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Top 25 Rankings as of March 16, 2012[1]
Rank	Change	Team	Points
1		United States	2166
2		Germany	2163
3		Japan	2114
4		Brazil	2093
5		Sweden	2057
6		France	2020
7		Canada	1971
8	1	North Korea	1970
9	1	England	1965
10		Australia	1956
11		Italy	1936
12		Denmark	1913
13	1	Norway	1908
14		Netherlands	1889
15		Iceland	1851
16		South Korea	1843
17		Spain	1842
18		China PR	1828
19		Russia	1820
20		Finland	1795
21	1	Scotland	1775
22	1	Mexico	1768
23		Ukraine	1767
24		New Zealand	1752
25	1	Czech Republic	1730

The FIFA Women's World Rankings for football were introduced in 2003, with the first rankings published in March of that year, as a follow-on to the existing FIFA World Rankings for men. FIFA Women's World Rankings attempt to compare the strength of internationally active teams at any given time.

Specifics of the ranking system[link]

• FIFA Women's World Rankings are based on every international match a team ever played, going back to 1971, the first FIFA-recognized women's international between France and the Netherlands. (The men's ranking system considers only matches in the last four years.)
• FIFA Women's World Rankings are implicitly weighted to emphasize recent results. (The men's results are explicitly weighted on a sliding scale.)
• FIFA Women's World Rankings are only published four times a year. Normally, rankings come out in March, June, September and December. (In World Cup years, dates may be adjusted to reflect the World Cup results.)

The first two points result in a FIFA Women's World Rankings system which is far more similar to the Elo football rating system; ratings for teams with fewer than 30 matches should be considered provisional..

Leaders[link]

 id:Germany   value:rgb(1,   1,    1)
 id:USA   value:rgb(0,0.16,0.4)

 bar:Leaders width:25 mark:(line,black) align:left fontsize:S 

 from:16/06/2003 till:24/10/2003 shift:(20,-5) text:"United States" color:USA
 from:24/10/2003 till:25/03/2005 shift:(20,-5) text:"Germany" color:Germany
 from:25/03/2005 till:24/06/2005 shift:(20,-5) text:"GER" color:Germany
 from:20/04/2005 till:30/04/2005 shift:(46,-3) text:"and" color:USA
 from:20/05/2005 till:30/05/2005 shift:(66,-7) text:"USA" color:USA
 from:24/06/2005 till:16/03/2007 shift:(20,-5) text:"Germany" color:Germany
 from:16/03/2007 till:05/10/2007 shift:(20,-5) text:"United States" color:USA
 from:05/10/2007 till:21/03/2008 shift:(20,-5) text:"Germany" color:Germany
 from:21/03/2008 till:end shift:(20,-5) text:"United States" color:USA

To date Germany and the USA have been the only two teams to have led the rankings. Between them, they held the top two spots from the third set of rankings in October 2003, immediately after the 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup, through the December 2008 rankings. Germany was third behind Norway in the first two rankings, and dropped out of the top two in March 2009, replaced by Brazil, though their successful 2009 Euro title defense pushed them back into the top two for the September 2009 ranking, where they have remained.

See also[link]

• Algarve Cup
• Elo football rating
• FIFA Women's World Cup
• FIFA Men's World Rankings
• Statistical association football predictions
• Women's association football around the world

References[link]

External links[link]

• FIFA/Coca-Cola Women's World Ranking at FIFA.com
• Women's World Ranking Procedure at FIFA.com

v t e International women's football FIFA · World Cup · Olympics · Algarve Cup · Cyprus Cup · U-20 World Cup · U-17 World Cup · World Rankings · Player of the Year · FIFA Ballon d'Or · Teams · Competitions  · Federations · Codes Asia AFC – Women's Asian Cup · U-19 · U-16 Africa CAF – Women's Championship · U-20 · U-17 North America, Central America and Caribbean CONCACAF – Women's Gold Cup · U-20 · U-17 South America CONMEBOL – Sudamericano Femenino · U-20 · U-17 Oceania OFC – Women's Championship · U-20 · U-17 Europe UEFA – Women's Championship · U-19 · U-17 Non-FIFA NF-Board – Women's Viva World Cup Games All-Africa Games • Asian Games • Pan American Games • Pacific Games • Southeast Asian Games See also International men's football.

