Under the leadership of Kalervo Kummola, boxing coach Maarit Teurose was given a pattern in which he would finally be able to coach as a profession. There are three payers.
Boxing coach from Tampere Maarit Teuronen was one match away from a very rare trick in Paris in the summer. If Pihla Kaivo-oja22, would have beaten Turkey in their Olympic quarter-final Buse CakirogluTeuronen would have returned home for the third time in a row as a coach of a medal athlete from the five ring games.
His previous star coach Mira Potkonen achieved a bronze medal in Rio de Janeiro 2016 and Tokyo 2021. In 2019, the European Boxing Federation EUBC awarded Teuronen as the best female coach of 2018. In that year, Potkonen, who was coached by him, has already finished his career Elina Gustafsson struck the EC gold.
During his coaching career, Teurose has only occasionally had the opportunity to coach as a profession, and the backbone of his personal livelihood has been his work as a laboratory nurse at Fimlab’s Tampere office. For example, for the culmination of the Kaivo-oja Olympic project, Tampere Voimaileuseura hired Teuronen for a four-month coaching retreat, which enabled him to be away from his day job.
Before Potkonen’s first Olympic medal in 2016, Teuronen practically worked a full day. The medal made it possible to take temporary leave of absence and to work part-time. For example, in 2020–2021 Teuronen could only focus on coaching until the Tokyo Games.
When Potkonen ended his career in 2021, Teuronen returned to his day job, which would have continued as usual at the beginning of January after the now ending leave of absence.
Teuronen made it clear after the Paris Games that an athlete of Kaivo-oja’s level deserves full-time top coaching. At that point, it looked like the coach would return to Fimlab as a full-time employee in early January.
Kummola was not late
Until the difficult situation of the ambitious coach ended up with the mayor of Tampere, the chairman of the board of Fimlab, which is owned by welfare regions Kalervo Kummola to the ears. After this, Kummola, who is one of the biggest influencers in the history of Finnish hockey and sports, did not delay.
– Janne (Chairman of the Olympic Committee who stepped down last Saturday Jan Vapaavuori) called me and asked what could be done. I then called the CEO and said that since we have more than a thousand people at work, why not let one of them go?
Initially, Teuronen’s leave of absence was agreed upon for one year. Kummola, who is known as a sportsman with a wide range of interests, tells Urheilu that extending it, if necessary, will not be a problem.
In the Olympic Committee’s elite sports unit, the matter has been handled by acting manager Jaana Tulla.
– The goal is that Maarit will be able to coach fully professionally until the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. He and Pihla have undoubtedly earned this opportunity by their actions. At the same time, all Finnish boxing will certainly benefit from Maarit.
In the original plan, Teuronen’s salary payers would have been the Boxing Association, Tampere-based Varala sports college and the Olympic Committee’s elite sports unit, which would have received its share of the so-called enhancement subsidies.
The matter got a little more complicated when the Ministry of Education and Culture announced last week that from now on, the enhancement subsidies previously applied for and distributed by the elite sports unit will be both applied for and paid from the ministry.
In this way, Teuronen’s salary payment would also be transferred to the ministry for the part that was originally the responsibility of the elite sports unit.
“I’m optimistic”
Acting According to manager Tulla, Teuronen’s coach funding is included in the unit’s funding proposal to the ministry:
– I am very optimistic that the show will go through. It is also very carefully prepared as far as boxing is concerned.
Maarit Teuronen told Urheilu that he only wants to comment on the matter when the names are on paper.
Pihla Kaivo-oja and all other Olympic-style top boxers are in a special limbo. The International Olympic Committee has announced that the sport is not included in the preliminary program of the Los Angeles Games.
The IOC no longer wants to organize the Olympic tournament itself, as it had to do in both 2021 Tokyo and 2024 Paris. The sport’s international umbrella organization has no longer enjoyed the trust of the IOC due to its culture of corruption. In the Olympic Games, the international umbrella organizations are typically responsible for the practical arrangements of the various sports.
– Even though boxing is not on the Los Angeles Olympic program now, it is not necessarily the final situation. And on the way to 2028, there are many other prestigious competitions in the sport, says Jaana Tulla.
Considering the US Olympic traditions, it is difficult for the sports community to believe that boxing would drop from the competition program in Los Angeles. USA leads by far of all time Olympic medal statistics, and the 1984 Olympic tournament in the City of Angels is remembered, for example, from such later big names in professional circles as Evander Holyfield, Pernell Whitaker and Meldrick Taylor.