Did you believe in 1947 that the Sportsman of the Year title, which was awarded for the first time at that time, would be contested 76 years later?
The annual Sports Gala will take place today in the ice hall in Helsinki. The sports gala, on the other hand, is crowned, as usual, by the selection of the Athlete of the Year.
Every year, it has also become a twist about the values with which the title is awarded.
Iivo Niskanen or Lauri Markkanen?
Individual athlete or team athlete?
The Olympic champion of a sport that is more narrowly contested on a global scale, or a Finnish superstar of a globally major ball sport?
All answers are equally wrong.
It is a completely individual choice, for which there is no clear measure or formula. And when Finland has a long tradition of valuing individual sports and the global growth of team sports is on the other side of the scale, it is easy to create a confrontation between the two.
So it’s clear again that at this time of the year, both the Sportsman of the Year selection and those who choose it end up in tikkunnoka.
But, what a year!
Also, what’s the use of arguing about the future winner of the Athlete of the Year title, when there are several good candidates available.
In addition to the previously mentioned Niskanen and Markkanen, the rally world champion Kalle RovanperäEuropean pole vault champion Wilma Murto and 3000m steeplechase European champion Top Raitanen have put the best on the table. For example, bubbles also bubbled under the surface Mikko Rantanen starred in the Stanley Cup won, Kerttu Niskanen Olympic silver and Matti Suur-Hamarin Paralympic gold and silver.
The Finns’ successful year in sports has given even more momentum to the discussion of naming the best athlete of the year. Some think Markkanen’s non-election is completely incomprehensible. Others say that not rewarding Iivo Niskanen’s performance in an Olympic year would be an indication of the collective stupidity of Finnish sports journalists. The third party shouts that how could Murro’s insane final performance not be worthy of the Sportsman of the Year award?
After all, that’s what the selection is basically looking for, opinions and discussion about them. The responsibility is put on the neck of the voters, and so is the criticism, even though it’s only about that opinion for everyone.
In itself, therefore, there is no pity for those who are faced with a difficult choice.
Fortunately, it’s a little easier this year than, for example, in the “greatest years” of Finnish sports, i.e. 1999. At least when you look at the Sportsman of the Year voting results. We became the athlete of the year with three personal skiing World Cup golds and one World Cup silver. The only team athlete on the list was Teemu Selännewho finished 6th after winning the NHL scoring title.
So will Kalervo Kummolak vote?
Let’s open up a bit about who bears the mentioned responsibility here.
The decision on the Athlete of the Year rests with the press card members of the Sports Journalists’ Association, who are the general secretary Nina Jakonen including 550. Of these, approximately 330 voted in the voting that ended on December 30.
In principle, the association highlights that it curates those with voting rights with a press card. A members, i.e. those who work in the field of sports journalism, receive a card annually after paying the membership fee.
B-members chosen by separate local associations, i.e. persons who “regularly and actively work in sports journalism on the side”, can get a card through a separate application. In this case, it is granted by the board of the Sports Journalist Association.
The highly subjective Athlete of the Year selection, which arouses emotions, also causes criticism of the selection process every year. For example, when an individual athlete beats a team athlete in the vote, it is said that the “javelin and skiing journalists” living in the provinces woke up to vote. According to Jakonen, general secretary of the Sports Journalists’ Association, there are no such “sleeping voters” in the association.
– Every member who works actively and regularly in the field, i.e. in sports journalism, has the right to vote. That is, they regularly follow sports throughout the year. Whether they work as a full-time sports journalist, in other positions in the field, or as an active freelance journalist, Jakonen opens up to Urheilu.
However, opening up the process, number of memberships and curation more often and correcting misunderstandings would serve the association. When, for example, a hockey influencer Kalervo Kummola says that he will “tear up his Sports Journalist membership card”, if Jukka Jalonen and the Finnish men’s national ice hockey team do not win their award categories, confusion is guaranteed about Kummola’s membership.
Urheilu confirmed that Kummola currently does not have the right to vote. His membership goes back decades. Kummola, for example, once wrote for Ilta-Sanom.
Who gets, and to whom it is given
However, the discussion in Finns unfortunately often turns to who doesn’t deserve an award.
The Olympic Committee’s top sports data and communication expert Ilkka Palomäki I think it sums up my own thoughts about the tone of the Athlete of the Year discussion.
– The only thing I would hope for would be to talk about who deserves to be elected, and not argue too much about who doesn’t deserve to be elected, says Palomäki In an interview with Fair Play magazine (you will switch to another service).
It is frustrating to follow the discussion about how alternately the Olympic year or the number of enthusiasts of the sport or some other factor considered to be decisive would be a clear denominator, which is used to justify the inadequacy of another athlete.
Editor of STT Snatch Rulamo on the other hand, aptly tweeted how, for example, the global popularity of a species is used to justify the inadequacy of another.
– With that logic, for example, Iivo Niskanen’s or Kalle Rovanperä’s grit would never be enough, no matter how much he dominates his own sport. And if that’s the case, where is the line where, for example, a basketball player overtakes the world’s best skier? Top 30? Top 100? Being in the NBA at all? Impossible to say objectively, so it’s a matter of taste, says Rulamo in your tweets (you will switch to another service).
When, after a successful year in sports, one tries to justify the success of some athletes as more insignificant than others, I think it is quite toxic as a Finnish sports discussion.
Even if that way of thinking has its place in describing our national character, it would be time for a new era.
The author is a sports journalist at Urheilu, who is not a member of the Sports Journalists’ Association, but would have voted for Iivo Niska as Sportsman of the Year.
The winner of the athlete of the year award will be announced at the Finnish Sports Gala on Thursday evening. will broadcast the Sports Gala live on TV2 from 20:00 and on Areena from 18:00.