The Sports Division of the Culture and Leisure Board of the City of Helsinki has postponed decision recover almost 100,000 euros in subsidies from the Elise Gymnastics gymnastics club. The exact amount is 98,591 euros. According to Urheilu’s information, the subsidies received by the club are mainly space subsidies.
On the agenda of the meeting was also the decision to reject Elise Gymnastics ry’s operation and facility use grant application for the current year. However, it was removed from the agenda and returned for re-drafting just before the start of the meeting. The reason was the additional explanations given to the city by the Gymnastics Association on Monday evening about the responsibility activities of Elise Gymnastics, which had not previously been brought to the attention of the city of Helsinki.
– The gymnastics association pointed out that the club would have made a responsibility program at the end of 2022, which the club itself had not told the city about. When it comes to such a big issue, we wanted to reassess the matter in the light of new information, the city of Helsinki’s sports services manager Tuuli Salospohja tells.
The city’s sports department wanted more time to think about the matter before making a decision.
The decision on both 2022 and 2023 grants was postponed until the next meeting. Its date has not yet been confirmed, but according to Salospohja’s estimate, the meeting will take place at the end of September.
In the original decision proposal, the city considered that the reports submitted by the club to ensure the ethical operation of the club were not sufficient. Thus, the criteria for granting grants were not met and the city felt that the operating grant for 2022 should be recovered in full.
What is the decision about?
Urheilu reported in November 2022 that the head coach of the rhythmic gymnastics national team Laura Ahonen had acted improperly towards underage national team gymnasts for years. Among other things, the gymnasts were forced to lose weight in an unhealthy way. Ahonen’s misconduct took place between 2016 and 2021. He is still the head coach of Elise Gymnastics.
– The city of Helsinki asked Elise Gymnastics three times within the year for more information about what measures they took when they found out about the suspicions related to their head coach in June 2021. We have not received any of the information we requested from the club. Next, we will ask for additional clarification from the club for the fourth time, Salospohja opens.
Ahonen’s disciplinary case was being processed by the Gymnastics Association for more than a year. In January 2023, Ahonen received a mild disciplinary sanction from the disciplinary committee, but not a ban on gymnastics.
Ahonen, who was the head coach of Elise Gymnastics, was allowed to continue in his position and the club washed its hands of the whole mess. Executive director of the club Mia Green uttered For Helsingin Sanomatthat Ahonen’s misconduct is in no way related to Elise Gymnastics.
could not reach the club management of Elise Gymnastics to comment on the matter.
– The club should have taken action immediately after receiving information about inappropriate treatment, so that such would not happen in the future. However, it is about a coaching manager who has a significant position of power in the sports club, says Salospohja from the city of Helsinki.
Elise Gymnastics, which has been in operation for over a hundred years, is one of the largest gymnastics clubs in the capital region. There are gymnasts in the club another thousand.
The case of the skating club HSK is similar
In 2020, the city of Helsinki reclaimed EUR 57,000 in grants from 2018 from the skating club Helsingfors Skridskoklubb (Helsinki Skridsklubi, HSK). The case was related to the head coach of the club’s figure skating Mirjami Penttinen for inappropriate behavior.
The decision was justified by the fact that HSK had violated the rules of fair play. The justifications were exactly the same three years ago as they are now in the case of Elise Gymnastics. However, HSK is a significantly smaller club, their membership is about a third of Elise’s.
– We have had other situations where violations related to the ethical rules of the game have been detected at clubs. In all other cases, we have received satisfactory answers from the clubs, says Salospohja.
Support has also been recovered from other sports clubs, but not due to inappropriate behavior or fair play violations.
The operating grants paid by the City of Helsinki to Elise Gymnastics increased from just under 60,000 euros to just under 100,000 euros between 2021-22. According to Salospohja, the reason for the increase is the increased rental costs of the new Pirkkola hall.
– This year, the club has had the new facility in use for the whole year. The grant for 2023 would be much more significant financially than 2022, says Salospohja.
Both HSK and Elise Gymnastics have Star Club status of the Finnish Olympic Committee. The star club would belong develop domestic club culture “towards better every day” with high quality and responsibility.
– The city of Helsinki has acted together with all the clubs equally and as correctly as possible. When we detect a problem, we want to give the clubs the opportunity to show how they plan to fix it, Salospohja emphasizes.
Story edited on 29.8. at 9:48 p.m.: Added the comments of Tuuli Salospohja, manager of sports services.