Paris Olympics on channels 26.7.–11.8. Go to the competition website here.
PARIS. The first Finnish athlete to arrive at the Olympics Kalle Koljosen it was quite a trip to practice to the venue of the badminton competition.
– The bus driver stopped me probably ten times on the way here. The car turned off. We even got stuck in the tunnel once, when he didn’t know how to press the gas properly, Koljonen laughed during the live broadcast of Urheiluruutu on Sunday evening.
However, Koljonen’s trip was directed to an interesting arena, which has been the subject of a lot of behind-the-scenes pressure.
American media The Athletic news in February, how the basketball fans would have liked to get to the new hall where Olympic badminton is played.
There was a chain reaction in the background: it was not possible to organize swimming competitions in the swimming arena built for these games. They were moved to the arena, where gymnastics was supposed to take place. It was moved to the arena, where basketball was supposed to be played.
There was no longer a place for basketball in Paris, but one of the major sports of the games was moved more than 200 kilometers away to the city of Lille in northern France. Basketball was therefore pushed from the core to close to the Belgian border.
According to The Athletic, representatives of the NBA, the world’s best basketball league, and the international basketball association Fiba tried behind the scenes to get basketball to Paris.
They were offered an old mess hall unsuitable for basketball. As a counterball, the basketball players tried to get their sport badminton into the Olympic arena.
It made sense, because badminton is played in an arena designed for basketball. The building of this hall was also financed with money from the Olympic Fund.
Coached in Paris and then moved to the NBA Tuomas Iisalo has described the arena as the finest in basketball in Europe and an absolutely incredible-looking complex.
However, badminton held its ground.
– It’s a bit dumbfounding that basketball has been put aside. I didn’t know that. After all, this is a hell of a fun arena. Nice to be here, Kalle Koljonen described when he heard from Urheilu about the background transfer.
On the other hand, he understands why badminton was allowed to stay in the arena that was opened in February and attracts 8,000 spectators.
– Badminton is also a global and big sport. In Asia, it’s quite a “powerhouse” sport. When there’s a good badminton player in Asia, there’s a rock star there. In the same way as basketball players are in North America, Koljonen, who professes to be an NBA follower, reminds us of perspective.
A strong claim about the Paris race boss’s slander
According to The Athletic, the International Olympic Committee divides Olympic sports into different groups based on popularity. The most important species are preferred in decision-making.
The first group includes gymnastics, swimming and athletics. Basketball is in the second group. The sport also has the highest paid athletes of the Games.
Economic magazine Forbes list annually, the world’s ten highest paid athletes. This year’s list includes three basketball players to be seen at the Olympics: LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Only the golfer is on the top ten list John Rahm is the only representative of another sport competing at this summer’s Olympics. Each of the three basketball players Earns more than 100 million dollars this year and LeBron James as the number one basketball name almost 130 million dollars.
According to The Athletic, in addition to the basketball crowd, Paris city officials also tried to move the badminton out from under the basketball.
However, the lobbying was not successful. According to The Athletic, the eyes of the basketball crowd were drawn to the fact that the second boss of the Paris competition organization Étienne Thobois also belongs to the board of the International Badminton Federation. According to The Athletic, part of the basketball world did not take kindly to Thobois’s front row conflict in the situation.
American boss of Paris Basketball David Kahn surprised The Athletic how Thobois, who also works as a badminton boss, was able to choose a hall for badminton, which “is the only new indoor hall for the Olympics and represents the basketball heritage of Paris”. He wanted answers to the matter.
The number one boss Tony Estanguet however, he himself had discussions with the International Basketball Federation and the International Olympic Committee about the game location. He thought it was ridiculous to say that Thobois had decided on the competition place.
of the deputy mayor in charge of sports in the city of Paris by Pierre Rabadan however, after Thobois’ refusal, they were under a lot of pressure because of Thobois’ badminton background.
According to the deputy mayor, the only reasonable other solution for badminton would have been to go two to three hours away from Paris. The city of Paris and the tournament organizers decided that moving badminton far away would have become too costly.
In any case, the basketball follow-up games will be played in Paris at the original Olympic basketball arena, the 16,000-capacity Bercy Arena.
In Paris, venues for several sports have been built in temporary arenas, for example on the Concorde square. In badminton, however, this would not be the case for wind reasons. However, Paris Basketball boss Kahn thinks it is absurd that a temporary arena could not be built for badminton.
Kalle Koljonen shakes his head when he hears about the basketball boss’s idea.
– Our ball is so light that even a small wind flow causes the ball to fly a couple of meters to the side from the supposed place. Maybe that suggestion shows that you don’t know much about the sport, says Koljonen.
One illustrative example of the effect of the wind could already be seen in Sunday evening’s training. While the race organizers were still fine-tuning the places in the arena, one door remained open in the arena on the field level of the hall. That already affected the gameplay. The door was asked to be closed because it had been closed to begin with.
A slow court in the badminton mind
Koljonen describes the Olympic arena in Paris as a slow court in terms of badminton and gives a telling example.
– In faster halls, the ball becomes stronger. The highest measured starting speed of badminton is over 500 km/h, and in a slower hall you can go 50 km/h slower, it’s easier to defend, says Koljonen.
The 30-year-old Koljonen sees that the slow pitch can suit him. According to him, ten years ago it would have been a bad thing, because Koljonen feels that he was still an impatient and attacking player back then.
The first block of the 2021 EC bronze medalist is tough. The reigning world champion, a Thai, will immediately meet Kunlavut Vitidsarn. Another opponent is a Mauritian Georges Julien Paul. Only the winner will advance to the top 16.
Even the president had to calm the heat worries
According to The Athletic, the hall situation caused so much noise behind the scenes that the French president Emmanuel Macron and commissioner of the NBA Adam Silver also discussed the topic. Lille’s preliminary group games are played at the city’s football stadium.
As such, the trick is not new, as the European Basketball Championship 2015 was already played in that stadium. At that time, Finland’s quarterfinal game against Serbia was also twisted there. However, the European Championships were played in September at that time. Now we are playing in the middle of summer.
One of Silver’s concerns for Macron was a possible tough summer. Air conditioning was needed for the football stadium so that there would be no injuries. Macron assured Silver that the air conditioning and logistics issues would be taken care of.
Even before the Games, air conditioning has been a topic of conversation in Paris as well. Citing environmental reasons, the race organizers decided not to install air conditioning in the rooms of the race village. The Finnish team decided to bring their own air conditioners with them.
According to the badminton representative, air conditioners have become necessary.
– It has been quite hot in the rooms even with air conditioners. Without them, you could pretty much sweat, Koljonen described.