Keihstähti is one of the country’s toughest track and field athletes and even a candidate for World Cup success, but he does not have an equipment contract.
The Kaleva Games in Lahti 27.–30.7. Urheilu follows the events in this article.
LAHTI. Wilma Murron mentioned as Finland’s second potential World Cup success Oliver Helander talked to his coach at the Lahti stadium on Saturday Tero Pitkämäki with before the men’s javelin throw qualification.
Helander had put on throwing shoes made by the Japanese company Mizuno, which were made to measure for him. But while coach Pitkämäki once made a lot of money using the equipment of Mizuno’s Japanese competitor Asics, Helander doesn’t even get a dime from Mizuno.
His competition partner brings throwing shoes to Europe with him on his competition trips Gang Dean. At the same time, the Japanese prize thrower equips a few other European track and field athletes who use Mizuno products.
The domestic ones also have a contract
– That is absolutely true. Oliver does not have any kind of equipment contract, which of course can be considered special considering his level and position. It wasn’t that long ago when all the top names in Finland had a personal equipment contract, not to mention representative-level athletes, Pitkämäki commented.
For him, Asics was the second main sponsor, along with the forest machine manufacturer Ponsse.
– The contract was financially very profitable.
In this bygone world, a Finnish athlete of Helander’s level would make tens of thousands of euros a year with just an equipment contract.
Karjaalainen is certainly not the only hard-level track and field athlete who has not received an equipment contract from the international market.
– There are a large number of world champions and other medalists in the world who are in exactly the same situation, Pitkämäki knows.
In previous years, several athletes agreed to cooperate with Finnish importers of giant brands, but today the Finnish market is mainly managed from abroad and the way to become a sponsored athlete goes through the corporate headquarters.
Big qualifier
The reason is, above all, that the most prominent manufacturers, such as Asics, Nike, Adidas and Mizuno, have dramatically cut back on the sponsorship of athletics and track and field athletes from the very beginning.
Internationally, track and field sports, which experienced their golden years in the 1980s and 1990s, are no longer as attractive as team sports in the eyes of the giant manufacturers.
In the opposite direction, mainly the German Puma has been swimming, which has tied one of Finland’s recent European champions to its team Wilma I break and Raitanen’s top.
– For the big manufacturers, the decline in athletics investments started in the early 2010s. Field sports were the first to suffer, but then slowly also runners, Pitkämäki recalls.
As a whole, the big manufacturers have not abandoned elite athletics as a marketing channel.
– The typical thing is that they are still willing to support various athletics events, but not at all as willing to support athletes, Pitkämäki says.
Helander advanced from the qualification to the final competition with his opening throw of the qualification, which carried 76.78 meters.
The men’s javelin final will be thrown on Sunday from 17:35.
The Kaleva Games in Lahti 27.–30.7. Urheilu follows the events in this article.