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A ranking is a relationship between a set of items such that, for any two items, the first is either 'ranked higher than', 'ranked lower than' or 'ranked equal to' the second. In mathematics, this is known as a weak order or total preorder of objects. It is not necessarily a total order of objects because two different objects can have the same ranking. The rankings themselves are totally ordered. For example, materials are totally preordered by hardness, while degrees of hardness are totally ordered.

By reducing detailed measures to a sequence of ordinal numbers, rankings make it possible to evaluate complex information according to certain criteria. Thus, for example, an Internet search engine may rank the pages it finds according to an estimation of their relevance, making it possible for the user quickly to select the pages they are likely to want to see.

Analysis of data obtained by ranking commonly requires non-parametric statistics.

Strategies for assigning rankings[link]

This article may contain original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding references. Statements consisting only of original research may be removed. More details may be available on the talk page. (July 2008)

It is not always possible to assign rankings uniquely. For example, in a race or competition two (or more) entrants might tie for a place in the ranking. When computing an ordinal measurement, two (or more) of the quantities being ranked might measure equal. In these cases, one of the strategies shown below for assigning the rankings may be adopted.

A common short-hand way to distinguish these ranking strategies is by the ranking numbers that would be produced for four items, with the first item ranked ahead of the second and third (which compare equal) which are both ranked ahead of the fourth. These names are also shown below.

Standard competition ranking ("1224" ranking)[link]

In competition ranking, items that compare equal receive the same ranking number, and then a gap is left in the ranking numbers. The number of ranking numbers that are left out in this gap is one less than the number of items that compared equal. Equivalently, each item's ranking number is 1 plus the number of items ranked above it. This ranking strategy is frequently adopted for competitions, as it means that if two (or more) competitors tie for a position in the ranking, the position of all those ranked below them is unaffected (i.e., a competitor only comes second if exactly one person scores better than them, third if exactly two people score better than them, fourth if exactly three people score better than them, etc.).

Thus if A ranks ahead of B and C (which compare equal) which are both ranked ahead of D, then A gets ranking number 1 ("first"), B gets ranking number 2 ("joint second"), C also gets ranking number 2 ("joint second") and D gets ranking number 4 ("fourth"). In this case, nobody would get ranking number 3 ("third") and that would be left as a gap.

Modified competition ranking ("1334" ranking)[link]

Sometimes, competition ranking is done by leaving the gaps in the ranking numbers before the sets of equal-ranking items (rather than after them as in standard competition ranking). The number of ranking numbers that are left out in this gap remains one less than the number of items that compared equal. Equivalently, each item's ranking number is equal to the number of items ranked equal to it or above it. This ranking ensures that a competitor only comes second if they score higher than all but one of their opponents, third if they score higher than all but two of their opponents, etc.

Thus if A ranks ahead of B and C (which compare equal) which are both ranked ahead of D, then A gets ranking number 1 ("first"), B gets ranking number 3 ("joint third"), C also gets ranking number 3 ("joint third") and D gets ranking number 4 ("fourth"). In this case, nobody would get ranking number 2 ("second") and that would be left as a gap.

Dense ranking ("1223" ranking)[link]

In dense ranking, items that compare equal receive the same ranking number, and the next item(s) receive the immediately following ranking number. Equivalently, each item's ranking number is 1 plus the number of items ranked above it that are distinct with respect to the ranking order.

Thus if A ranks ahead of B and C (which compare equal) which are both ranked ahead of D, then A gets ranking number 1 ("first"), B gets ranking number 2 ("joint second"), C also gets ranking number 2 ("joint second") and D gets ranking number 3 ("third").

Ordinal ranking ("1234" ranking)[link]

In ordinal ranking, all items receive distinct ordinal numbers, including items that compare equal. The assignment of distinct ordinal numbers to items that compare equal can be done at random, or arbitrarily, but it is generally preferable to use a system that is arbitrary but consistent, as this gives stable results if the ranking is done multiple times. An example of an arbitrary but consistent system would be to incorporate other attributes into the ranking order (such as alphabetical ordering of the competitor's name) to ensure that no two items exactly match.

With this strategy, if A ranks ahead of B and C (which compare equal) which are both ranked ahead of D, then A gets ranking number 1 ("first") and D gets ranking number 4 ("fourth"), and either B gets ranking number 2 ("second") and C gets ranking number 3 ("third") or C gets ranking number 2 ("second") and B gets ranking number 3 ("third").

