Harri Syväsalmi remembers Timo Seppälä as an anti-doping expert whose evaluations he could always trust.
A pioneer of Finnish anti-doping work Timo Seppälä passed away on Saturday at the age of 72. The docent of pharmacology also had a long career as an expert in anti-doping work.
Has been influential in anti-doping work for a long time Harri Syväsalmi says that Seppälä’s amount of information on doping matters was enormous. In the media, Seppälä was sometimes called Mister anti-doping.
– When you discussed these issues with Timo, you knew you would always get a balanced and correct answer. With his amount of knowledge and expertise, he really deserved that title, Syväsalmi tells Urheilu.
Seppälä’s career started in the 1980s. He worked in all anti-doping organizations.
He worked as the chairman of the supervisory board dealing with doping violations in 1990–2002. From 2002, he worked for 15 years as the medical director of the Finnish Anti-Doping Agency.
In 2016, ADT became Suek, where Seppälä had an impact for a while. At the beginning of the 2000s, Syväsalmi, who worked as secretary general of the world anti-doping agency Wada, was named secretary general of Suek.
Syväsalmi and Seppälä were colleagues for a while.
– He knew sports but also the anti-doping and pharmacological side. He was very reliable in his assessments, Syväsalmi recalls.
High criteria for the follower
According to Syväsalmi, Seppälä’s work for anti-doping can be seen strongly in Suek. He helped and talked.
Pekka Rauhala has been influential for six years as Suek’s medical expert. Rauhala is a former freestyle wrestler.
– He followed Timo’s work and activities already when he was an athlete. It was visible when Timo’s successor was chosen. High criteria had to be met. Fortunately, Pekka was the one who was found to continue that work.
Seppälä was injured in an accident in September 2016. It resulted in quadriplegia.
According to Syväsalmi, Seppälä had different research methods in mind before his paralysis.
– I went to see him several times in the nursing home. He was in very good spirits considering the circumstances. He would surely have continued his research work on the path he had set out on.
The Ministry of Education and Culture awarded Seppälä a gold cross of merit in 2011. At the 2019 Sports Gala, he was awarded a special award for his work for clean sports.