When there were only three weeks until the Olympic Committee’s board elections four years ago, four very heavyweight candidates had entered the presidential race: Jan Vapaavuori, Sari Multala, Susanna Rahkamo and 2022 deceased Ilkka Kanerva.
When Vapaavuori, who was voted the 2020 winner, shakes hands with his followers on November 30, a very different kind of struggle for the umbrella organization’s first place may have been seen: 3.5 weeks before the election, only the principal of Kuortanee sports college, a member of the board of the Olympic Committee, had registered on Tuesday. Tapio Korjus.
Basketball coach Pieti Poikolan signing up “to join” seems, at least at this point, to be mostly a publicity stunt related to the future opening of the Finnish gambling market. By Tuesday, none of the member organizations of the Olympic Committee had nominated Poikola as their candidate, which according to the rules is a condition for seeking a board seat or the chairmanship of the board.
On the other hand, rank-and-file membership of the Olympic Committee’s board is interesting – with the support of one or more of the committee’s member organizations – at least a hockey coach Erkka Westerlundiachairman of the Biathlon Union Kalle Lähdesmäkiboard member of Uimailiitto Hanna-Maria Aulaa and the vice president of the Ski Association Martti Uusitaloa, whose Ski Association nominated on Tuesday.
The heaviest series
Uusitalo, who is one of the most influential figures in the heaviest division of Finnish sports and sits as the vice-president of the International Ski Federation, admitted to Urheilu on October 22 that he had been asked about his desire to become president.
In the end, the CEO-partner of Oy Patrol Trading AB, which manufactures ski creams and imports sports equipment, decided to just try to become an ordinary member. Uusitalo’s experience in management, marketing and even coaching in international top sports is unparalleled in Finland.
However, Uusitalo is now telling his own, no-nonsense view of why the job of chairman of the Olympic Committee, which in recent years was considered a great honor even by the candidates’ employers, is no longer interesting in Finland.
We are even in a situation where Korjus might be crowned chairman on November 30 without a vote, although Uusitalo still does not fully believe in this scenario.
Uusitalo, who played a big role in the world conquest of Finnish alpine skiing in the late 1990s as a sport manager, lists several reasons why the list of candidates is becoming historically short. The historic zero-medal Olympics in Paris is one reason for that, but not necessarily the main reason.
The use of time weighed
– In my case, time-consuming things weighed the most. The Ski Federation and FIS take a total of about one day of my week, the work of the managing director of a limited company 5–6 days. The Olympic Committee has to start very extensive change and strategy work, which requires a person whose life situation allows for almost or full-time work. Even my weeks don’t have nine days.
The work of the chairman of the National Olympic Committee also includes a lot of international scope, i.e. traveling as the highest Finnish trustee of the global Olympic movement.
Although the Finnish Olympic Committee is a registered association and not a limited company, Uusitalo directly compares it to a company in crisis. The results of own fundraising are weak, the corporate image is questionable due to poor sporting success and personnel turbulence, and even the tumultuous Olympic Fund did not become a treasure chest at the end of the rainbow, but a nasty stomach bug.
– Such a situation naturally brings with it a lot of very negative publicity, which, in an organization like the Olympic Committee, focuses a lot on the chairman. When at the same time it is remembered that it is unpaid voluntary work, it is not pleasant, even if the leather has been hardened.
Uusitalo emphasizes that the recent one was not a lament. He has not disliked volunteer work.
It seems like a short time
Top sailor, this year’s European champion Valtteri Uusitalo father also considers the four-year term of office of the board of the Olympic Committee to be quite short in this kind of situation.
– In corporate life, you don’t usually dream that a company on the brink of bankruptcy will flourish in four years. But in that time, Finland should become a country with 6–8 medals in the Summer Olympics. In the Olympic Committee, where there is no solid firewall between top sports and other activities, which should definitely have been built when the organization expanded.
At the time, when the chairmanship of the Olympic Committee was still a highly sought-after and prestigious position, the Olympic Committee was practically only an elite sports organization.
Martti Uusitalo finds one more thing that has puzzled the sports circles a lot, which he thinks has even driven away potential presidential candidates.
Brutal actions
Although the board of the Olympic Committee has known for four years that its term of office will end this fall, it started with a CEO Taina Susiluoto with tough measures even after the Paris Games. First, the head of the elite sports unit Matti Heikkinen and Vice President Leena Paavolainen the work in the unit was dismissed as finished.
Two weeks ago, the committee again announced that it would begin major change negotiations and move its operations from the Sports Hall in Helsinki’s Pitäjänmäki to the Olympic Stadium, where the committee welcomed the participation of the entire sports community. Some of this rest of the community has not expressed their view of the news in flowers, so to speak.
Martti Uusitalo doesn’t even try to hide his view on the matter.
– Usually, the outgoing government does not take such dramatic measures, but leaves them to the new government. Even now, this would have been the most appropriate course of action.
The other week, a group of six famous Finnish sports influencers went public with an initiative in which the Olympic Committee’s elite sports unit is proposed to be practically replaced by a group of elite experts called Sisu, directly under the main financier, i.e. the Ministry of Education and Culture.
“It should have already been invented”
Uusitalo says that he does not rule out new ideas for the development of Finnish sports, but additional information would be very necessary.
– If our top sport were to rise from the level of success in such an easy way that the decision-making power for political guidance is transferred to the ministry, I dare to believe that someone would have already figured this out before.
The international skiing federation FIS was shaken some time ago by a joint project of the Nordic broadcasting companies, which the chairman John Eliasch’s to arbitrary action. The Swedish pohatta, for example, is pushing for a centralized media agreement for FIS sports, which has put the big skiing countries on the back foot.
– It is true that the project should have been pushed forward with slightly more diplomatic means and with a slower schedule. The purpose of the agreement is good, i.e. to bring more money to all parties. I believe it will eventually make it to the finish line.
On November 13, the Finnish Ski Federation will announce its financial statements for the period November 1, 2023–June 30, 2024. Uusitalo does not say the exact number, but admits it is “brutal” and minus.
– In the big picture, however, the direction of the Ski Association is right from the financial aspect, but there is still a lot of work to be done.