The Finnish Olympic Committee has been criticized for its poor Olympic success and for the fact that elite sports have been left with too little of a role in the committee.
Emma Hyuppa,
Petri Raivio
Finland’s failure to win an Olympic medal at the Paris Summer Games has fueled discussion about the state of the country’s top sports and criticism of the Finnish Olympic Committee.
For example, sports influencers Henrik Dettmann and Riikka Pakarinen pointed out that the Olympic Committee cannot be successfully responsible for both elite sports and moving the entire nation at the same time. In its strategy, the Olympic Committee has named both as its task.
Director of the elite sports unit of the Olympic Committee Matti Heikkinen responded to the criticism while visiting ‘s A-studio on Monday evening.
Would it be easier if you could focus only on elite sports in the committee? Heikkinen was asked.
– If we want medals, then we really have to focus only on elite sports. It is then a different matter what the organizations or sports federations feel is necessary in their own strategies. But we have limited resources and this too must be done together. We must have a unified direction and a clear division of roles for what we are doing, Heikkinen said.
The former chairman of the Finnish Sports Association also discussed the current state of Finnish elite sports in the A-studio Sami Itaniwho thinks it is important for the Olympic Committee to clarify its operations.
– It is unclear to me what the Olympic Committee wants to achieve and what the most important goals are. And I don’t mean that mobilizing the people is socially much more important (than elite sports), but it has its own organization. For example, sports associations and numerous other organizations, such as regional organizations, Itani stated.
Heikkinen is not considering leaving
The result of zero medals for the first time in Finland’s 116-year Olympic history is a huge disappointment, although it cannot be considered a big surprise. The actual medal favorites were very few in Finland’s 56-strong team.
In the two previous Summer Olympics, Finland reached the medal stand only with difficulty: in Rio de Janeiro 2016, a boxer was responsible for the medal haul Mira Potkonen with his bronze medal, in the 2021 Games in Tokyo, Finland received two bronze medals, Potkonen again from boxing and Matti Mattsson from swimming.
50 kilometer walk world champion and coach Valentin Kononen said on Sunday in ‘s Olympic studio that the process of elite sports and the culture of winning have been lost in the Olympic Committee for a long time. According to Kononen, the annual goals have not been measured or analyzed.
Matti Heikkinen, who returned from Paris on Monday, told A-studio that he understood Kononen’s criticism. He stressed several times that the result of the Finnish team and the issues that affected it will be carefully analyzed during the fall.
The top sports director does not intend to resign from his position, but he recognizes the need for changes.
– We went for two medals and it was not achieved. Yes, we really have the time to gather a group in Finland during the fall. We need to have a fresh, brisk discussion about what we want to do in the future so that the summer sports in Los Angeles return to the medal base, Heikkinen said.
Itani: Big strategic mistakes have been made
Heikkinen reminds that the standard of individual sports is globally high today. However, it has been difficult for Finland to keep up with the speed of other Nordic countries in summer sports. For example, Denmark and Norway, which are in the same size class, each received almost a dozen medals in Paris.
– It must also be said that top sport is raw and honest. The result in Paris won’t improve by explaining, and now is the time for in-depth analyzes of where we failed and what good there might have been in the background, Heikkinen said.
According to Sami Itani, the Olympic team’s result of zero medals is the result of big strategic mistakes that have been made over the years. Itani thinks it’s time to admit that elite sports organizations and especially their management have failed.
– I’m not only referring to the current leaders, but also to other decision-makers in recent years. It has not been possible to help athletes sufficiently or in the right way. And yes, in Finnish sports management it is typically customary to throw the middle management under the bus, and the big bosses continue. Sorry Matti, but I don’t think there will be any changes in your upstairs, Itani said.