Summer 2022 is coming to an end and Veera Kivirinna a great season culminates in the 50m breaststroke EC final in Rome.
The final bet is successful, but not perfect – not as great as his performance in the heats, where a new personal best was born. In the final race, he swims half a second slower and misses the best race ranking of his career by hitting his hand on the tile in fifth place.
After the race, Kivirinna’s atmosphere is divided. When he arrives at ‘s interview point and begins to think about his life on a larger scale, emotions rush to the surface.
– It’s a bit sad moment when I don’t want to leave Tampere. Terribly scary and exciting, she says with tears streaming down her face.
In Tampere, Kivirinta, originally from Oulu, finally got her life in order. Financial worries, challenges with coping and thoughts about ending a sports career were left behind. He enjoyed swimming again.
Now that phase of life is over.
Watch Sportliv’s mini doc Veera Kivirinna:
A Tampere-loving Oulu resident who ended up in Helsinki
When Sportliv meets Veera Kivirinna, she has been living in Helsinki for more than half a year. He moved from Tampere to the capital to complete his police training.
In his bright studio apartment in a recently completed apartment building in Pohjois Pasila, his previous summer’s interview at the European Championships in Rome comes up.
– I completely collapsed, and the collapse didn’t stop there. When I got out of the interview, the whole evening was terrible, Kivirinta reveals.
The thought of leaving Tampere still makes him depressed. Throughout his stay in Helsinki, Kivirinta, originally from Oulu, has been homesick – for Tampere.
– True, Oulu is also my home. I’ve lived there all my life, but Tampere somehow made a terrible impression in terms of sports.
In order to understand the significance of the two years spent in Tampere, you have to turn back the clocks to 2019. Veera Kivirinta was then 24 years old and close to ending her swimming career.
The normally outgoing and cheerful Kivirinta had turned into a gray figure. Nothing felt good anymore. He had lost his spark.
– I trained hard, but maybe it was the mental overload. The mental side was at its limit, Kivirinta says now, four years after burnout.
He swam and worked to finance his swimming. The economy was tight, which was so distressing that he couldn’t sleep properly.
At the same time, he had to train a lot in quantity so that the training would produce the desired result. In competitions, however, the results took a turn for the worse.
When he compared his situation with his friends, he experienced a feeling of inferiority. The friends were studying and many had clear plans for the future. Kivirinta didn’t study anything.
– I wanted there to be a goal or something new in the future. When the swimming didn’t go well, I no longer wanted to be in training. When the races went badly, I didn’t want to race anymore. It just always made me feel bad.
“Doing makeup is my hobby. It relaxes me like a pig. For a moment, I forget my worries and sorrows when I can just put makeup on my face.”
Several of his swimming buddies did not go to work. They received enough support from the Olympic Committee to fully invest in the sport.
– It seemed unfair. I felt like a recreational swimmer for adults when I don’t get money, says Kivirinta, who has tried to accept the situation over the years, without being entirely successful.
Kivirinta has never received financial support from the Finnish Olympic Committee, because her main event, the 50-meter breaststroke, is not part of the Olympic program.
When the burnout and anxiety became unbearable, Kivirinta took a break from swimming. He needed distance from sports. He traveled, partied, took it easy at the cottage – led a normal young person’s life. The scent gap for swimming felt liberating.
His life was taking a more positive turn, and the next step was moving to Tampere.
Less anxiety – better results
Kivirinta had decided to start studying and was accepted to the police school in Tampere. He also wanted to give swimming another chance. Besides, sports seemed easier to combine with studies than with work.
– I started receiving study support and a student loan. Having regular money, even if it’s not even a lot, took that financial predicament away.
In Tampere, Kivirinta started training with a new group, where she immediately had a great time. Swimming felt good again, which was also reflected in great results in competitions.
– We had a really good group. Of course, the fact that once I got to school, there was a little more to life was also an influence. In a way, that kind of burden about the future faded away when I knew that there is something else nice to know than just sports.
Kivirinna’s two-year period in Tampere culminated in the 2022 season, which was the best of his career. He had developed into one of the best breaststrokers in Europe.
His minor sport, 100-meter breaststroke, which is part of the Olympic program, had also developed to such an extent that he had cleared the B limit of the Olympics. But even then he didn’t get financial support, which felt bitter.
In the Olympic Committee, the rules regarding athlete scholarships for swimmers were written in the late 1990s. They state that only swimmers aiming for Olympic trips can receive financial support.
Since those times, swimming has changed considerably as a sport. At the World Championship and European Championship level, 50-meter distances in breaststroke, butterfly and backstroke appeared in the program at the beginning of the 2000s. At the Olympics, only freestyle swimming is still competed in that distance.
In the spring of 2023, Kivirinna’s situation with regard to subsidies was exposed in the media, and it caused the Olympic Committee to react and contact him. The committee was surprised by his situation, and the attitude towards Kivirinta was understanding.
– I was left with the feeling that things can change. But if they don’t change now, I’ll be really, really disappointed. I’m not thinking about myself, but about future swimmers in the 50m.
A burdensome stage of life – an uncertain future
In Helsinki, Veera Kivirinna’s internship as a police officer has made investing in swimming more challenging than during her student years in Tampere. The police’s working hours are irregular, which has made training difficult and hampered recovery.
– I’m really stressed. If I didn’t know that this phase only lasts for this specific time, I wouldn’t be able to do this.
In June, he announced that he would skip the WC swimming in Pori in order to be able to fully invest in the long course World Championships at the end of July. Without a break, the batteries would have died.
In late autumn, Kivirinta will graduate as a police officer. He will be 29 next year.
Without the exhausting internship, he could still have the chance to succeed and crown his swimming career – but the continuation seems uncertain.
– Am I too old to still try to give my all to swimming? Can the body take it? Then, of course, when I’m a woman and I’d probably like to have a family at some point, as well as invest in working life, I’m a bit of a seesaw.
Veera Kivirinta will be seen on the channels in Fukuoka’s long course World Cup swimming from 23 to 30. July.