In computer data processing, ordinal ranking is also referred to as "row numbering"....

Fractional ranking ("1 2.5 2.5 4" ranking)[link]

Items that compare equal receive the same ranking number, which is the mean of what they would have under ordinal rankings. Equivalently, the ranking number of 1 plus the number of items ranked above it plus half the number of items equal to it. This strategy has the property that the sum of the ranking numbers is the same as under ordinal ranking. For this reason, it is used in computing Borda counts and in statistical tests (see below).

Thus if A ranks ahead of B and C (which compare equal) which are both ranked ahead of D, then A gets ranking number 1 ("first"), B and C each get ranking number 2.5 (average of "joint second/third") and D gets ranking number 4 ("fourth").

Ranking in statistics[link]

In statistics, "ranking" refers to the data transformation in which numerical or ordinal values are replaced by their rank when the data are sorted. For example, the numerical data 3.4, 5.1, 2.6, 7.3 are observed, the ranks of these data items would be 2, 3, 1 and 4 respectively. For example, the ordinal data hot, cold, warm would be replaced by 3, 1, 2. In these examples, the ranks are assigned to values in ascending order. (In some other cases, descending ranks are used.) Ranks are related to the indexed list of order statistics, which consists of the original dataset rearranged into ascending order.

Some kinds of statistical tests employ calculations based on ranks. Examples include:

• Friedman test
• Kruskal-Wallis test
• Rank products
• Spearman's rank correlation coefficient
• Wilcoxon rank-sum test
• Wilcoxon signed-rank test

Ranks can sometimes have non-integer values for tied data values. Thus, in one way of treating tied data values^{[citation needed]}, when there is an even number of copies of the same data value, the statistical rank (being the median rank of the tied data) can end in ½.

Rank function in Excel[link]

The rank function in Microsoft Excel assigns competition ranks ("1224") as described above. For some statistical purposes, that is not the desired result - for instance, it means that the sum of ranks for a list of a given length changes depending on the number of ties. Pottel has described a user defined ranking function which assigns fractional ranks to ties to keep the sum consistent.^[1]

Examples of ranking[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

• In politics, rankings focus on the comparison of economic, social, environmental and governance performance of countries, see List of international rankings
• In many sports, individuals or teams are given rankings, generally by the sport's governing body
  • In football (soccer) national teams are ranked in the FIFA World Rankings and, unofficially, in the World Football Elo Ratings.
  • In the Olympic Games, each member country (NOC) is ranked based upon gold, silver and bronze medal counts in the Olympic medal rankings.
  • In snooker, players are ranked using the Snooker world rankings
  • In ice hockey, national teams are ranked in the IIHF World Ranking
  • In golf, the top male golfers are ranked using the Official World Golf Rankings
• In relation to credit standing, the ranking of a security refers to where that particular security would stand in a wind up of the issuing company, i.e., its seniority in the company's capital structure. For instance, capital notes are subordinated securities; they would rank behind senior debt in a wind up. In other words the holders of senior debt would be paid out before subordinated debt holders received any funds.
• Search engines rank web pages by their expected relevance to a user's query using a combination of query-dependent and query-independent methods. Query-independent methods attempt to measure the estimated importance of a page, independent of any consideration of how well it matches the specific query. Query-independent ranking is usually based on link analysis; examples include the HITS algorithm, PageRank and TrustRank. Query-dependent methods attempt to measure the degree to which a page matches a specific query, independent of the importance of the page. Query-dependent ranking is usually based on heuristics that consider the number and locations of matches of the various query words on the page itself, in the URL or in any anchor text referring to the page.
• In Webometrics it is possible to rank institutions according to their presence in the web (number of webpages) and the impact of these contents (external inlinks=site citations), such as the Webometrics Ranking of World Universities
• In video gaming, players may be given a ranking. To "rank up" is to achieve a higher ranking relative to other players, especially with strategies that do not depend on the player's skill.
• The TrueSkill ranking system is a skill based ranking system for Xbox Live developed at Microsoft Research
• A bibliogram ranks common noun phrases in a piece of text.
• In language, the status of an item (usually through what is known as "downranking" or "rank-shifting") in relation to the uppermost rank in a clause; for example, in the sentence "I want to eat the cake you made today", "eat" is on the uppermost rank, but "made" is downranked as part of the nominal group "the cake you made today"; this nominal group behaves as though it were a single noun (i.e., I want to eat it), and thus the verb within it ("made") is ranked differently from "eat".
• Academic journals are sometimes ranked according to impact factor; the number of later articles that cite articles in a given journal.

