An evaluation commissioned by the Ministry of Education and Culture was published on Finnish top sports in the summer of 2022. However, to the surprise of sports people, the report has not been discussed among top sports players.
The general discussion about elite sports has also taken a back seat after the publication of the evaluation. Hiljaa has also been the director of the elite sports unit Matti Heikkinen that the Olympic Committee, which is profiled mainly for investigating the immobility of the population.
The Olympic Committee chose Heikkinen as the head of the elite sports unit in April 2022 Mika Lehtimäki in place of. Lehtimäki had to resign from the director’s position due to the turmoil.
As the new head of the elite sports unit, Heikkinen could have, or should have, raised the elite sports evaluation and the measures proposed in it to the discussion between the Olympic Committee and the sports federations, together with the committee’s main funder, the Ministry of Education and Culture.
– However, this has not happened and, for example, at the Huippu-urhelu network days on 9.–10. October 2022 In Kuortane, despite requests, the processing of the report did not fit into the program, says the inspector general of the Ministry of Education and Culture Kari Niemi-Nikkola.
Heikkinen defends himself by saying that those days were his first big encounter with a top sports network.
– The theme was “Feeling the game”, building trust, and how network management can be implemented even better. This building of trust was also called for in the external evaluation.
It is interesting that the evaluation was not discussed at the network days held in Helsinki a year later either.
The professor who led the elite sports evaluation team Karl-Erik Michelsen feels that the processing of the report has remained in limbo partly due to the Olympic Committee’s acute crises, such as harassment cases and personnel issues. They were on while the report was being worked on.
– The considerations and results were buried under personnel selection and other similar questions. The committee was more interested in which composition to continue operations and who would be chosen for different positions than in reforming the elite sports system.
Michelsen is also disappointed that all the structures of elite sports have remained unchanged, even though all parties have acknowledged that there are major shortcomings in management.
– Management systems are old-fashioned and do not serve the best of elite sports. In addition, trust between operators has been weak.
Matti Heikkinen’s quiet life also surprises Michelsen.
– He is the number one man in top sports in Finland, but his policies have not been heard during the year.
“A brilliant past, an unclear present and a challenging future”
It is clear from the elite sports assessment that the system supporting elite sports has been heavily reformed in the 21st century, but the change process is still ongoing.
The summary of the report states, among other things, that “Finnish top sport has a great past, an unclear present and a challenging future. Although elite sport is valued in Finland, its definition is unclear and shaky.”
“Although elite sports need financial resources and an effective support system, it is a complex social phenomenon that is affected by social, cultural and political factors. The evaluation team has looked at Finnish elite sports in a changing national and international context and tried to highlight factors that have been left out in the public discussion.”
Kari Niemi-Nikkola says that the group of researchers reported to the ministry and the Olympic Committee on the progress of the work during the spring of 2022, and after the announcement, further actions were agreed upon.
– The Ministry of Education and Culture was left with the task of collecting the interest and opinion of the top sports network, and it was done with the help of the Webropol survey in September 2022. The findings of the research groups were broken down into sentences and the actors of the network were asked to extract from them the most important findings from the point of view of their own organization. There were almost 70 responses.
Kari Niemi-Nikkola says that the Olympic Committee had to think among themselves about what they want and intend to do, and which findings they think are the most important based on the evaluation in terms of the development of Finnish elite sports.
– That answer was never received and the whole process seemed to freeze. The events in Kuortanene showed that there was probably no desire to have a conversation. However, that cannot be the case, but the discussion about the evaluation will be held and we intend to continue, at least from the direction of the ministry.
The national sports academy Urhea has also taken the report’s conclusions so seriously that it has already organized three discussion and development seminars for its stakeholders.
Talk about elite sports in the collar
In the Olympic Committee’s recent statements, elite sports have not really come to the fore. They have mainly talked about functional ability, increasing movement and an active lifestyle.
According to Matti Heikkinen, the Olympic Committee, in addition to being a top sports organization, is also Finland’s largest people’s movement, whose activities have three pillars (physical lifestyle, club activities and top sports).
– This affects the way things are brought up and what we want to discuss. There is also a really big change going on, which will become concrete in 2024, which means that in the future we will operate in Finnish top sports with state funds entirely with taxpayers’ money, unlike until now, when we have been the beneficiary of Veikkaus. That must also be taken into account in the openings.
Strictly speaking, it is mainly a budget technical change, with which the funding of science, art, sports and youth education, which were previously financed with betting profits, will be covered from budget funds in the future by a joint agreement of all parliamentary parties.
According to Heikkinen, the good performances of the athletes, not so much the outputs of the Olympic Committee, are the best voice that elite sports can use to communicate to Finns about its own activities.
– They are an example of that Wilma Murron performances in Budapest and the more than two million TV viewers they gathered.
According to Matti Heikkinen, elite sports evaluation has been discussed in discussions and feedback has been collected. He likes that there are different perspectives, not just consensus.
– This process is also linked to the Olympic Committee’s internal assessments carried out in strategic periods (2016 and 2020). Their content is very similar to the external assessment. In addition, we have collected feedback from top athletes and top sports network operators by the Institute of Top Sports KIHU.
Matti Heikkinen feels that the trust gained in the evaluation and working together has improved among the actors since the stages of the Huippu-eruhlu transformation task force (2010–2012).
Unrealized goal: the best Nordic country 2020
However, it would be essential to know whether there has been a discussion within the elite sports network and between the Olympic Committee and the sports federations about whether the goals that were set for the change in elite sports in 2012 have been realized. Did you get what you wanted? At least the goal of being the most successful Nordic country in 2020 has not been achieved.
Matti Heikkinen says that the most important strategic task of the top sports network is to produce top sports success, and that the Top Sports Unit leads and coordinates that work.
– “The best Nordic country” was a vision that was set as part of the transformation work of elite sports more than 10 years ago. It has not been our strategic goal for many years. I feel that in terms of the current success goals, we have hit the ground running quite comfortably. It seems that a couple of medals from Paris are still needed in order to reach the set goal, says Matti Heikkinen and continues that in Finland sports success is also evaluated more widely than in many European countries.
– The dialogue with the actors of the different network is continuous, and in relation to the management and structures that have been evaluated, we strive every day to ensure that the resources are used as smartly as possible to produce top sports success.
However, it does not seem to be quite clear what is aimed for in Finnish top sport and how top sport is defined.
– Our task is to lead and decide and show those decisions in our support decisions. It is our heavy responsibility. I also look with quite open eyes to the guidelines of the coming strategy period. In my opinion, the current goals and success are in line with what can be achieved from Finnish top sports with a sustainable and smart approach within the framework of current resources.
Matti Heikkinen emphasizes that in elite sports, an individual’s everyday life is guided by choices aimed at development and success at the international top.
– In elite sports, it’s about testing the limits of a person.
For more than a year, Matti Heikkinen has been able to get to know top Finnish sports in his new position and he has had time to think about the future.
– During the next three months, I want to emphasize three things. They are the development and support process for summer sports and the operating environment process, where the academies and coaching centers are reviewed. Thirdly, it must be remembered that the everyday life of elite sports is the daily work of athletes and coaches. Supporting it is our main task.
It remains to be seen how Heikkinen’s emphasis supports the development that is taking place in global top sports, when the focus is increasingly moving outside of Europe in summer sports and the gap to the international top in team sports is growing, remains to be seen.