Susanna Rahkamo, the first president of the Finnish Olympic Committee, states that the leading star of the Olympic Committee has been lost.
The first vice-chairman of the Finnish Olympic Committee Susanna Rahkonen says that Finland lacks a strategy for the success of elite sports.
– The races are merciless. Sometimes there are wins and sometimes losses, Rahkamo states.
However, he reminds us that each of the athletes has put their lives on the line to train towards the top of the world. We need these athletes in the future as well.
In Rahkamo’s opinion, the fact that Finland didn’t get any medals from the Olympics is something that really needs to be discussed now.
– Finland currently does not have a top sports strategy, he sums up.
In Finland, it has not been defined how we are able to win, what is the competitive advantage that we are able to produce in order to succeed in global competition, Rahkamo clarifies.
– We have to define what are the things we believe in. That’s what creates success, Rahkamo knows.
Mobilizing the people was selected as the Olympic Committee’s vision
Rahkamo himself sits on the board of the Finnish Olympic Committee. So why is there no top sports strategy?
– It has not been on our agenda. The Olympic Committee has been taken as a solution to immobility instead of the pursuit of global top sports success, Rahkamo says.
The member organizations of the Olympic Committee chose four years ago that they will move the people forward as the Olympic Committee’s vision.
The line of prevention of immobility has been driven by e.g. Jan Vapaavuoriwho was elected chairman of the Finnish Olympic Committee four years ago.
– Now we really need to have a discussion about what the purpose of the Olympic Committee is, Rahkamo stresses.
Rahkamo himself is pursuing a line where the Olympic Committee would focus specifically on elite sports.
– Yes, in my opinion, it is precisely the core task of the Olympic Committee.
Finland did not do well in the Olympics compared to the reference countries Sweden, Norway and Denmark.
– In 2010, Nieminen’s group had made a top sports strategy. Then came the elite sports change group, which is thinking about how that strategy could be implemented. This work had been done for four years with the aim of being the best Nordic country, Rahkamo remembers.
Then the whole strategy was watered down when they wanted to be the most mobile nation in the world.