If the Paris Olympics go all the way like this, we should even consider changing personnel in the Olympic Committee’s elite sports unit, writes Pekka Holopainen.
Pekka Holopainen sports reporter
2.8. 22:03•Updated 2.8. 22:59
PARIS. I spent the evening of July 31, 1992 at my good friend’s wedding, where the latest results of the Barcelona Olympics were not available as they are now, by glancing at the phone.
Submachine gunner Juha Hirvi and mixed swimmer Jani Sievinen had acquired such positions in the preliminary competition that the party room was feverishly waiting for news of the blue-white double gold.
The mood of the wedding guests bitten by the Olympic fly died down for a moment when the news came that both Finns finished fourth in their finals. It was a downright disaster, a depression.
Or so it felt 32 years ago. It wouldn’t feel anymore.
When the eighth competition day of the Olympics starts on Saturday, the best and already very respectable Finnish achievement is the boxer Pilha Kaivo-ojan at least secured Fifth place. He is one victory away from an Olympic medal.
What if it remains the best ranking of the entire Finnish team in these games? It is no longer an unlikely scenario by any means.
The Finns, who are the biggest or even burdened with some kind of medal expectations, have appeared one after the other, quite frankly, like deer in headlights, if that kind of imagery is allowed.
Rough ceiling
On Friday, the roof was unusually fierce, after the shift Martti Puumalainen, Eetu Kallioinen, Sami Välimäki and Ella Junnila were eliminated from the medal candidates.
Watch Martti Puumalainen’s short Olympic career and disappointing interview in the videos below:
Ella Junnila’s height qualification was not successful:
In Paris, there are three more wrestlers like this, i.e. wrestlers who got into the very difficult first block Arvi Savolainena javelin thrower Oliver Helander and a mortar thrower Silja Kosonen. Even at the Marseille sailing venue, a medal is probably within the limits of possibilities.
Finland will no longer set fire to any of the default medal favorites in these cookies. The basic level of any athlete in Paris is not enough for a medal.
Finland has fallen out of the global summer Olympic sports requirement level like an eno boat.
Already close to 2016 in Rio
The success trend is indicated by the fact that two of Finland’s three previous Summer Olympic medals were won by a forty-year-old housewife from Nokia Mira Potkonen. Zero medal competitions have been coming for a long time.
Even at the turn of the 21st century, the idea of a zero-medal Summer Olympics was completely unusual. However, it had to be realized already in Rio de Janeiro 2016.
The blue cross flag was unexpectedly waved in Brazil by an Ecuadorian referee Clemente Carillo. He looked at the reigning Olympic champion of Potkonen’s match Katie Taylor against, which ended in a draw, but rated Potkonen as the slightly better player.
Looking at the history of the sport, such a solution – putting an unknown Finn ahead of a well-known Olympic champion – was surprising, almost sensational.
It was needed, however, so that Finland, which is hanging on thanks to its medals from a century ago, in the 14th place in the all-time medal statistics of the Summer Olympics (104 gold, 86 silver and 120 bronze), is not yet put on the pole of shame.
Among the comparisons, Sweden has, among other things, a freestyle swimming gold from Paris and a giant player in the table tennis final.
Denmark has a number of golden, or at least medal-like, moments ahead in, for example, badminton, handball and horse riding.
Norway will soon let go by Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Karsten Warholm in athletics.
Olympic Committee for transparency
Let’s also make this clear: if Finland leaves Paris without a medal, the personnel of the Olympic Committee’s elite sports unit should be evaluated very critically, even though they play with buttons in the international comparison. In a large part of the summer Olympic sports, believable activities in Finland exist mainly on paper.
In any case, the language of the consultant has been heard enough at that point. The entire field of Finnish sports has been subjected to the Olympic Committee’s box games. If the result in the toughest international competition is this, power must also be accompanied by responsibility.