Having worked as the head coach of the Finnish rhythmic gymnastics national team until the beginning of 2022 Laura Ahonen and another coach is suspected of having acted improperly towards young, even minor, national team gymnasts for years. The gymnasts interviewed by Urheilu told about humiliation, bullying, serious health problems and being forced to lose weight.
Read more: The former head coach of the Finnish national team is suspected of years of improper activity – gymnasts report constant dieting and eating disorders
Director General of the Youth and Sports Policy Department of the Ministry of Education and Culture Esko Beach does not comment on the content of the case, because the disciplinary procedure in the Gymnastics Association is in progress. Instead, the Gymnastics Association gets a kick out of him.
The parents of a gymnast already contacted the ministry in 2018. The Ministry held a meeting with the management of the Gymnastics Association.
– They promised that the matter would be fixed. It’s been four or five years. We have been aware that a disciplinary matter is pending. Unions must have working procedures. It has taken an unreasonably long time in the gymnastics association.
– Today, we are sending a request for clarification on the matter to the Gymnastics Federation.
In 2018, the union assured that it would take care of the matter
Ahonen and the team’s second coach stopped coaching the national team at the end of January 2022.
In 2018, the management of the Gymnastics Association had promised the ministry that the coaching processes would be fixed. Ranto had sent worried parents about this.
– Since then, we have inquired about this from the Gymnastics Federation several times. A couple of times this year as well. It has always been answered that they cannot comment when the disciplinary matter is pending. The processing by the disciplinary body seems to be unreasonably long for everyone.
A request for clarification has already been drafted this morning in the Ministry of Education and Culture. Ranto says that all federations must commit to certain ethically sustainable rules of the game. It is also part of the stricter state aid criteria.
– The gymnastics association has absolutely excellent documents. At the level of documents, responsibility issues have been handled well. Do the documents and practical measures correspond to each other? That’s what we want to find out.
May affect the state’s financial support
Rhythmic gymnastics has been a strongly supported sport and national team athletes have received an athlete grant. Ranto says that the case will not affect athlete grants, because then individual athletes would be punished.
Instead, the state support received by the Gymnastics Federation can have an effect.
– Now we are monitoring whether the Gymnastics Federation has acted according to the ethical principles that are in the state grant conditions.
Right now, the state aid round is underway. Next year’s grants are being applied for.
– On a general level, the state aid criteria now include responsibility issues: equality, ethical issues, environmental issues. Already in last spring’s distribution, some unions received small increases in their grants after they had managed their environmental responsibilities well.
– Of course, then the other way around, if it is found that a criterion has not been handled as it should be – it can have an effect in the other direction.
“Why is this taking so long?”
Ranto summarizes that the Ministry of Education and Culture now wants the Gymnastics Federation to provide a thorough explanation of the issues it has been asking about for years.
– Although of course this has been asked verbally so many times that we roughly know how the process has gone. But yes, we are now sending such an official clarification request as to why this is taking so long and what the problem has been.
The capital region’s sports academy Urhea made a request to the Finnish Center for Sports Ethics to investigate Laura Ahonen’s activities in the spring and winter of 2021, when it became concerned about the health and mental endurance of the national team gymnasts.
After the preliminary investigation, the Gymnastics Federation made a request for an investigation to Suek in June 2021. Suek submitted the report to the Gymnastics Federation in December 2021, after which the federation took the case to its disciplinary committee.
It appears from the announcement of the gymnastics association that, according to the association, there is reason to suspect Laura Aho and the second coach of the national team of serious, illegal behavior that has been going on for years.
The case currently under consideration has been in the disciplinary committee of the Gymnastics Association for almost a year. The gymnasts interviewed by Urheilu say that settlement proposals have been presented in the case, but no solution has been reached. According to the gymnasts, they have been offered, among other things, an apology.
According to Ahonen, he has never commented inappropriately on the weight of the national team’s athletes and, according to his own words, he would never intentionally do anything as a coach that would endanger an athlete’s health.
Ahonen received a golden cross of merit
In autumn 2021, the Gymnastics Federation applied for Ahonen’s Golden Cross of Merit from the Ministry of Education and Culture. Last spring, Ahonen received a badge of merit awarded to persons who have made merit in Finnish sports culture and sports.
What kind of message does this send about the ethical principles of sport?
Ranto says that the merit badges have certain criteria, which are based on the length of the activity period and on the sporting level at which the activity took place.
– Apparently, the presenter has assessed that Laura Ahonen meets these criteria and then the ministry has awarded the merit badge. I am not the decision-maker in these matters, so I cannot comment further on the details.
– When the criteria are met, a badge is usually awarded. At that point, this process (disciplinary matter) was incomplete and partially non-public, so it was probably not considered in the merit badge awarding process.