If Finland wanted more Olympic medals, it should act like New Zealand, Holland or Hungary.
Roope Kariniemi,
Ida Paasonen
13.8. 19:29•Updated 13.8. 20:20
Finland could achieve several medals at the Olympics if it followed the example of, for example, New Zealand. This is what the former head of the Finnish Sports Association believes Sami Itani.
New Zealand decided 20 years ago to invest clearly in sports where there is not as much competition at the international level as, for example, athletics, gymnastics or judo.
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New Zealand’s decision has borne fruit. The nation of 5.1 million inhabitants grabbed 20 medals from Paris.
– I’m not saying it’s the right way to act, but it’s one option, Sami Itani states.
The same has also been done in the Netherlands. The country won 34 medals in Paris and has also been successful at the Winter Olympics.
The Netherlands has three times more inhabitants than Finland. According to Itani, Finland could reach a third of Holland’s number of medals.
How many medals and when?
If Finland were to decide now to invest in sports where there is not so much competition at the international level, would Finland be able to achieve, say, ten medals in eight years?
– It is definitely possible. Finnish athletes are not genetically any worse than anyone else, says Itani.
If you want to achieve medals in four years, Itani believes that you should invest money in the fifteen athletes who are currently closest to the top in the world.
– I’m sure that these fifteen would accumulate medals.
Itani does not name the sports in which it would make sense to invest in Finland now, if the number of medals were to be maximized. However, he states that it would be “very pragmatic” to invest in women’s sports.
– On the global scale, unfortunately, women and girls have on average clearly fewer opportunities to start competitive sports than men. This problem does not exist in Finland.
Is the New Zealand model realistic?
Itani wants to highlight the problematic nature of the New Zealand model. It is related to the fact that Finland has a strong tradition of treating sports organizations equally.
In addition, funding is decided by the Ministry of Education and Culture, which has its own equality principles.
– We would have to deviate from them if we started supporting certain sports or athletes absolutely, says Itani.
He believes that the decision to radically support certain sports would require a discussion in parliament.
Itani also raises the question of whether we really want to prioritize Olympic medals so strongly.
– For the general public and bench athletes, it is certainly important that success comes for more than two weeks once every four years. In recent years, Finland has qualified for prestigious competitions in the world’s biggest ball sports, unlike, for example, Norway.
According to Itani, prioritizing smaller sports would not mean that more money would be directed to marginal sports. Instead, individuals found to be highly talented are directed to these sports.
However, according to Itani, the New Zealand model would not require that children be guided to practice marginal sports. In his opinion, the most important thing in children’s movement would still be versatility.
– Ten years ago, a political decision was made in Hungary to significantly increase school sports. It can now be seen as a great success in value competitions.