Alppiväki once left the skiers of the Ski Association to do their own thing. Millions of euros were uncollected. Now it wants to humbly return to the skiing family, writes Pekka Holopainen.
Pekka Holopainen sports reporter
Friday’s significant skiing news came from the cabinet. The closure of the alpine skiing and freestyle association Ski Sport Finland ry will at least be postponed, and the sports it represents will return to the umbrella of the Ski Federation for the 2024–2025 season at the earliest. The seal of the matter was the chairman of the Federation Council of the Ski Association Arto Tolonen mallet on Thursday night. The matter will be discussed again at the new meeting of the federal council in March at the earliest.
Alppiväki would have liked faster action. Such a situation would have been hard to imagine some 15 years ago.
What happened? Let’s reminisce.
We lived a time sometime around the middle of the decade. Grand sponsor of the national alpine skiing and sailing teams, who excelled as a promoter of the German car brand Esko Kiesi had offered cool store premises to alpinists for a press conference.
The life of two athletes Tanja Poutiainen-Rinteen and Kalle Palander thanks to the skyrocketing international success and the fierce tire-pumping of the commercial media – then also the signatory – the sport was red-hot and sexy.
Before the start of the event held in Herttoniemi, Helsinki, I heard Kies lamenting how the aces of the Alps who bought a sailboat for the Mediterranean had not listened to the patronage’s instructions. In order to tolerate the subtropical conditions, a high-quality air conditioner that cools it down was left unobtained.
The sport dominated
It seemed quite difficult to think of Kies as a story partner Juha Mieto or Marja-Liisa Kirvesniemi. It was clear as day on what kind of skis Finnish skiing would be carried forward from the point of view of economy, attention economy and top sporting success. They would not be narrow cross-country skis or wide downhill skis.
In 2008, the Alpine people decided that the time had come to finally break away from the sports of the umbrella organization, the Ski Federation. A separate sports association, Ski Sport Finland ry, was founded. Big sponsorship money would now walk into its very own nest – there it would find medals and crystal balls clinking, even in pitch darkness.
The end of the first decade of the millennium was a time of separation for the Ski Association, when ski jumping and combined also founded their own Finnjumping ry and the skiers Maastohiihto ry.
The Finnjumping training was a complete disaster as the success of the sports came to a halt. The association was abolished in 2013 with the fewest votes, and the athletes returned to the shelter of the umbrella organization. Shortly after this, the sports association of cross-country skiing, which had taken off on a new flight of success, was run down; Ski Sport Finland was left alone.
Since Finnish skiing has only been represented by one actor, i.e. the Ski Federation, in the direction of the International Ski Federation FIS and the Ministry of Education and Culture, the umbilical cord of Ski Sport Finland has not been completely cut. Of the approximately one million euros in state aid of the skiing association, it has, certainly through hard teeth, received its own grainy fifth.
After all, the association’s goals at the time were to completely break away from public subsidies, because commercial sponsorship money would come in such a way that we would already be in a pinch with it.
Air conditioning problems over
The years passed, and a lot happened, but no longer on the slopes. There were no more Esko Kies, no German quality kies or air conditioning problems on sailing yachts anchored in Monaco. Top sports success collapsed and with it the value of partnership agreements.
For this season, Ski Sport Finland has priced a place in the alpine skiing national team at a maximum of 20,000 deductible euros. The A national team is the size of three athletes. The association’s own capital is around 300,000 euros, with the marketing company Ski Sport Management oy having a marginal surplus.
Now the men of the world have arrived behind the door of the junkies, cap in hand, like Jussilla Koskela in the porch of the parsonage.
The adventure in the Alps is over.