The national teams of hill jumping and combined are starting the next season from a rough economic situation. The Ski Federation cannot promise athletes any kind of national team-led training activities during the training season.
All coaches and other employees of the national teams have received the message that there are no financial conditions for continued contracts.
Sports’ combined expert Petter Kukkonen was not at all surprised by the grim news.
– The finances of the ski association have been on the trigger for a long time and this year it really took off. Today’s news is by no means a surprise, comments Kukkonen.
It wasn’t a surprise that he was a combined national team athlete either Ilkka to Herola.
– We found out after the board meeting, and we already knew how to prepare, that this is a completely possible and even probable scenario.
– The work has been done quite nicely and here are the consequences, here at the core of the operation. Let’s see what kind of solutions exist for this. Now the existence of the entire association is the biggest obstacle for all Finnish winter sports. I am tied to a concrete anchor that pulls us to the bottom. There are no other good options here than to somehow get rid of the organization, Herola uploaded.
According to Herola, the harsh economic situation and millions of debts of the Finnish Ski Federation cannot be invisible in the national teams’ activities in the coming seasons as well.
– If a few slices of 100,000 euros are taken away every year, and the future goes away when paying debts, then it’s pretty quiet. Here comes another summer without any organized activity. It’s going to be difficult and it’s unlikely to get any easier in the future.
Now the athlete has no choice but to organize his own preparation for the next season.
– If the association doesn’t organize that activity, it will be organized by itself. But I’m waiting with interest to see if a coach will be hired during the competition season.
Is Finland falling off the hook in equipment development?
Petter Kukkonen works Eero Hirvonen as a personal trainer. Kukkonen has quite limited time for coaching Hirvonen.
– This is not an easy place for me either, when I have my regular job in Jyväskylä. There is no self-evident pattern of how to make this work, says Kukkonen.
Especially foreign camps are now seriously threatened.
– In terms of quality, training in Finland is by no means such that you can get by. Camps in foreign countries are absolutely necessary, three or four such good precision strikes if you want to stay in the game.
If you have to compromise on training, then there will be difficulties in ski jumping.
– For endurance training, we can train just as we have until now. Skiing can be done, but jumping is a problem. It’s hard to do without a coach or support functions.
Kukkonen fears that Finland will fall off the hook, especially in equipment development.
– The national team has had a good support team behind it. The development of skis, bindings and ski suits is done during the summer and autumn. There should be quite a lot of contributions to this if we want to stay in the bandwagon of the big countries, Kukkonen emphasizes.
How worried are you about the situation?
– It’s worrying. In Finland, we are used to the fact that athletes are developed in a national team-led manner. The operating model has been developed for years. Now, if the entire operation collapses, it will be difficult to build a functioning system in its place.
Norway, which belongs to the top countries of the United, is about to tear a huge gap with Finland.
– In Norway, the combined budget alone is 2.3 million. Now if our budget drops to 200 – 300,000 euros, then ten times less money is used. Coping can be very challenging. Maybe not impossible, but there are still a lot of issues here without a solution, Kukkonen thinks.
Antti Aalto: “It didn’t come as a complete surprise”
One of the Finnish hopes for hill jumping Antti Aalto still don’t know how to proceed from this towards the season culminating in the World Cup in Trondheim.
– The latest information I received is that you should be prepared to be alone. So in practice it means our own camps with a coach, but we haven’t planned yet how we will implement everything, says Aalto.
Aalto also admitted that the austerity course did not come as a complete surprise to him.
– It didn’t come as a complete surprise when I knew the union’s financial situation. Of course, this is not a good thing, but now we have to come up with suitable plans to get over this. Now we just have to go with this, even if it’s a sad thing, Aalto states.
According to Aalto, there are still more questions than answers at this stage.
– You have to invest in home training as much as possible. It’s still difficult to say anything at this stage because there are so many open questions. You certainly don’t get to go abroad that much, so you have to take advantage of the domestic conditions as well as possible, Aalto thinks.
Will the Olympic Committee come to the rescue?
Director of the elite sports unit of the Olympic Committee Matti Heikkinen sent encouraging greetings to the ski jumping and combined national teams.
– On Tuesday in Vuokatti, we have skiing, ski jumping and combined sports events. We are making plans towards Milan-Cortina (2026 Olympics). I say frankly that we will not forget the athletes, Heikkinen explains.
Can the athletes trust that the preparation for the next season is not in danger?
– It is not, Heikkinen promises.
Kytösaho left the national team earlier in the spring
Became Finland’s top jumper last season Niko Kytösaho already decided earlier in the spring to leave the national team in the upcoming training season.
Kytösaho knew that the Ski Federation’s finances were on the back burner, but the news that came out now still managed to surprise.
– There was no information that the situation was this harsh. It was known that it would be tight and that the budget would at least not increase from last year. Surely no one believed that there would be no activity, Kytösaho acknowledges.
A sad situation makes you think.
– It’s pretty brutal that it has gone this low and the economy has been poorly managed. I was very lucky in the sense that I made my decision at this point, says Kytösaho.
According to Kytösaho, in the worst case, we take a big leap into the past.
– The situation is challenging if the coaches have to leave the day job for other jobs. Then let’s go back to what this fuss was about twenty years ago. In other words, the coaches train with talk, but is there room for will, Kytösaho wonders.
Updated at 20:15: Matti Heikkinen’s comments completed.