– At the moment, we are in the 15th–16th place in the Olympic ranking. It may be that this is enough, but it is probably not enough, he says Taru Lahti-Liukkonen.
In the spring season, Finland’s number one pair must have success in top-level tournaments.
– I personally think that we will go one day and one tournament at a time. We don’t put all the focus on what’s coming there, because nothing can be known yet, reflects the other half of the team Niina Ahtiainen.
The international beach volleyball season started in Doha at the beginning of March. Lahti-Liukkonen and Ahtiainen only started their season in Recife, Brazil, about a week before Easter. The ranking in the challenge level tournament was ninth.
In the next tournament at Easter in Saquerama, Brazil, the ranking was 17th with one win and two losses.
The good last season, especially its final phase, betrayed the excellent settings for the Olympic season that has started.
The head coach Toni Vahela says that at the challenge level the rankings should be in the top five and at the highest, i.e. elite level, in the top nine.
– I think we need a couple of slightly tougher tournaments and tougher results in them, Vahela thinks about the Olympic ranking.
The Olympic venue is often nearby
Beach volleyball entered the Olympic Games in the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. The sport immediately gained great popularity and has been included in the Olympic family seven times.
The most successful countries are Brazil and the United States. However, no Finnish couple has ever been seen on the netted Olympic sands. Finnish women’s teams have been on the verge of reaching the Games several times already.
The volleyball twins Emily and Erika Nyström were really close to the Olympic place in 2008 and 2012.
In 2016 Riikka Lehtonen and Taru Lahti-Liukkonen were to qualify for the Olympic Games in Rio, but the place escaped in the last tournament.
Access to the Olympic Games in Tokyo crumbled once and for all in the final tournament of the continental cup in The Hague. Both Finnish teams, Riikka Lehtonen and Niina Ahtiainen and Ida Sinisalo-Peltonen and Vilhelmina Prihtilost their match already in the opening round.
24 pairs of both women and men will be included in the Olympic Games.
One place goes to the world champion pair, the US To Kelly Chong mixed To Sara Hughes. The second place is reserved for the host country France. Five places are decided in the continental cup and 17 places are distributed based on the Olympic ranking. The Finnish pair is strong in the Olympic ranking.
Now would be the place to make Finnish Olympic history.
– Yes, I get chills when I think that we will play there, Lahti-Liukkonen enthuses.
Ahtiainen is on the same lines.
– It would be great, I can’t even describe it. It’s been a dream, and it’s cool that it’s still alive and close to coming true.
Recycling and pair swapping
The compositions of the beach teams always change from time to time.
Both Taru Lahti-Liukkonen and Niina Ahtiainen have tried to get to the Olympic Games as a pair of Finland’s most successful volleyball player, Riikka Lehtonen.
– I was really young when I started with Riika. He took me very well into it and was a really great role model next to it, recalls Lahti-Liukkonen.
After Lehtonen, Lahti-Liukkonen played Anniina Parkkinen roll.
– Even the couple exchange with Anniina went naturally and the same now with Niina, says Lahti-Liukkonen.
Niina Ahtiainen played her junior years with Iida Sinisalo-Peltonen. In 2018, he started with Riikka Lehtonen, and they played four seasons together.
– With the closure of Riga, we decided to recycle with three. Anniina Parkkinen and Taru were there. We ended up with Taru to see this Olympic project to the end, Ahtiainen describes.
Lahti-Liukkonen and Ahtiainen have played together since September 2022. In the very first year, they took a historic tournament win on the women’s world tour at a challenge level tournament in the Maldives.
Last season, Finland’s number one beach volleyball duo took silver in the challenge tournament in Thailand.
– There are no pop artists. The whole last season was relatively intact and began to bear fruit, explains coach Vahela.
“The game has been diversified”
In this training season, Finland’s number one pair has gained more certainty and confidence in their game. Attacking has been enhanced and the focus has been on pass variations.
– The last period from December 2023 until now has been the best training period in terms of quality, says coach Toni Vahela.
During the training season, there were two good camps in Tenerife, where the Finns had equal matches with the top teams.
– We have diversified our game. There is such a trend in the world at the moment that the game is spread a little, so that it is not so predictable, says Lahti-Liukkonen.
The couple’s chemistry works well. On the field, they are a little different, but that supports the whole.
– I feel that we have really good communication. The fact that we can talk about things is really important in this sport, says Ahtiainen.
As a whole, Lahti-Liukkonen and Ahtiainen are able to play with very few mistakes.
– The reception is sure, the passing game is sure, there will be few mistakes in the attacking play, the blocking defense has been improving all the time, the passing game has been good, analyzes head coach Vahela.
– A really even team. Strength comes from there, concludes head coach Vahela.
The Olympic ranking closes on June 10.
The Paris Olympics will be held from July 26 to August 11.
During the spring, there are critical moments in many sports in terms of Finnish Olympic places.
In April, for example, the European Olympic qualifiers for fencing and wrestling, the world qualifiers for rifle and pistol shooting and the final qualifying regatta for sailing will be held. In addition, the Olympic rankings for weightlifting and badminton, among other things, will be closed.
Director of the Olympic Committee’s sports and competition programs, Finnish team manager for the Paris Games Leena Paavolainen says that at the moment there are still about a hundred Finns and a men’s basketball team for whom a place in the competition is possible.
The size of the Finnish Olympic team will probably be around 60 athletes, unless Susijengi claims a place in the summer qualifying tournament.
It would be a big team, as there were 45 Finns participating in the 2021 Tokyo Games and 54 in Rio before that.
Regarding species, the expected value is 11–15 species. The athletics team is the largest, estimated at more than 30 athletes.
It is for the Finnish team 12 athletes have already been selectedand 17 athletes have a place in the Games.
Starting in April, athletes will be named to the Finnish team every month on the principle of flexible selection. Selections are made when the rankings close and the athlete’s competition place gets its final seal.
Paavolainen does not want to punish the biggest hope for success.
– There was a goal of 10 medals for this Olympics. Beijing became 8, so now two medals are screaming if you think about success goals.
In the end, a few names come out when asked about medal hopes.
– There have been global top 8 level results in several sports. If names are mentioned, yes Wilma Murto (pole vault), Eetu Kallioinen (skeet shooting), Martti Puumalainen (judo) as well as Sinem Kurtbay and Central axis (sailing Nacra 17 class).
The elite sports unit of the Olympic Committee published by from the end of 2023 summer sports enhancement support decisions for 2024.
The enhancement support aims to guarantee the best possible preparation of the athletes for the Paris Olympics and Paralympics. A total of 4,223,000 euros of support for the enhancement of elite sports was distributed to summer sports.
Paavolainen cites Murro and Puumalainen as examples of the benefits of support.
Jarno Koivunen able to work full-time as Murro’s coach until Paris.
Puumalainen, on the other hand, gets a physiotherapist with him to all camps abroad, who takes care of muscle care and recovery.
Paavolais was interviewed by Johannes Oikarinen.