Riikka Smolander-Slotte, who has followed gymnastics for a long time, wondered at the World Championships in Baku 2019 why the Finnish team looked so cheerless. The problems were kept hidden, and the same modus operandi seems to continue.
18:19•Updated 18:31
When I started to find out the story tip about gymnastics and the information about the case increased, I must admit that I was not surprised. I have followed gymnastics only through my work for more than ten years. There have been stories from behind the scenes for several years and the apparently withered nature of some gymnasts has caused concern. The reality was even harsher, as can be seen from our story published on Wednesday.
The atmosphere of fear and silence around the sport has been strong. Many have been in the “gymnastics bubble”, where tolerance increases and there is a risk of going blind. They wanted to protect the small species and no one wanted to be branded as a nuisance or an eyesore. I have not wanted to take the risk that opening up about difficult issues would affect my career or treatment.
At the Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships in Baku in 2019, the Finnish team stood in an interview after their performance. I remember thinking why beautiful, young women, top athletes, are so joyless and lifeless at the peak of their careers in prestigious competitions. Now I know the reason. Some of them say that they hardly ate or drank for a couple of weeks before the games. When preparing for the value competitions, it was not the competition performance that was running through my head, but whether the weight would drop enough.
According to the gymnasts, the most important thing was that the team was thin enough. Some of the girls are not feeling well, but still the team seriously applied for a place in the Olympic Games. How can anyone go to the Games and expect to do well if the background situation is like this? How could the team reach top performances if the energy levels are low, the body is broken and the thoughts are somewhere other than sports performance? A civilized country like Finland hardly wants the national team carrying the blue cross flag in its representative uniform to have athletes who are not healthy.
It is disappointing how little has been learned at the federal level from the harassment cases of recent years. The union has been aware of the events of Rytminen’s national team since 2018, but still the situation has been allowed to continue. This was strongly criticized by Esko Ranto, director general of the Ministry of Education and Culture’s youth and sports policy department, in an interview with Urheilu on Thursday.
– The gymnastics association has absolutely excellent documents. At the level of documents, responsibility issues have been handled well. Do the documents and practical measures correspond to each other? That’s what we want to find out, Ranto said after saying that the ministry will make a request for an explanation to the union.
Once again, it seems important to handle the matter in the inner circle, hidden from others. The association’s responsibility is to ensure that responsible people work within the sport and that the environment is safe for the athletes. It’s easy to give speeches, make reports and organize trainings, but the most important thing would be to act with the athlete and health first.
The Gymnastics Federation has commented very little on the case and has appealed to the incompleteness of the disciplinary case. CEO Maria Laakso and chairman Kaisa Vikkula have been aware of the experiences of at least one national team gymnast since February 2018. Then the parents of the gymnast who ended her career told the Gymnastics Federation about their daughter’s experiences and the events of the national team.
The parents also approached the ministry and the Olympic Committee in the matter. Director General Ranto says that the ministry then held a meeting with the Gymnastics Association.
– They promised that the matter would be fixed. It’s been four or five years. We have been aware that a disciplinary matter is pending. Unions must have working procedures. It has taken an unreasonably long time in the gymnastics association, says Ranto.
According to Urheilu’s information, the Gymnastics Federation hired Laura Ahonen to continue as head coach of the rhythmic national team in the summer of 2021, even though the process had already started in Suek.
In the fall of 2021, the Gymnastics Federation applied to Ahonen for the Golden Cross of Merit from the Ministry of Education and Culture, even though Suek’s investigation was already underway. Ahonen received the badge of merit awarded to persons who have made merit in Finnish sports culture and sports in the spring of 2022. In March-April, Ahonen’s case had already been in the disciplinary committee of the Gymnastics Association for months.
The case is also avoided by Laura Ahonen’s employer, the Helsinki-based gymnastics club Elise Gymnastics, where she works as a coaching manager. Another coach who assisted Ahonen in the national team also works in Elise. The executive director and chairman of the club have not responded to Urheilu’s interview requests. On Thursday, the club sent its members a press release signed by the board, according to which coaches suspected of improper activity are allowed to continue coaching at the club. The club states that they have had no reason to temporarily ban Aho or the coach, because the disciplinary committee of the Gymnastics Federation has not reached that conclusion either. According to Elise, they have not been contacted about the behavior of Ahonen or another coach.
Rhythmic gymnastics is a sport that requires discipline and hard training. Sports culture has strong echoes of its great country, Russia. Some of the Finnish coaches have learned their lessons in Russian coaching, which reflects their activities. In 2022, we will already know better. Humiliating athletes and inappropriate behavior is not right in any sport, in any situation. According to the gymnasts interviewed by Urheilu, Ahonen’s methods were old and harsh. Many gymnasts who have been in his classes talk about mental and physical problems.
Now that the damage has been done, it’s time for the union to take responsibility and admit its mistake. No one can beautify, trivialize or brush off such a serious case. Athletes treated unfairly must be offered concrete help and support measures. Some of them are thinking about what kind of work they will be able to do in the future, when their bodies are still broken and their minds in pieces.
The activity culture of the sport must be thoroughly reviewed and thought about in what way rhythmic gymnastics can be practiced safely and goal-oriented in Finland. Now we don’t need explanations, but concrete measures. Sports should give more than take.
The heroes of this story are brave gymnasts who wanted to share their experiences. The athletes hope that no little gymnast would have to experience the same thing as them in their career. They want rhythmic gymnastics to be practiced at a high level while being healthy, without anxiety and lifelong scars. Love for the sport does not disappear easily.