The Olympic Committee’s announcement dismayed the researcher: “Unforgivable”

Finnish a researcher who has followed the sports system for a long time Kati Lehtonen marvels at the leap with which the Finnish Olympic Committee made important decisions over the weekend.

Such a top sports leader was swept out with the laundry of the medalless Olympics in Paris Matti Heikkinen as the director of sports and competition programs Leena Paavolainen. The decisions on the reforms were made last weekend in Vierumäki, where the board of the Olympic Committee heard the elite sports unit’s analysis of the Olympics.

“What was the purpose of the Vierumäki meeting and what should we think about the government’s work in the past four years?” Lehtonen asks.

What happened brings to mind the scandal of two years ago. Mika Lehtimäki got his departure passes in the spring of 2022 from the position of head of the elite sports unit as a result of the harassment and its messy aftermath.

“Lehtimäki’s somersault was not a very strange show of skill from the government, which seemed to be ignorant of almost all the rules and articles related to the matter.”

Lehtonen according to the media frenzy after the Paris Olympic Games drove the Olympic Committee to panic.

“The sitting board ends up dismissing a couple of managers a couple of months before the autumn meeting. What legacy will it leave for the new government? No modern, strategically thinking government that lives in time works like this. And if it works, I’m worried.”

“There are management professionals on the board and you would think they know that such a procedure does not create stability for the future.”

The government’s goal may also have been to steer the discussion away from the activities of the Olympic Committee and move to speculation about the next leader. Then there will be no discussion about whether HUY needs a leader or the entire unit.

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How can an organization act like this towards its main funder.

Lehtonen wonders if the business leaders and consultants sitting at the top of the Olympic Committee really think that these solutions are the best for sports right now. Self-criticism is at least non-existent.

When an external assessment of the Finnish elite sports system was made in 2022, the Olympic Committee was not interested in going through it. The arrogance astounds the Jyväskylä University of Applied Sciences researcher.

“How can an organization act like this towards its main funder”, says Lehtonen and continues.

“Tells about the state of mind of the government, where we rise above everything.”

The number one boss in sports Jukka Uunila marched through the corridors of the Ministry of Education as a prince in the 1970s and 1980s. The current chairman Jan Vapaavuori seems to have adopted Uunila’s self-awareness, but forgets that we are now living in the 2020s.

When you put a couple of leaders in the yard, it looks lumbering and dull. According to the researcher, at the same time, big questions are pressed with wool and left unresolved.

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No need to explain afterwards that you couldn’t influence it.

The members of the board have obediently followed the chairman, and there were hardly any sounds of gravel before the collapse of Paris. Many things can be summed up in the saying “the government is like the chairman”.

“There’s no need to explain afterwards that you couldn’t influence it. There is always a chance to disagree in government work, now it seems more like they want to follow the mainstream. Regardless of whether one agrees or disagrees with things.”

Olympic Committee said in his press release that he was leaving to centralize sports support euros and to reduce the supported sports. Many people who follow top sports have had time to question the policy. In their opinion, the old government has no right to decide on such significant issues.

The Paralympics just ended, and the tenure of the old government in elite sports is over. On Wednesday, the Olympic Committee announced five priority areas in the same style as Moses presented his law Biblical by.

In Lehtonen’s opinion, there should have been a very broad principled discussion about the important policies.

“This was perhaps the most unforgivable thing that can be done to Finnish elite sports. Now we told others in advance what we were going to do together. Is this how we bind the people involved in sports together?”

The next government may turn the recent policies around.

“Then we’re in a mess again, where we go from one direction to another,” Lehtonen thinks.

According to him, nothing would have been lost if the next 2.5 months had been used to discuss with the sports community and create a snapshot of the four-year legacy.

Lehtonen hopes that the member organizations of the Olympic Committee will get together.

“Is the Olympic Committee’s operation in the interest of the member organizations? They allow all this.”

Member organizations have the opportunity to monitor and guide the activities of the Olympic Committee.

“It cannot be the case that the chairman and CEO pull the strings and the others politely follow behind. Or it could be, but it shows that the membership is either not interested or they don’t dare,” says Lehtonen.

If the Olympic Committee continues to bang its head against the wall, the government may question the funding of the entire elite sport.

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The motivation of some may be their own quests for power and the appearance of their own face in public.

The biggest financier, the state, has been lazy in guarding the performance of the Olympic Committee in different sectors – in elite sports, developing club activities and increasing movement.

“When there is no supervision, the supervised do what they want.”

The most popular for years, the remedy for raising the level of elite sports has been directing additional support to athletes and coaches. However, according to Lehtonen, it is not done because it would be out of place somewhere else.

“You should be able to discuss who it would be off, and make changes.”

When each entity strictly guards its own resources, operations remain paralyzed. It doesn’t seem to bother everyone.

“You can ask whether the promotion of elite sports is even in everyone’s interest. The motivation of some may be their own quests for power and to show their own face in public,” states Lehtonen.