See also[link]

• League table
• ordinal measurement

References[link]

External links[link]

Look up ranking in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Ronen Perry, The Relative Value of American Law Reviews: A Critical Appraisal of Ranking Methods
• Ronen Perry, The Relative Value of American Law Reviews: Refinement and Implementation
• A MATLAB Toolbox for computing rankings using five different methodologies
• TrueSkill Ranking System

Rémi Gaillard
Gaillard in 2011
Born	(1975-02-07) February 7, 1975 (age 37)
Occupation	Pranker, Humorist
Years active	1999–present
Home town	Montpellier, France
Internet information
Web alias(es)	Rémi Gaillard
Web hosting service(s)	YouTube
Website
nimportequi.com.

Rémi Gaillard (born 7 February 1975 in Montpellier, France) is a French humorist who uploads videos on YouTube. After losing his job at a shoe store, Rémi then began to use his free time to have fun and run some pranks on the public. He is the seventeenth most subscribed comedian on YouTube.^[1]

Gaillard gained attention in the French media after performing a well-documented series of pranks, including an appearance disguised as a Lorient soccer player in the 2002 Coupe de France final match, during which he took part in the winners' celebrations and was greeted by the then president of the French Republic, Jacques Chirac. He is also an extremely talented soccer player and has posted videos of his skills.

Gaillard has appeared in several sport events, TV game shows and political rallies.

Concept[link]

Rémi Gaillard became famous for his videos where he displays an "outrageous" style of humour, challenging public norms.^[2] Recurring themes include dressing up as and interpreting the behaviour of various animals in public, racing unsuspecting car-drivers whilst dressed up as Mario, and numerous provocative interactions with parking enforcement officers and the police.

Through his various stunts and pranks Rémi is involved in Culture jamming. In his videos, he is often found mocking the law and induces his viewers to think twice about the norms in today's society.

Gaillard's satirical motto is C'est en faisant n'importe quoi qu'on devient n'importe qui (literally, "It's by doing anything, that one becomes anybody").

Sketches[link]

The majority of Gaillard's sketches are of the hidden camera type, often disguising himself in outlandish costumes for his pranks. In some videos, Gaillard is accompanied by a crowd of friends, giving the action a flashmob-like nature.

Gaillard shot his first sketch in 1999^[2] with a friend in Montpellier, and in 2001, he launched his website nimportequi.com.^[2]

He gained notoriety in 2002 at the finals of the Coupe de France. Disguised as an FC Lorient player, he celebrated the team's victory with the players, shook the hand of the then French President Jacques Chirac and signed autographs, without anyone realizing that he was not a player on the team.

He achieved further YouTube notoriety through his Rocky Balboa parodies, Pac Man costume prank, Mario Kart prank, and his soccer videos. His recent pranks often entail dressing up in large animal costumes; namely, a pig, dog, cat, turtle, snail, bee, shark, kangaroo, spider, beaver, fly, gorilla, chicken, penguin, giraffe, rabbit, butterfly, bat and a sheep.

He occasionally ran into some trouble while shooting his videos but never of the legal kind. He does not have a police record. ^[3]

In 2007, he gained the attention of journalists from Le Monde and made occasional television appearances.^{[citation needed]}. Gaillard also appeared in Orangina, Pepsi, Durex and LG commercials.^{[citation needed]}

On his official site, Gaillard claims over 1.35 billion views on his videos on the web.^[4]. As each of his videos claim at least 1,000,000 views. His most popular video, "Mario Kart", has over 47 million views alone.^[5]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Gaillard's channel on YouTube
• Gaillard's Dailymotion channel

Ai Miyazato 宮里 藍
Miyazato at the 2010 Women's British Open
Personal information
Born	(1985-06-19) 19 June 1985 (age 27) Higashi, Okinawa, Japan
Height	5 ft 2 in (1.57 m)
Nationality	Japan
Residence	Higashi, Okinawa, Japan
Career
Turned professional	2004
Current tour(s)	LPGA of Japan Tour (joined 2004) LPGA Tour (joined 2006) Ladies European Tour
Professional wins	24
Number of wins by tour
LPGA Tour	8
Ladies European Tour	2
LPGA of Japan Tour	15
Other	1
Best results in LPGA Major Championships
Kraft Nabisco C'ship	T15: 2007
LPGA Championship	T3: 2006, 2010
U.S. Women's Open	T6: 2009, 2011
Women's British Open	T3: 2009
Achievements and awards
Ladies European Tour Order of Merit winner	2011

Miyazato Ai (宮里 藍, Miyazato Ai^?, born 19 June 1985) is a Japanese professional golfer who currently competes on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour and the LPGA of Japan Tour (JLPGA). She was the top-ranked golfer in the Women's World Golf Rankings for three periods of time in 2010.

