Shooting athlete Aleksi Lepä’s father died suddenly on Friday. Competition priest Leena Huovinen, who has experienced several Olympics, says that the team is prepared for tragic situations.
Shooting athlete of the Finnish Olympic team Aleksi Leppä competed on Sunday in the air rifle qualification. The Olympic debut was overshadowed by great sadness, because Leppä heard just a couple of days earlier that her father Marko Leppä is dead.
A father who coached his son died on Friday after a sudden illness on the plane. He was traveling to France to watch his son’s Olympic debut.
Alper was emotional after qualifying. The Finn did not make it to the finals.
– Today has been perhaps the most difficult day of my life. At the same time, I am so happy that I am at the Games. At the same time, I would have liked to see that father had been watching these games, Leppä said and was moved to tears.
– I know that dad is proud and that’s why I want to dedicate this competition to dad.
This is how the Finnish team is prepared
The shooters are in the town of Chareauroux. Finnish competition priest Leena Huovinen on the other hand, influence in Paris, where most of the Finnish competition team is.
Huovinen is eleven times the chaplain of the Finnish Olympic team. According to Huovinen, this is the first case of death in his time that has affected Finnish Olympic team athletes or other team members during the Games.
– Death always stops us, whether it happens suddenly or expectedly. It is important not to leave loved ones alone. Death often comes tragically. Then there are hardly any words, Huovinen says.
Huovinen speaks on a general level that everyone deals with grief in their own way. There are many professionals in the Finnish Olympic team, from whom you can get help if necessary.
– It certainly affects everyone, but the athletes focus on their own performances. Athletes can think about how to handle it. The event is carried out in smaller groups or one-on-one.
Shared grief
Huovinen has not yet met Aleksi Leppä. He believes that Leppä has received all the possible support he needs at the moment in the shooters’ competition village.
Born in 1965, Marko Leppä was well-known in Finnish shooting sports. He worked at the Sports School of the Finnish Defense Forces as a summer sports training coordinator and shooting bullet sports coach. He worked in the shooting sports association for a long time, for example as the chairman of the competition committee.
Although the grief naturally touches Aleksi Lepä’s family and loved ones the most, through his own background Leppä was well known to the Finnish shooting sports community.
– Even though he was not a member of the team, he is still Aleksi’s father. He was a well-known person for shooting athletes, Huovinen says.
Also the director of coaching of the Finnish Shooting Sports Association Ville Häyrinen emphasized that the tragedy affects the whole team. He described Aleksi Lepä’s performance at the Olympics as strong.
– He was able to pull himself together really well after yesterday’s difficult day and was really focused on his own competition, Häyrinen said.
– I am very proud of Aleks that he competes in this situation and is still able to perform at that level.