The religiosity of young men is increasing. The phenomenon is also visible because religion is no longer considered a private matter in Finland, writes Pekka Holopainen, editor of Urheilu.
Pekka Holopainen sports reporter
In the light of recent information, it is consistent that Tampere Pyrinnön Antti Sainio achieved the 400m hurdles European Junior silver last year in Jerusalem, a city fundamental to several religious views.
One of these is Christianity. In its name, Sainio, 19, gave an exceptional performance in Finnish terms last Sunday in Vaasa, after winning his first overall Finnish championship in his bread category.
The young man arrived in front of the writing medium with his walking stick’s Bible in his hands. Ilta-Sanom Sainio, who came to faith at the age of 16, said that he found strength in his 49.99-second lactate bath by delving into the 37th verse of the 1st chapter of the Gospel of Luke:
– It says that with God everything is possible. It brings self-confidence and gives the feeling that I can do this if there is a higher power involved.
On the same last day of June, a 10-hour time difference in Eugene, Oregon, the fences of the circuit lap were crossed Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, 0.66 seconds slower than Sainio in Vaasa. My world record improved by 0.03 seconds.
Jesus is winging
An extremely deeply believing ME woman watches in public according to his biography, that his faith in Jesus flies over the fences even stronger than his own abilities and work, let alone the professionalism of coaching. In American sports culture, this kind of speech does not deviate much from the norm, and in England it is not surprising that the star of the European Championship Bukayo Saka calls himself God’s Child on Instagram.
But in Finland, Antti Sainio broke a kind of glass ceiling. About the faith of the youth of the same generation is in public spoke, among others, by the young European pole vault champion Juho Alasaari. His Christian convictions are not also secreted by A-national team level footballers Sauli Väisänen or Onni Valakari.
But no one has gone as far in their public confession of faith as Sainio Kaleva on the stage of the Games.
Even the race priest was amazed
For two decades, he worked as a race chaplain for the most important competition teams in Finland, and worked very sensitively and intimately with hundreds of athletes Leena A blanket admits that he was surprised by Sainio’s activities – of course, not in a negative sense as a servant of the Evangelical Lutheran Church.
– Very exceptional activity. At least I don’t remember seeing anything similar in my time as a competitive priest.
Both Huovinen and his colleague who is also profiled in sports Kari Kanala guess Sainio’s performance symbolizing two social, also with research information confirmed development trajectory.
Young men in particular are more religious and conservative than before, and religious values or other beliefs should not be kept under wraps in the opinion of young people, but should be shown.
Since sport is the leading popular movement of young Finland, such megatrends are naturally visible there as well. In Finland, religion has traditionally been considered a private matter. One of the most meritorious figures in the recent history of Suomi sport Tero Pitkämäki is also a staunch member of the state church, but it would have been difficult to imagine Ilmajoki’s spear maestro arriving at the torture bench of the fourth state power waving the Big Book in his hand, quoting the evangelist Luke.
About 64 percent of Finns still belong to the Evangelical Lutheran Church.
The tragedy of Myllylä
From the media symbiosis of faith and sports, the first thing that comes to mind for a large part of older Finns is the skiing legend who died almost exactly 13 years ago, who had a deep faith and publicly confessed his Christianity Mika Myllylä. His difficult last years and sufferings have been described abundantly with vocabulary and imagery familiar from Christianity, at least testing the limits of good taste.
The tragedy of the Olympic winner and his obsession silenced for a few generations even those Finnish athletes who might otherwise have opened up about their spiritual side in public.
Myllylä ended his career in the spring and winter of 2005. A couple of months later, Antti Sainio was born.