Early life and amateur career[link]

Miyazato was born in Higashi, Okinawa, Japan. As an amateur in 2003, she won a professional event on the LPGA of Japan Tour – the Dunlop Ladies Open in Miyagi Prefecture, where she was attending high school at the time.

Professional career[link]

In her 2004 rookie season on the JLPGA Tour she won five tournaments. In February 2005, she represented Japan along with Rui Kitada winning the inaugural Women's World Cup of Golf.^[1] In 2005, she won six events on the JLPGA tour, and was the #2 ranked player on the JLPGA Tour behind Yuri Fudoh.

In winning the Japan Open Championship at age 20 in 2005, Miyazato became the youngest player on the JLPGA Tour to win a major. Furthering the notion that Miyazato has revived the JLPGA Tour after the retirement of Ayako Okamoto, over 32,000 people, the largest gallery ever to attend a JLPGA event, witnessed the final day of that tournament.

She dominated the 2005 U.S. LPGA Q-School and secured her tour card, enabling her to compete in the 2006 season. She finished under par for four of the five qualifying rounds, and finished 12 strokes ahead of the closest competitor, setting a record for the largest margin of victory.^[2] Back in Japan, on 15 December, she played the opening rounds of the Okinawa Open, becoming the first Japanese woman to compete in a domestic men's professional event, although she failed to make the cut for the final rounds.

Miyazato earned her first LPGA Tour win at the 2009 Evian Masters, shooting 14-under par 274 to tie Sophie Gustafson who she then beat on the first playoff hole.^[3]

In 2010, she won four of the first nine official tournaments on the LPGA Tour and on 21 June rose to number 1 in the Women's World Golf Rankings. She held the spot for only one week and was replaced by Cristie Kerr who held the spot for three weeks, before Miyazato regained the spot again on 19 July, by a margin of 0.0006 average points.^[4]

On 22 August 2010, Miyazato won for the fifth time in 2010 at the Safeway Classic with a two stroke victory over Cristie Kerr and Na Yeon Choi. She regained the number 1 spot in the World Rankings, which had been briefly retaken by Kerr. She gave up the top spot again to Kerr on 25 October.

In 2011, Miyazato won the Ladies European Tour (LET) Order of Merit despite only playing in two events on that tour. The tour has no minimum tournament requirements for membership and her win at the Evian Masters, whose purse is much larger than most LET events, earned her enough to top the list.^[5]

On 21 April 2012, Miyazato won the inaugural LPGA Lotte Championship by four strokes over Azahara Muñoz and Meena Lee the victory gives her eight in her LPGA career.

She has endorsements deals with Suntory, Bridgestone Corporation, Japan Airlines, Oakley, Honda, Hisamitsu, Mitsubishi Electric and NTT Docomo.

Her older brothers, Kiyoshi Miyazato and Yūsaku Miyazato are also professional golfers. She is not related to fellow Japanese LPGA Tour player Mika Miyazato.

Professional wins (24)[link]

LPGA Tour (8)[link]

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	To par	Margin of victory	Runner(s)-up	Winner's share ($)
1	26 Jul 2009	Evian Masters	69-66-70-69=274	–14	Playoff	Sophie Gustafson	487,500
2	21 Feb 2010	Honda PTT LPGA Thailand	67-67-70-63=267	–21	1 stroke	Suzann Pettersen	195,000
3	28 Feb 2010	HSBC Women's Champions	69-71-69-69=278	–10	2 strokes	Cristie Kerr	195,000
4	2 May 2010	Tres Marias Championship	63-72-71-67=273	–19	1 stroke	Stacy Lewis	195,000
5	20 Jun 2010	ShopRite LPGA Classic	66-67-64=197	–16	2 strokes	M. J. Hur	225,000
6	22 Aug 2010	Safeway Classic	66-67-72=205	–11	2 strokes	Na Yeon Choi Cristie Kerr	225,000
7	24 Jul 2011	Evian Masters	68-68-67-70=273	–15	2 strokes	Stacy Lewis	487,500
8	21 Apr 2012	LPGA Lotte Championship	71-65-70-70=276	–12	4 strokes	Meena Lee Azahara Muñoz	255,000

