According to sports people, the Olympic sailing was a clear failure for Finland. Tuuli Petäjä-Sirén says that Los Angeles 2028 will hardly see any new Finnish sailors.
Joel Sippola,
Riikka Smolander-Slotte
20:06•Updated 20:13
Paris Olympics on channels 26.7.–11.8. Go to the competition website here. You can find the entire program of the games here.
Frustration. It is the view of sailors, experts and other sports people about the Finns’ performances in the waters of Marseilles.
Finland had five boat crews at the Olympics. As expected, the pair sled did the best of them Sinem Kurtbay and Central axis In the Nacra 17 class, being seventh in the final results.
An expert in athletes and General Sports The wind of Petäjä-Sirén according to the standings was a disappointment, because a medal was expected. The goals were not out of the blue, because two years ago in Canada, they sailed to the World Championship bronze.
Finnish sailing’s previous Olympic medals are from the 2012 London Games: then Petäjä-Sirén won silver and Silja Lehtinen bronze together Mikaela Wulffin and Silja Kanervan with.
Petäjä-Sirén reminds that the recent results did not bode well for the medal favorite position.
– I would describe it as quiet. The sailors themselves would have expected better results. But when you look at the results from the last year, everyone did quite well, says Petäjä-Sirén.
Team leader Toni Roponen nor does it go around saying that the lack of a medal was a disappointment. Sailing was previously one of the top sports of the Finnish Olympic team at the Paris Games.
– The goal of the sailing association was to win a medal for these games. The whole is without a doubt on the disappointing side.
– We had good individual successes, but as a whole we are disappointed with the result. The place for critical analysis is after the games, especially among coaches and athletes who have borne the responsibility, says Roponen.
There are no new hopes for success in sight
Outside of the Olympics, Finns’ interest in sailing fades away, until four years from now, medal hopes are entertained again.
Petäjä-Sirén does not believe that Finland will have new hopes for success alongside the current top athletes at the Los Angeles 2028 Games.
– Four years is a short time to raise new successful people to the top level. I would bet that the Finnish Olympic representatives in Los are already familiar names to us. It is difficult to rise from the youth series to the adult competition level in four years.
According to the expert, Finland has not kept up with the top countries since the London Games.
– It has fallen too far from the sharpest point. Of course, Finland is a small sailing country. Britain and Italy have bigger machines. There is junior activity, but there is also more equipment development in the background. So we fight in a different league with these countries.
– However, the background machine does not produce results. It is the athletes’ preconceptions that decide the results. This week, none of the Finns had a mega-success, Petäjä-Sirén reminds.
A place of great reflection
Roponen reminds us that getting five boats to the Olympics was a great achievement. After Paris, however, there is a place for a precise analysis.
– We have to think very carefully about how the process curve has gone towards the Olympics and whether it was realistic to fight for a medal. Of course, there has also been a lot of bad luck.
Roponen says that the athletes and their personal coaches bear the responsibility for the end result in the end games.
Finland did not have a head coach at the Games, which some athletes were upset about.
– The sailing association needs to quickly hire a coaching manager who will coordinate a large entity. He is building a process towards the Losi Olympics and other prestigious competitions, Roponen states.
Monika Mikkola during the Games, criticized the Olympic Committee for not getting the necessary support. Roponen says that all possible support was tried to be given.
– We tried to give all the help to all the athletes. It is understandable, because the athletes are disappointed with their own performances. Being disappointed allows them to rise to the next level.