NHL stars competing against the Russians, Davis Cup heroes and Kalle Rovanperä can be chosen as the best of the year, but the Olympic Games should be boycotted. So what, asks Pekka Holopainen.
Pekka Holopainen sports reporter
“I want to say that we at the Olympic Committee’s communications will support you all the way to Paris from now on. Due to the sensitive Russian issue, we are not publishing the selected athletes’ photos and athlete cards on social media right now. We try to give the athletes peace and avoid possible trolling and targeting.”
The shooters received this message last Tuesday Eetu Kallioinen and Aleksi Leppäsailors Sinem Kurtbay, Central axis and Kaarle Tapper and track and field athletes Wilma Murto, Camilla Richardson, Silja Kosonen, Aku Bearden and Viivi Lehikoinenwho were the first Finnish athletes selected for the Olympic Games in Paris.
The message was sent by the Finnish Olympic Committee, and its background was the decision of the umbrella organization, the International Olympic Committee, to send Russian and Belarusian athletes to Paris next summer with certain conditions.
Hard thinking
After the announcement, all kinds of stuff flew into the fan, so that the communication of the Olympic Committee considered it best to protect the work and civil peace of the selected athletes.
The Olympic committee had even considered whether the names of the athletes who claimed their places – who have known for a long time that they would be selected in any case – should only be made public after the worst moral panic, especially raging on social media, subsided.
The so-called traditional media jumped to the highest Iltalehten Lauri Nurmi, a leading writer on security policy topics. He wanted a joint Nordic and Baltic Olympic boycott and, in the event of such a project possibly failing, at least Finland’s withdrawal from the games organized by its very important EU, NATO and trade partner.
Do you know if even France would turn to the position of boycotting the games in its capital?
Finland would be left alone in its project. In this scenario, no country is going to miss out on Paris, at least because Russia and its vassals, which is committing war crimes in Ukraine, can enter a small part of the sports without national emblems. For Ukraine, the inclusion of an aggressor state means a multiplication of the symbolic value of the Paris Games.
Not the best moment
Now let’s make it clear that the Russia decision was not the finest moment for the ethically corrupt business enterprise called the International Olympic Committee. However, there is still a long way to go before we start demanding a decision to ban unskilled athletes from practicing for the main event of their careers.
The relative importance of the Olympic Games, which once meant a disproportionate amount in Finland, has been considered to have greatly diminished in this millennium. The moral panic shows that there is no need to worry: the five-ring races are still worth it.
Like the president of the Olympic Committee Jan Vapaavuori noted, the Paris discussion double standards rise to the same ME heights as Armand Duplantis.
As if there was no war
Kalle Rovanperä are top candidates for Athlete of the Year at the Sports Gala, Alexander Barkov, Roope Hintz and Mikko Rantanen top end too. Tennis’ Davis Cup heroes dominate Team of the Year voting.
All of them compete against the Russians in their everyday life or even as their teammates. Huuhkajat plays football in the League of Nations, and so does Belarus.
The state-owned company Gasum imports gas from Russia as if there was no war. OSCE, Unesco, UN, WTO: there are institutions in which both Finland and Russia loom.
It is heartening that, despite its well-known recent history, the Olympic movement is still viewed as an idealistic, bright-eyed amateur and hobbyist activity, in contrast to the “professional sports” mentioned above.
This thinking just has nothing to do with realism. No medals leave Paris for the amateur tour.
Pekka Holopainen
The author is a columnist based in Pori and the only sports reporter who has been selected as Journalist of the Year in Finland.
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