LPGA Tour playoff record (1–0)

No.	Year	Tournament	Opponent(s)	Result
1	2009	Evian Masters	Sophie Gustafson	Won with birdie on first extra hole

JLPGA Tour (15)[link]

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	Margin of victory	Runner(s)-up
1	28 Sep 2003	Miyagi TV Cup Dunlop Ladies Open (as an amateur)	–5 (70-70-71=211)	1 stroke	Mari Katayama Hiroko Yamaguchi
2	7 Mar 2004	Daikin Orchid Ladies	–10 (70-66-70=206)	3 strokes	Kaori Higo
3	13 Jun 2004	Suntory Ladies Open	–11 (69-70-70-68=277)	6 strokes	Hiroko Yamaguchi Toshimi Kimura
4	20 Jun 2004	APiTA Circle K Sunkus Ladies	–6 (69-69-72=210)	1 stroke	Yuri Fudoh
5	24 Oct 2004	Masters GC Ladies	–11 (69-68-68=205)	1 stroke	Miho Koga
6	21 Nov 2004	Daio Paper Elleair Ladies Open	–14 (66-67-69=202)	3 strokes	Chieko Amanuma Rui Kitada
7	15 May 2005	Vernal Ladies	–13 (69-64-70=203)	8 strokes	Akiko Fukushima
8	22 May 2005	Chukyo TV Bridgestone Ladies Open	–7 (65-74-70=209)	Playoff	Nikki Campbell
9	21 Aug 2005	New Catapillar Mitsubishi Ladies	–10 (66-75-68=209)	3 strokes	Mi-Jeong Jeon Hiromi Mogi
10	2 Oct 2005	Japan Women's Open Golf Championship	–5 (69-69-72-73)	5 strokes	Akiko Fukushima
11	30 Oct 2005	Hisako Higuchi IDC Otsuka Kagu Ladies	–14 (67-68-67=202)	7 strokes	Julie Lu Nikki Campbell Kaori Higo Shinobu Moromizato
12	20 Nov 2005	Daio Paper Elleair Ladies Open	–12 (69-70-65=204)	5 strokes	Shiho Oyama Woo-Soon Ko Kasumi Fujii
13	10 Sep 2006	JLPGA Championship Konica Minolta Cup	–6 (70-68-74-70)	3 strokes	Hyun-Ju Shin
14	24 Sep 2006	Miyagi TV Cup Dunlop Ladies Open	–2 (70-73-71=214)	3 strokes	Shiho Oyama
15	11 Oct 2009	Sankyo Ladies Open	–4 (74-70-68=212)	1 stroke	Mayu Hattori Mi-Jeong Jeon

Tournament in bold denotes major championships in JLPGA Tour.

Other (1)[link]

• 2005 Women's World Cup of Golf (with Rui Kitada)

Results in LPGA majors[link]

DNP = did not play
CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" = tied
Green background for a win. Yellow background for a top-10 finish.

LPGA Tour career summary[link]

• official as of 22 May 2012 ^[6]

JLPGA prize money[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ai Miyazato

• Official website (Japanese)
• Ai Miyazato at the LPGA Tour official site
• Ai Miyazato at the LPGA of Japan Tour official site (Japanese)
• Ai Miyazato at the Ladies European Tour official site

This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (March 2012)

Lydia Koidula

Lydia Emilie Florentine Jannsen, (24 December [O.S. 12 December] 1843 – 11 August [O.S. 30 July] 1886), known after her pen name Lydia Koidula was an Estonian poet. Her sobriquet means ‘Lydia of the Dawn’ in Estonian. It was given her by the writer Carl Robert Jakobson. She is also frequently referred to as Koidulaulik – ‘Singer of the Dawn‘.

