The skiing scandal ruined journalist Johanna Aatsalo’s life – Only two have apologized, she says in an interview with HS

HS:n sports reporter Ari Virtanen interviewed the author at the Helsinki book fair Johanna Aatsaloa. Aatsalo’s book Revelation. A story about doping news and a reporter who wanted to be silenced (WSOY, 2024) tells about his personal experiences after the publication of the doping story about Finnish skiing.

Johanna Aatsaloformer editor of STT, got into a heavy media frenzy after an article he wrote about a national team skier Jari Räsänen on the use of doping substances was published in 1998.

After that, the working community, especially STT’s sports department, turned their backs on him. In the end, the entire STT’s large editorial department said no to the news.

“I don’t know if a person can ever prepare for co-workers being so mean to you,” Aatsalo said in an interview.

“After all, humans are herd animals, and social isolation is severe mental violence. I wasn’t able to react to it in any way at the time, because I had to defend myself.”

Defense it was enough, because according to Aatsalo by Esko Ahon led by the Ski Federation started a deliberate campaign to destroy his credibility. As a result, he lost his career at STT and got into a cycle of lawsuits, which also had tragic consequences in his private life.

Now Aatsalo says that only two people have later apologized for what happened. Instead, the ordinary people he has encountered have been surprisingly interested in potential remorse.

“Perhaps it is hoped that by apologizing they would seal their guilt once and for all. They would admit that they have done wrong against the most sacred values ​​of the sport, cheated. Now they can skip it on their own responsibility”, says Aatsalo in an interview.