Jesse Jokinen does not want to say publicly why the coaching relationship with Saga Vanninen ended. On the other hand, enough can be said about the general appreciation of coaching.
At the weekend, the Finnish Sports Federation issued a statement that maybe a little we knew how to wait. A septuagenarian Saga Vannisen21, and coach Jesse A river the cooperation that started in 2022 will end, and the athlete will start preparing for the World Cup season in Tokyo in a new, yet to be announced training pattern.
Jokinen and Vanninen’s period together was very divided. In his career, Vanninen, who won no less than four junior competition gold medals, took his record 6391 points in Götzis in May 2023, finished 9th at the World Championships in Budapest and achieved his first adult competition medal, silver, at the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow last spring.
This was followed by a very difficult outdoor track season, when Vanninen had to stop at the European Championships in Rome in June and finished 15th at the Olympic Games in Paris. The preparation for both value competitions was interrupted by back pains, the cause of which has not been disclosed.
An athlete’s injury or overload is often due to the fact that the control of the exercises has not been strict enough and too much of the exercises have been done alone.
For Urheilu, Jesse Jokinen believes that this was not the case. Jokinen lives in the Lahti area, Vanninen trains in Tampere. Vanninen’s previous coach Matti Liimatainen stopped coaching in 2022 and moved away from Tampere.
Keeps quiet about the details
– I don’t think that the problems were caused by the lack of close training. With the help of the funding from the Olympic Committee and the Sports Federation, I was able to be in Tampere a lot, even several days in a row, says Jokinen, but he does not deny that the distance would have made cooperation difficult at times.
Someone does not want to say why and on whose initiative the cooperation ended or whether third parties got involved. Athletics circles have wondered whether it has not been possible to find a permanent local coaching solution for an athlete of Vanninen’s level, who is considered the country’s most potential. Jokinen says that he is happy to share his views on this topic.
– The opportunity for paid local coaching in athletics is too few in Finland, it’s no secret. It also leads to the fact that coaching rarely looks like a top sport from the outside, says Jokinen, who has memorized every bend and detail of highway 12 over the course of two years.
When Vanninen and Jokinen’s cooperation in 2022 began, there was also talk of the coach settling in Tampere near the athlete, but this never materialized.
Ugly realities
Jokinen stresses that it does not in any way mean Finnish coaches’ skills or professional ambition, but dull everyday realities, such as personal finances. Jokinen says that he has witnessed many times with his own eyes how an otherwise functional pattern between coach and athlete becomes downright impossible due to these everyday realities.
– I myself have been lucky and have been able to coach professionally for ten years as an entrepreneur. On a general level, I have been thinking a lot about this appreciation of coaching, for example in the direction of clubs or athletes, and how it could be improved in Finland. This is an extremely important topic that is not covered enough in the media. I have no answers.
No SUL contract
In Finland, there is still an idea that top coaching should be found where the athlete wants to live. According to Jokis, this is a past world.
– Of course, there must be a willingness not to make compromises in any area, when in global competition there are systems in which there is certainly no need to make them.
Jokinen was the Sports Federation’s multi-match manager, but the employment contract has ended. In Tampere, he also coached two other competitors in addition to Vannine, but he admits that this cooperation will become difficult when the funding channel, which was largely dependent on Vannine, closes. Jokin does not want to open his thoughts about the continuation of his coaching career at all.
The expert responsible for power sports in the elite sports unit of the Olympic Committee Tommi Pärmäkoski says that the new coach is being surveyed by the Olympic Committee and the Sports Federation, where the director of training and coaching is also looking for Vannis Jarkko Finni is a former 10-a-side player and a meritorious match coach.