Writing in Estonia, like elsewhere in Europe, was not considered a suitable career for a respectable young lady in the mid-nineteenth-century. Koidula’s poetry and her newspaper work for her populist father, Johann Voldemar Jannsen (1819–1890) remained anonymous. In spite of this, she was a major literary figure, the founder of Estonian theatre, and closely allied to Carl Robert Jakobson (1841-1882), the influential radical and Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald (1803-1882), writer of the Estonian national epic, Kalevipoeg (The Son of Kalev).

Biography[link]

Lydia Jannsen was born in in Vändra, Pärnu County, Governorate of Livonia (now in central Estonia). The family moved to the nearby county town of Pärnu in 1850 where, in 1857, her father started the first local Estonian language newspaper and where Lydia attended the German grammar school. The Jannsens moved to the university town of Tartu, the most progressive town in Estonia, in 1864. Nationalism, including publication in indigenous languages, was a very touchy subject in the Russian Empire but the rule of Czar Alexander II (1855-1881) was relatively liberal and Jannsen managed to persuade the imperial censorship to allow him to publish the first national Estonian language newspaper in 1864. Both the Pärnu local and the national newspaper were called Postimees (The Courier). Lydia wrote for her father on both papers besides publishing her own work. In 1873 she married Eduard Michelson, a Latvian army physician, and moved to Kronstadt, the headquarters of the Russian navy near St. Petersburg. In 1876-78 the Michelsons visited Breslau, Strasbourg and Vienna. Koidula lived in Kronstadt for 13 years but despite spending her summers in Estonia, she never stopped feeling inconsolably homesick. Lydia Koidula was the mother of three children. She died on August 11, 1886 after a long and painful illness. Her last poem was Enne surma- Eestimaale! (Before Death, To Estonia!).

Works[link]

Lydia Koidula. Same image is used on an Estonian banknote

Koidula’s most important work, Emajõe Ööbik, (The Nightingale of the Emajõgi [the Mother River]), was published in 1867. Three years earlier, in 1864, Adam Peterson, a farmer, and Johan Köler, a fashionable Estonian Saint Petersburg portraitist, had petitioned the czar for better treatment from the German landlords who ruled Estonia, equality and for the language of education to be Estonian. Immediately afterwards they were taken to the police where they were interrogated about a petition that ‘included false information and was directed against the regime’. Adam Peterson was sentenced to imprisonment for a year. Two years later, in 1866, the censorship reforms of 1855 that had given Koidula’s father a window to start Postimees were reversed. Pre-publication censorship was re-imposed and literary freedom was curtailed. This was the political and literary climate when Koidula started to publish. Nevertheless, it was also the time of the National Awakening when the Estonian people, freed from serfdom in 1816, were beginning to feel a sense of pride in nationhood and to aspire to self-determination. Koidula was the most articulate voice of these aspirations.

German influence in Koidula’s work was unavoidable. The Baltic Germans had retained hegemony in the region since the 13th century, throughout German, Polish, Swedish and Russian rule and thus German was the language of tuition and of the intelligentsia in 19th century Estonia. Like her father (and all other Estonian writers at the time) Koidula translated much sentimental German prose, poetry and drama and there is a particular influence of the Biedermeier movement. Biedermeier, a style which dominated ‘bourgeois’ art in continental Europe from 1815 to 1848, developed in the wake of the suppression of revolutionary ideas following the defeat of Napoleon. It was plain, unpretentious and characterised by pastoral romanticism; its themes were the home, the family, religion and scenes of rural life. The themes of Koidula’s early Vainulilled (Meadow Flowers; 1866) were certainly proto-Biedermeier, but her delicate, melodic treatment of them was in no way rustic or unsophisticated, as demonstrated in the unrestrained patriotic outpourings of Emajõe Ööbik. Koidula reacted to the historical subjugation of the Estonian people as to a personal affront; she spoke of slavery and the yoke of subordination as if from personal experience. By the time of the National Awakening in the 1860s, Estonia had been ruled by oppressive foreign powers - Danish, German, Swedish, Polish and Russian - for over 600 years. In this context, she was conscious of her own role in the destiny of the nation. She once wrote to a Finnish correspondent: "It is a sin, a great sin, to be little in great times when a person can actually make history".

