Finland’s Olympic tradition in the sport of 83 medals continues, but it was ensured by a completely different athlete than was guessed in advance plans, writes Pekka Holopainen.
Pekka Holopainen sports reporter
There was already a little panic among the species people. The Olympic Games in Paris will start in less than four months, and Finland did not have a single country for wrestling. It is a sport in which Finland has been represented for as long as the country in general, i.e. 118 years, has participated in the Olympic Games. 83 medals, 29 of them gold!
In last fall’s World Championships, the Olympic place was not really close. With the number one name of the last years Arvi Savolainen has had its own problems, as have other recent value competition medalists, ie Elias Kuosmasen and Konsta Mäenpää.
The gaze then turned to the youth Jonni Sarkkinen, who last year reached the under-23 European Championship at the age of 20. Father of talent, executive director of the Painiliitto and former head coach of Greco-Roman wrestling Pasi Sarkkinen however, has systematically wanted to cool down the biggest expectations even for this year. The father has emphasized to the point of boredom how the son’s time will only come later and Paris should not be talked about except as a possible big bonus.
When Jonni Sarkkinen on Friday sensationally, in the brutally hard 77 kg category, won a place in the competition in Baku, the tactic chosen by the father in the direction of publicity turns out to be less surprisingly very wise. It’s clear that the father knew his son’s potential even before this big bang.
Sarkkinen’s overwhelming points victory over Hungary’s World Championship runner-up From Zoltan Levais surprised many in the toughest wrestling circles. A Finnish expert of the highest level informed the undersigned before the semi-final of the qualifying tournament that “Unfortunately, Jonni doesn’t seem to have very big seams”.
It’s comforting that this is what a meritorious and experienced Hungarian also most obviously thought. Levai was in a panic when Sarkkinen, who had wrestled fresh, got the first turn on the mat and reversed the 3–0 lead. After that, he countered Levai’s attack attempts with points as if he had wrestled such matches for years. The show was downright crazy.
The story of Sarkkinen, 21, also contains a lesson that even in Finland, the success of young people in value competitions can be translated into adult success very quickly, just like in many comparison countries. You don’t have to spend five years building the foundations of a stone house, as has often been the custom in Finnish coaching philosophy. That’s how the career went.
Sarkkinen is one of the youngest athletes on the Finnish team in Paris, and right now he is on such a curve that his development is progressing explosively. Great success is sought from France right away.
After this, they will still wrestle for the last Olympic places in the world qualifiers, and Sarkkinen now took the biggest pressure off his colleagues. In the ancient traditional sport, one does not feel the shame of not waving a towel in front of a Finnish wrestler’s face at the corner of the Olympic mat.
Finally, a quiz question. Who is the previous Finnish Olympic athlete whose mother is a prize winner in her own sport? Tuuli Matinsalo achieved e.g. in aerobics World Championship gold in the 1990s. My own, unverified Veikkaus is a marathoner Janne HolménEuropean endurance running champion by Nina Holmén son.
Sarkkinen now in Baku made almost the same bang as Holmen did in the European Championships in Munich in 2002.
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