Susanna Rahkamo and Sari Multala, Vice-Chairs of the Olympic Committee, say that many things have gone wrong. The leadership of the Olympic Committee has had a misconception about who decides on pay matters, for example.
Antti Sahlström,
Mika Halonen
Vapaavuori said that he is aware of another incident of harassment in the sports community in addition to the Lehtimäki incident. According to Vapaavuori, the case, which is pending, has come to his attention before Lehtimäki’s case became public.
Vapaavuori admitted that mistakes had been made in handling Lehtimäki’s case and he said he wanted to apologize to the women who had been subjected to inappropriate behavior. Vapaavuori said he still enjoys the trust of the government.
Athlete member of the Olympic Committee Board Mika Poutala tells Urheilu that the most important part of Wednesday ‘s meeting was that the Lehtimäki case was opened for the first time to all members of the Board.
What kind of feedback did you give to the Bureau?
– I was pretty straightforward. It may be easy for me when I’m a young newcomer, a little naive and I ask stupid questions anyway. It was pretty easy for me then to shoot straight at the things I thought. I challenged whether all the points had been made in accordance with good practice. Of course, even Vapaavuor said that mistakes had been made. I also challenged Vapaavuori purely about how to keep a message about it, Poutala says.
– He is certainly more experienced than me, but I think Vapaavuori has a bit of a challenge in communicating this type of thing. There was some discussion about it and I think it was in a really good spirit, although I was a little nervous about how it was handled. Yes, everyone was allowed to speak cleanly.
Vice-Chairs of the Olympic Committee Sari Multala and Susanna Rahkamo say they did not feel that their confidence was questioned.
– As such, what is more important is what the members of the Olympic Committee think. The membership decides on the admission and dismissal of the entire Board, Multala points out.
– Personally, I did not feel that I was terribly criticized here. This decision-making was discussed more in the general picture, says Rahkamo.
“We on the board don’t know enough about what our organization does.”
Mika Poutala points out that there is talk of two things: how Lehtimäki’s misuse was investigated and punished, and then how Lehtimäki’s future was decided. At the beginning of March, the Olympic Committee appointed Lehtimäki to continue in office until the end of 2024. Lehtimäki resigned from his wash on Monday.
Poutala states that the biggest problem from his point of view was that the government was unaware of the warning Lehtimäki received when his sequel was discussed.
At the press conference, Vapaavuori said that the Olympic Committee is requesting an external report on its activities, the author of which will be discussed with the Finnish Sports Ethics Center.
According to Vice-President Multala, it is important to carry out an external study of what has happened and to correct the decision-making of the Olympic Committee. According to Multala, the way in which the Olympic Committee decides on personnel selections, for example, needs to be corrected.
– It turns out that there is a lot to improve here. It also involves how this matter has been handled and who has been informed at any stage. No information was taken to the government about the warning Lehtimäki received, although I asked the matter itself at the time. This is related to the interpretation of how it was thought that decisions should be made. That has been a misconception, Multala says.
According to Susanna Rahkamo, Vice-Chair, the Olympic Committee has also had a wrong picture of who makes decisions in matters such as pay. According to Rahkamo, the executive management and the chairman have been in the opinion that the CEO’s decisions on the remuneration of the members of the management team are made by the principle of more than one, where more than one means the chairman. However, according to the rules, the choice is made by the government.
Multala says it has long been concerned that the gap between government and staff has widened.
– We in the government do not know well enough what our organization does, what is known there and what is happening there. We are too far away, the Vice-President says.
Vice Presidents: Reputation has been hit
According to Rahkamo and Multala, the reputation of the Olympic Committee has been shaken.
– Many things have gone wrong. We need to look at how we work. Second, this has knocked the work community down. It is important that these parties, the two women, are protected, Rahkamo says.
Rahkamo believes that it is important that abuses can occur without the parties being robbed.
– In addition, it must be considered that harassment or ill-treatment can no longer occur, Rahkamo lists.
Multala says he has learned why such things are so difficult and why they are often left in the dark.
– I believe that this is a wider societal problem, but also in sport. There is really a lot of work to be done for equality and transparency and a safe working environment.
Multala says he is sure that the Lehtimäki case is not an isolated case.
– Based on the many discussions I have had, this issue seems to have broken some kind of dam. We still have a long way to go before leaders and all members of the community understand what all those rules of fair play and accountability mean. They are not just paper, they have to be practiced every day.
– In that sense, I think that although this has been a very horrible thing for the Olympic Committee and sports, good things can follow. Maybe it is finally understood that things need to change. I want to work on this myself.