The Estonian literary tradition started by Kreutzwald continued with Koidula but whereas The Bard of Viru tried to imitate the regivärss folk traditions of ancient Estonian, Koidula wrote (mostly) in modern, Western European end-rhyming metres that had, by the mid 19th century, become the dominant form . This made Koidula’s poetry much more accessible to the popular reader. But the major importance of Koidula lays not so much in her preferred form of verse but in her potent use of the Estonian language. Estonian was, still, in the 1860’s, in a German dominated Baltic province of Imperial Russia, the language of the oppressed indigenous peasantry. It was still the subject of orthographical bickering, still used in the main for predominantly patronising educationalist or religious texts, practical advice to farmers or cheap and cheerful popular story telling. Koidula successfully used the vernacular language to express emotions that ranged from an affectionate poem about the family cat, in Meie kass (Our Cat) and delicate love poetry, Head ööd (Good Night) to a powerful cri de coeur and rallying call to an oppressed nation, Mu isamaa nad olid matnud (My Country, they have buried you). With Lydia Koidula, the colonial view that the Estonian language was an underdeveloped instrument for communication was, for the first time, demonstrably contradicted.

Drama[link]

Memorial stone for Lydia Koidula at her birthplace near Vändra

Koidula is also considered the "founder of Estonian theatre" through her drama activities at the Vanemuine Society (Estonian: Vanemuise Selts), a society started by the Jannsens in Tartu in 1865 to promote Estonian culture. Lydia was the first to write original plays in Estonian and to address the practicalities of stage direction and production. Despite some Estonian interludes at the German theatre in Tallinn, in the early 19th century, there had been no appreciation of theatre as a medium and few writers considered drama of any consequence, though Kreutzwald had translated two verse tragedies. In the late 1860s, both Estonians and Finns started to develop performances in their native tongues and Koidula, following suit, wrote and directed the comedy, Saaremaa Onupoeg (The Cousin from Saaremaa) in 1870 for the Vanemuine Society. It was based on Theodor Körner’s (1791-1813) farce Der Vetter aus Bremen, (The Cousin from Bremen) adapted to an Estonian situation. The characterisation was rudimentary and the plot was simple but it was popular and Koidula went on to write and direct Maret ja Miina, (aka Kosjakased; The Betrothal Birches, 1870) and her own creation, the first ever completely Estonian play, Säärane mulk (What a Bumpkin!). Koidula’s attitude to the theatre was influenced by the philosopher, dramatist, and critic Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729–1781), the author of Erziehung des Menschengeschlechts (The Education of the Human Race; 1780). Her plays were didactic and a vehicle for popular education. Koidula’s theatrical resources were few and raw – untrained, amateur actors and women played by men - but the qualities that impressed her contemporaries were a gallery of believable characters and cognizance of contemporary situations.

At the first Estonian Song Festival, in 1869, an important rallying event of the Estonian clans, two poems were set to music with lyrics by Lydia Koidula: Sind Surmani (Till Death) and Mu isamaa on minu arm (My Country is My Love), which became the unofficial anthem during the Soviet occupation when her father's Mu isamaa, mu õnn ja rõõm (My Country is My Pride and Joy), the anthem of the Estonian Republic between 1921 and 1940, was forbidden. Koidula’s song always finished every festival, with or without permission. The tradition persists to this day.

Memorial Museum of Lydia Koidula[link]

A branch of the Pärnu Museum, the museum gives an overview of the life and work of poet Lydia Koidula and her father Johann Voldemar Jannsen (author of the lyrics of Estonian anthem), important figures in Estonian national awakening period in the 19th century.

The Koidula museum is located in the Pärnu Ülejõe schoolhouse. The building was constructed in 1850 and has a unique interior. It was the home of Johann Voldemar Jannsen and the editorial office of the Perno Postimees newspaper until 1863, now it is under protection as a historical monument. Jannsen’s elder daughter, poet Lydia Koidula grew up in the house. It is the main task of the museum to keep alive the memory of Koidula and Jannsen and to introduce their life and work in the context of the period of national awakening in Estonia through the permanent exposition. There is a Monument of Lydia Koidula in the citycenter of Pärnu next to the historical building of Victoria Hotel on the corner of Kuninga and Lõuna street. The monument dates to 1929 and was the last work by famous Estonian sculptor Amandus Adamson.

Bibliography[link]

Wikisource has original works written by or about: Lydia Koidula

Estonian Wikisource has original text related to this article: Lydia Koidula

• Loone Ots. The History of Estonian Literature. University of Tartu.
• Lydia Koidula. Sirje Olesk & Peep Pillak (2000).
• Estonian Literature. Endel Nirk (1987).
• Estonia and the Estonians by Toivo U.Raun (2001).