divided by gender/age/difficulty) or as a one of the audience during some important events. You will enjoy both ways.
As a sport for everyone
One of the biggest advantages of orienteering is that it can be done by everyone who is at least able to walk slowly. Young or very old? Doesn’t matter, there are courses suited for you, short and easy or short and difficult. Good runner or poor one? You will also find your category there – and you can compete with the others or concentrate just on yourself. Or just enjoy a fun or adventures which orienteering brings. You can walk all the time and virtually nobody will see it, because there is no audience, just other runners who compete on their courses. The others are willing to help you if you ask (just don’t try to ask elite runners during important event, they won’t stop and help you unless you are totally lost and crying or injured), but otherwise they are busy with their own courses.
Finnish forest
It’s possible to begin in every age. Lots of orienteerers started as small children and lots of them in their forties or even older. It’s truly the sport for whole family. Orienteerers are usually very keen to show you basics of the sport and help you as much as possible. It’s not rare to see world-class runners describing what is orienteering to someone who never hears about it. This sport can easily become your all-life passion or stay as one of the activities you are doing. Just try and see.
For audience
Orienteering could be seen ”in action” both on TV or internet broadcast. Nowadays a broadcast is not totally reliable on TV cameras, but uses GPS-tracking too – so movement of runners can be seen all their race – even if they are somewhere deep in the forest. The audience in arenas of big events doesn’t miss anything too, because there are big screens displaying situation from forest and often also some short leg through the event centre, which competitors run as a part of their course, and of course finish.
Audience watching GPS tracking
In recent years orienteering also tried to move this sport closer to the audience by other meanings. One of the most remarkable milestones was creation of a sprint distance in the very end of 20th century. And there is still some development of new disciplines such as knock-out sprint – set on example of cross-country skiing.
The atmosphere on some of the biggest events can be breath-taking (such as on some World Orienteering Championships – WOC) with several thousand people big crowd supporting their favorite runners and the others too.
If you will try either first or second, orienteering will welcome you warmly. It’s a nice sport – you will find it like that.
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