Skiing|The task description of Jukka Rautakorvi, known as an ice hockey coach, has expanded in the Olympic Committee.
As an ice hockey coach better known Jukka Rautakorpi is a familiar sight from the side of the rink, but last week the man was unexpectedly seen at the skiing Tour de Ski competition in Val di Fiemme.
Rautakorpi, 61, stood by the track with spare poles in hand, wearing the vest of the Finnish team and the maintenance team’s radio to his ear.
Director of the Olympic Committee’s club activities and currently also top sports Jaana Tulla says that Rautakorvin’s trip was connected to a new job description at the Olympic Committee.
Rautakorpi has worked at the Olympic Committee as a top sports officer for just under a year, and now his job description has expanded. The decision on the new task was made after the fall meeting of the Olympic Committee in November, where the development of coaching and management skills was raised as a strategic goal.
Why was Jukka Rautakorpi in Val di Fiemme?
“In the future, Jukka will work especially with coaching and management skills across sport boundaries. He was there for sparring and, of course, learning about the preparations for the Milan Olympics. From the point of view of coaching and management skills, he will certainly visit circles other than cross-country.”
Is the next destination already known?
“A meeting was held today, and now the focus is especially on the support of our winter and top sports.”
How was the trip?
“He had received good feedback that there would be a little external evaluation and external sparring for various things and preparation.”
Has there been a task like this before?
“This is a new task. We want to move Finnish sports forward so that we don’t just look at things from our own box.”
Is Rautakorpi the only one on this mission?
”Pia Pekonen is another that is very focused on promoting coaching skills. These two experts have now been harnessed especially for this new strategic choice.”
What were the questions that you especially wanted to get answers to on the Rautakorvi trip?
“There were two angles to it. We wanted to see the conditions in Milan and ensure the preparation of cross-country skiing in the front field. In addition, we wanted to see the training and the competition event next to each other.”
“Yes, it was a research trip into how the Olympic Committee can help one of our top sports towards the Winter Olympics and then, correspondingly, whether cross-country skiing can give something to other sports. They said both had come.”
How is the benefit from such a trip measured?
“Feedback from sports coaches and athletes is of course an important measure. We are currently renewing and building our KPI measures (performance measure). Yes, we need to get even better at the impact of where our work particularly helps member organizations and our athletes.”
“Of course, it’s a bit difficult to measure an individual visit, but it warms me that the feedback has been good. At this point, it is the primary metric. In the elite sports unit, our task is to help athletes succeed.”