The Badminton Federation is proposing Kalle Koljos to be selected for the Paris Olympic Games and not Joakim Oldorff, who just won European Championship bronze. The final choice is left to the Olympic Committee’s top sports individual.
On the eve of the Olympic summer, there is a selection conflict in Finnish top sports. The selection situation is very tight, above all in the Badminton Association. There are two eligible male players, i.e. a recent EC bronze medalist Joakim Oldorff21, and who has already represented Finland at the Tokyo Games 2021, who achieved European singles bronze in the same year Kalle Koljonen30.
Neither of them can change their positions in the sport’s Olympic ranking, which closes with Koljonen in 57th place and Oldorff in 59th place. Both have their advocates in the Badminton Association. On the one hand, the Badminton Association has always nominated the player who reached the highest place in the Olympic ranking for the Olympic team, but on the other hand, Oldorff is seen as the sport’s great hope for the future, who is displacing Koljonen from the position of the country’s number one player.
The association presents Koljos
According to information obtained by Urheilu, the Badminton Association has decided not to change its more than 30-year-old practice of Olympic performances. The association’s top badminton steering group decided in its recently held meeting that the association will nominate Kalle Koljos for selection in Paris, because his Olympic ranking is the best among Finnish players.
He himself considers himself to be absolutely the only athlete that Finland can choose for the Games.
At the meeting of the steering group, Oldorff’s choice also had its supporters. Unlike several other sports associations, the Badminton Association does not have strict, written criteria on how to proceed in controversial selection situations for prestigious competitions. The steering group of fifty people making the presentation includes, among others, the union’s executive director Ann-Marie Lairolahtithe head coach leaving the union in the fall Ville Långformer top player and chairman of the association’s ethics committee Jyri Aalto and a member of the union’s board Jari Eriksson.
Losses to the Danes
At the European Championships in Saarbrücken, Koljonen advanced to the third round, where the number one player in the world ranking, Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen was just too much. Oldorff advanced from the third round through the quarter-finals to the semi-finals, where the eventual winner of the tournament was Denmark Anders Antonsen was overwhelming.
The Olympic selections are blessed by the elite sports unit of the Olympic Committee, which has a very high threshold to change the presentations made by the sports federations. However, Urheilu is told that this time in the union, it would not necessarily be surprising if the elite sports unit changed the presentation in favor of Oldorff. Badminton’s so-called sport manager in the elite sports unit is Liisa Ahlqvist-Lehkosuo.
If this happens and Koljonen feels that he has suffered an injustice, he can start a fast-track procedure at the Sports Legal Protection Board, which investigates whether the case has been handled in accordance with the rules and criteria from his point of view. The board does not take a position on superiority between the athletes themselves.
Badminton’s Olympic representative will be chosen during May.