Turning 41 on Thursday of this week Matti Heikkinen if anyone knew that top sport is a game of margins. His first ranking medal in 2009 came in a tight second game, when the USA Chris Freeman finished 4th by 1.3 seconds at the World Championships in Liberec 2009.
The champion skier, who left the Olympic Committee’s top sports director’s job at the end of the fall with a confidential agreement between the employer and the agent, could very well still be the leader of the top sports unit, if the position of the stars had been slightly different on August 6 at the Stade de France.
Only 24 cents separated Silja Kosonen in the moukari final for the bronze medal, which would have lifted Finland out of the historic zero club of the Summer Olympics and who would have spared the Olympic Committee and Finnish elite sports from the tearing debate that has been going on for the entire period following the Paris Games. The summer Olympic catch of the same magnitude held on to Heikkinen’s predecessors in their jobs and Mika Kojonkoski 2016 that Mika Lehtimäki 2021.
The scenario laughs at Heikki, who, after months of media silence, met Urheilu on Monday in his soul landscape in Jyväskylä, the starting point of the Laajavuori track network.
Voluntary work in sports
Heikkinen, who only promises news about his new work patterns here in the spring, has recently done e.g. voluntary work for the Ski Jyväskylä ski club, whose promises include the grown-up of his four children.
The entire track is indirectly Heikkisen’s creation. The spirit of talk was ignited when, in the fall of 2009, Heikkinen brought to the public the poor training conditions of Jyväskylä, also called the sports capital of Finland, for the fall and winter. Now there is also an asphalted roller skiing track under the track.
Heikkinen says that for the first time since his retirement in the spring of 2019, he has started to keep track of his own skiing kilometers.
– Sport is basically so raw and honest that I haven’t speculated on that. And I haven’t had a bad night’s sleep during these stages either, says Heikkinen in the warmth of the first snow slope’s service booth.
Five days after Kosonen’s moukari final, the result in Paris was at hand in all its inconsolability. At that time, the chairman of the Olympic Committee Jan VapaavuoriCEO Taina Susiluoto and the leading duo of the elite sports unit, namely Heikkinen and Leena Paavolainen came in force to tell the media what had happened.
The intention was to continue
At this point, Heikkinen was not about to throw in the towel and confirms even now when asked that the intention was to continue at least beyond the Winter Olympics in Milan 2026. However, the truth is that now only Susiluoto will continue in the Olympic Committee from the quartet mentioned above. In the end, Vapaavuori didn’t even try for the second season, Heikkinen and Paavolainen were allowed to go.
Heikkinen has clearly thought long and hard about going public at all. When the employer and employee conclude an agreement on the termination of the employment relationship, the document typically contains strict and sanctioned conditions on what the parties can share publicly about the process that led to the incident or the content of the agreement, for example in this case the size of the definitely expensive severance package.
Heikkinen’s fate was sealed on September 7 in Vierumäki, where the board of the Olympic Committee and top sports management met. As agreed, Heikkinen brought guidelines for top sports work to the meeting along which the journey would continue towards Milan–Cortina 2026.
Asked for a new job
In the middle of the weekend, however, Heikkinen was told that it would not be possible to continue the work of a top sports director in the way seen until then. At this point, Heikkinen asked the operational management of the Olympic Committee for another task to take care of. A good month after this, the parties reached an agreement. Termination of Heikkinen’s fixed-term employment contract would not have been possible, because nothing in the activities of the top sports director gave the right to do so.
Heikkinen has not had to go further out to sea to fish in order to learn something new about proper and fair treatment of subordinates. His doctor wife Suvi Heikkinen runs an international master’s program in responsible sports management at the University of Jyväskylä.
– Everything possible was done. In the end, we had to state that no relevant alternatives could be found and we will continue on our side. Certainly many things could have been done differently, Heikkinen is winding down his ample two-year period at the vantage point of Finnish top sports, for which he was selected in the 2022 tight recruitment competition, a walking legend Valentin from Kono against.
Heikkinen doesn’t want to make a list of what literally could have been done differently. There has been a lot of talk in the public about the fact that Heikkinen’s strict will to do his work from his home in Jyväskylä and not from the capital of Helsinki would have been a nail in the coffin.
– I have visited Helsinki a lot over the years. I don’t think that’s what it was about. Afterwords are not my favorite art form at all.
No bitterness
Heikkinen emphasizes that he is in no way bitter about what happened. From his speeches, you get the impression that continuing your working career next year, especially in sports, would seem like a very pleasant idea. However, this is a topic on which he wants to speak on a general level.
– People join Finnish sports who later leave it bitterly for some reason. It can be devastating for the entire chain, from the central organization level to the clubs. If these tasks run out of steam, it will not be good for the Olympic Committee just renewed says the ex-top sports director, who is waiting for a fresh approach from the board of trustees.
Heikkinen’s successor as top sports director, whoever he is, starts his work in a special situation. The core activity of the elite sports unit has been to distribute training enhancement subsidies independently. In response, due to legal interpretation, they are distributed and requested directly from the payer, i.e. the Ministry of Education and Culture.
Expects a lot from Poutala
– Paris showed the global level of requirements. When thinking about the autonomous status and funding of elite sports in Finland, you always have to ask what you want. A person will now become Minister of Sports (Mika Poutalakd), whose contact with absolute top sports is very close and fresh. I expect a lot from him.
Although Heikkinen had a four-year employment contract, in a turbulent area of life such as elite sports, he did not throw himself completely on it, but subconsciously also prepared for rapid changes.
– The job of a top sports director is only on loan to each of them. When the Olympic Games in Paris reached 4.3 million Finns, you can tell what it means.
After leaving the Olympic Committee, Heikkinen has followed with great interest the sometimes even divisive debate about Finnish elite sports, where different bodies defend their positions. For example, he is familiar with the ideas and people of the Sisu group, which is pushing to blow up the entire elite sports structure and is driven by the ministry. He doesn’t start advising anyone.
– I am satisfied that there has been a lot of discussion, sometimes violent. No potential applicant has asked me if it is worth applying to be a top sports director. Maybe they think that you would get bitter advice from a bitter man, Heikkinen laughs.
– A lot of people have asked what it is and was like. It was a tremendously great, privileged job.