The top sports director admits that the transfer of funding from betting winnings to the state’s normal budget causes concern. Heikkinen considers that he has gained the trust of the sports community.
– Remember, boys, that even though a sports career doesn’t always offer great moments of celebration, you won’t remember any phase of your life as fondly in the future.
Young wrestlers, even the one about to go to the Olympics Tino Ojala and Jere Heinonen were listening intently to a well-known figure from the public, who on Tuesday unexpectedly appeared on the molski of Helsinki’s Urhea campus to talk with them.
Leading the elite sports unit of the Olympic Committee Matti Heikkinen had an intensive work day in Helsinki, which in the evening culminated in the first Finnish selections for the Olympic Games in Paris. Heikkinen says that he was practically out of action for a few weeks, because the pneumonia that struck as an aftereffect of the corona virus put the still very fit master skier on the bed for a long time.
Whereas Heikkinen is known to the above-mentioned wrestler friends specifically from the public, according to many Finnish top sports players, he has operated there far too rarely recently.
Two well-known Finnish elite sports figures who work very closely with Heikkinen say that the word elite sports no longer carries weight in the Olympic Committee. They estimate that the other main branches of the organization, which has grown into a huge sky, i.e. sports lifestyles and club work, have dragged it down.
In these main industries outside of elite sports, some of the elite sports people use such language that it is not appropriate to reproduce it on an age-restricted website.
The message of top sports
Due to the sensitivity of the subject, the persons speaking anonymously state that Heikkinen’s very low public profile has not improved the situation in the least.
– There is no way the Olympic Committee is currently getting the message of top sports or its promotion out, says another.
Heikkinen, who works mainly remotely from Jyväskylä and is rarely seen at the Helsinki headquarters, is clearly prepared for the question; the pitch’s message has reached his ears as well. At the end of Helsinki, the activities of the top sports unit are mostly led by the conkar responsible for sports and competition programs Leena Paavolainen.
– I don’t see shouting the loudest as the most appropriate course of action. I have focused on everyday work at the interface of sports, i.e. where top athletes are made. I and the top sports unit in general have received good feedback from those whose feedback means the most, Heikkinen, who has been in his job since September 2022, tells Urheilu.
Say goodbye to betting money
Heikkinen is very well aware that the coming years can be a cold ride due to the pressure to cut the public finances, even for top sports, whose public funding will be transferred from betting profit funds to the normal budget procedure at the turn of the year. There, top sports compete for euros with, for example, national defense.
– Evil screams when it’s cut everywhere. Athletes should also remember this. To put the situation into perspective from the point of view of elite sports, if the fence planned for the eastern border costs 300–400 million euros, then the entire sports budget of the Ministry of Education and Culture is about 160 million, of which elite sports will then get their share.
The number of employees in the elite sports unit has dropped from 22 to 17 in recent years. It has been seen as a clear sign that elite sports are no longer as important an activity in the Olympic Committee as they once were.
– We still have an area to work in the Olympic Committee, but we don’t have the resources. In an international comparison, however, our use of money is very impressive and efficient, says Heikkinen.
The selection schedule spoke
At the moment, the elite sports unit is especially busy with the Paris Summer Olympics, which will start in a little over eight months. The elite sports unit spends approximately five million euros on coaching and athlete support for the different sports of the Paris project, as well as expert services.
– Success in the Summer Olympics is most likely for those who have a good basic level. It’s not very likely for them, who should be overachieving.
On Tuesday, the Olympic Committee selected the first athletes for the Paris Games. According to Urheilu’s information, the committee’s staff had discussed whether the publication of the selections should be postponed, because the limited admission of Russia to the Paris Games has even caused outrage towards the international Olympic movement and the Finnish Olympic Committee.
– Talks about boycotts or postponing elections are exactly what Russia is aiming for here. We should not kneel before negative forces. The athletes have earned their place in Paris and will get it.