An Olympic Committee employee issued a “wash invitation” to a SUL expert at the camp.
According to the Equality Ombudsman, the Olympic Committee (OK) and the Finnish Sports Confederation (SUL) should have addressed the suspected harassment that took place at the Tokyo Olympic finishing camp in July last year.
The person suspected of improper treatment was in OK’s job at the finishing camp;
According to a bulletin by the Equality Ombudsman, a SUL expert was eating with the Olympic team after an OK employee said to him with a laugh:
– You now have a new job here at the camp, that you can come and wash my places in my room every night, because I don’t trust these men as nesters.
After the incident, an expert from SUL tried to discuss what had happened with representatives of OK and SUL, but the matter was not addressed.
OK and SUL informed the Equality Ombudsman that they had received information about the incident immediately. However, the organizations were not aware of the case as a possible sexual harassment until the media covered the incident in the spring of 2022.
According to the Equality Ombudsman, the situation suspected of harassment in the Olympic Committee’s report was interpreted as bad humor.
An OK employee who apologized for the resentment he caused said he did not remember the incident described by the SUL expert or the words he used. He stated that he had not been guilty of the alleged sexual harassment in the request for clarification.
The Equality Ombudsman considered that OK and SUL had failed to fulfill their obligation under the Equality Act to intervene in sexual harassment that came to their notice.
OK: The person making the request for an investigation did not request a more detailed explanation
On Monday, the Olympic Committee published a statement on the website of the Equality Ombudsman Jukka Maarianvaara opinion. According to the statement, the examination of the case as a possible harassment became clear to OK and SUL only on 31 March, after the matter had become public.
On 5 April, OK submitted a request for an investigation into the case to the Finnish Sports Ethics Center Suek.
In a report submitted to the Equality Ombudsman, OK said that the event of the finishing camp was discussed at a meeting held last September with OK, SUL and the person who made the request for an investigation. The person did not express a wish for a more detailed explanation of the matter at the meeting, nor did he request it at the turn of the year 2021–2022, when the matter was raised again.
The Olympic Committee awaits the completion of Suek’s investigation and will then decide on any further action.