Finland is clearly getting its smallest Olympic team in the pool in more than 30 years. The Kasvio family may still make great Finnish Olympic history in Paris, writes Pekka Holopainen.
Pekka Holopainen Sports journalist
The World Swimming Championships in Fukuoka, Japan ended the other Sunday, and they were suddenly bundled up for Finland: in next year’s Olympic trips, one place in the semi-finals was lost. Sports expert Ville Kallinen summed up the competition aptly. The Finnish team lacked performance both physically and mentally. In terms of personnel turnover, the Uimaliitto office at the ME level could have a place for a strict sport analysis.
In 1988, at the Olympic Games in Seoul, Finland was represented in the pool only by breaststroke Petri Suominen, but big things were happening in the background. Finland sent no fewer than 12 swimmers to the next two Olympic Games, and never less than five after that. Between 1992 and 2021, there were six final places and three medals. Swimming became a very significant part of Finland’s Summer Olympic experience – a view that seemed utopian in the 1980s.
Just under a year before the opening of Paris, the Olympic swimming that follows threatens to become a complete pancake for Finland, both in terms of the number of athletes who pass the selection screen and above all in terms of swimming success.
Mattsson already inside
No Finn has swum a time qualifying for direct selection; display time is until next June. Having frozen in the semi-finals in Fukuoka Checkmate Mattsson’s of course, the ranking time is practically enough to call the race. However, the 200-meter breaststroke moved to the next level in Fukuoka. In Paris, Mattsson’s Tokyo-era medal condition would take him to the last places in the Olympic final.
The density of the sieve is illustrated by the fact that the valid SE time would be enough to directly place in 4 out of 28 individual Olympic journeys. One of these four trips is the men’s 50m freestyle, which the record holder Ari-Pekka Liukkonen the action no longer suggests that Olympic level is a serious goal. But another such trip, the men’s 200-meter freestyle, has a great story in the making.
A fabulous talent
The SE man does not seek to admire the Eiffel Tower Matias Koskibut this fairy tale’s talented little brother, attached to Georgia Tech’s tough swim team Tomas Koski. The American Finn is still completely raw from the point of view of the physical requirements of top swimming, but the direct race limit is only 1.5 and the race invitation less than a second away. The guy has a fierce long-distance race medal potential no later than 2025. He hasn’t been spoiled by too much training; there is enough reserve.
Now it looks like Koski is most likely to be with Mattsson in Paris, but his word has to be said Kalle Mäkinenalso with a 50 meter freestyle expert training in the USA.
The only female candidate for Paris that can be taken seriously right now is, oddly enough, only 17 years old, a long-distance talent Lunch Vegetable, whom Antti-father took Finland’s first modern Olympic medal in Barcelona 1992. At the daughter’s age and with the father’s coaching, even a seven-second fast record improvement in the 400-meter medley is not impossible. That would bring an Olympic spot.
At the same time, Kasvio’s family would make Finnish summer Olympic history; there would be representatives directly in the three descending generations. On the winter side, this honor fell Esa, Ville and To Emmi Pelton 2018.
Esa and Jani Sievinen. Ari Jaakkola and Antti Kasvio. Martti Hanski and Vesa Gloves. Mirjami Seppälä and Hanna-Maria Seppälä. Marko Malvela and Jere Hård and Ari-Pekka Liukkonen. Eetu Karvonen and Matti Mattsson.
Finland’s most successful swimmers have always been products of their coaches, not the system. The frenzy of the Swimming Association, the Olympic Committee and the Urhea Academy to concentrate national top swimming activities in Helsinki has greatly surprised sports circles.
You don’t have to wonder about it when you look at the swimming pools where working Finns try to go to Paris: they are located in Pori, Kauniainen, Atlanta and Auburn.
Pekka Holopainen
The author is a columnist based in Pori and the only sports reporter who has been selected as Journalist of the Year in Finland.
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