On Wednesday, the Olympic Committee announced changes to the top sports management. Matti Heikkinen will not continue as a top sports director. Leena Paavolainen will not continue as the director of sports and competition programs, nor in the service of the Olympic Committee.
Chairman of the Olympic Committee Jan Vapaavuori justified the solution with a new beginning. Criticism of the Olympic Committee rose after the Paris Olympics, when Finland did not receive any medals from the Olympic Games for the first time in its history.
President of the Sports Association Riikka Pakarinen criticized the exit passes of top sports bosses to on Thursday.
– If we start on such a line that heads are dropped, then I personally feel that the responsibility lies expressly with the highest management, Pakarinen states.
According to Pakarinen, the Olympic Committee has a place for a broader review at this point than “starting to drop individual people indiscriminately.”
In his opinion, the problems are much deeper in the Olympic Committee than in individual elite sports leaders. According to the athletics boss, the Olympic Committee should hold a discussion together with the sports federations about what is wanted from the Olympic Committee in the future.
According to chairman Vapaavuori, the position of director of the elite sports unit will be up for grabs in the near future. According to Vapaavuori, Leena Paavolainen’s laundromat will not necessarily accept anyone anymore.
Pakarinen emphasizes a broader discussion about the Olympic Committee rather than a talk about what kind of person would be suitable to succeed Heikkinen and Paavolainen.
– First of all, you have to think about what the role of the Olympic Committee is, make a strategic plan, and then based on that, see which type fits that strategy. Now here, perhaps, we went a little backwards into the tree, Pakarinen says.
The same concern in ski association
Chairman of the Ski Association Sirpa Korkatti also carries the concern of Wednesday’s Olympic Committee bulletin after. The board of the Olympic Committee emphasized several change measures in it, but according to Korkat, the sports federations were not really mentioned in any way.
– However, sports associations in Finland own their own sport and own the top sport of that sport. In sports federations, work is mainly done for top sports. I would have expected that it would have appeared in the Olympic Committee’s announcement and recognized as an important issue, says Korkatti.
Like Pakarinen, Korkatti hopes that sports associations will be included in the future discussion in good time.
– And not just to ask for an opinion on some individual issues, but to build the vision of what kind of support from the Olympic Committee and what kind of role of the top sports unit will get the best possible out of this machine of ours, Korkatti describes.
What kind of role could that be? According to Korkat, the need for an elite sports unit must now be genuinely and openly discussed. Pakarinen sees it as a service organization.
CEO of the Olympic Committee Taina Susiluoto according to sports federations, after Thursday’s news, practical questions have arisen, among other things, about support processes for enhancing the sports and how top sports services are managed. According to Susiluoto, things are being handled as normal and replacement arrangements are currently being made.
The CEO did not go into more detail about the reasons for Paavolainen’s and Heikkinen’s termination of employment and justified the silence with labor law issues. The CEO has nothing bad to say about Heikki.
– Matti is a good manager of networks. He creates trust and is a good listener, says Susiluoto.
According to Susiluoto, the working committee of the Olympic Committee’s board will meet on Friday and go through matters related to the recruitment of Heikkinen’s successor. The starting point for recruitment is how to get more top international medal candidates to Finland in the future.
Susiluotto now has one wish for Finnish top athletes.
– I think now is a really important moment for the Finnish top sports network to stop together at the point that we all have to be able to do better. My hope is that now we look broadly and with open eyes and dare to make bold game moves, says Susiluoto.
Dettmann wants to broaden the discussion
Director of the Finnish Basketball Association’s coaching and former head coach of the Finnish men’s national basketball team Henrik Dettmann progressed According to Ilta-Sanom in the Olympic Committee’s previous search for a top sports boss to the end in 2022.
Dettmann will not comment to Urheilu now, whether he intends to apply for the Olympic Committee’s top sports director or not.
– In one union, the operational director says in the media that the result is the responsibility of the unions. The union leader of the same organization says that it is the responsibility of the Olympic Committee. That’s where the level of discussion is concentrated, Dettmann describes.
According to Dettmann, first of all you have to think about what a top sports director is for and then think about what kind of profile a person is looking for.
– At the same time, the concept of Finnish sporting success should finally be broadened to a broader one than the Olympic medals, whose value as symbols of top sports work well done, I do not deny in any way, Dettmann states.
He raises, for example Lauri Markkanen. In August, the Finnish basketball star signed a five-year contract extension with the NBA, worth 238 million US dollars.
– Yes, Lauri Markkanen’s contract is certainly equivalent to one Olympic medal, if the man earns 85 dollars a minute even while sleeping, Dettmann stated.
Dettmann does not believe in the success of a foreign bachelor as a top sports director, because the work is so stakeholder-based.
– The ultimate problem remains that the amateurs, i.e. the trust management, work above the professionals. It is not a winning hand in the world’s most specific and competitive market, i.e. in top sports, says Dettmann.