Young track and field athletes paid 1,200 euros for a trip to the World Cup – the coach was shocked

Helsinki IFK hurdles coach Anne Suoranta considers it completely unreasonable that young general athletes had to pay 1,200 euros for their trip to the World Championships in their age group in Peru.

According to Suoranna, an out-of-pocket competition trip is the wrong way to finance young track and field athletes and their parents.

“The majority of athletes under the age of 20 don’t have big subsidies or sponsors anyway. They live at the expense of the family. The Sports Confederation (Sul) should develop other sources of income, such as the Sweden match,” says Suoranta, reached from Greece on vacation.

The experienced hurdler coach was not at the competition site in Peru’s capital, Lima, at the end of August. The trip there would have been too expensive for the coach.

“Well, next summer the race trip will be cheaper. You just have to buy a train ticket to Tampere”, Suoranta refers to the city on the 7th-10th. for the under-20 European Championship held in August 2025.

In Peru, a 17-year-old competed for Suoranta’s protégé Mila Heikkonenwho was sixth in the 400 meter final with a time of 57.64.

Thanks to the final place, Heikkonen only had to pay half of the required cost.

With a medal or championship, the deductible could have been reset. Heikkonen’s medal could run away by collapsing the last fence.

“The out-of-pocket cost discriminates against young people. In HIFK, the club does not pay for the trip, but some clubs do. 1,200 euros is a lot of money,” says Suoranta.

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Every athlete who reached the place would have deserved to get the trip without a deductible or a medal carrot.

From Lappeenranta Rasmus Vehmaa also had his deductible halved to 600 euros, when he finished eighth in the boys’ 110-meter hurdles.

He also bumped into the fence and the run was abandoned, but the place in the final was not taken away from him.

Vehmaa’s competition costs were mainly paid by his club Lappeenrantan Urheilu-Miehet.

“With us, the club pays 80 percent of the trip. It is true that the cost of ownership discriminates against athletes when clubs have different practices. Not everyone is on the same page. In the past, the union even sponsored training camps,” Rasmus’ father Janne Vehmaa says.

According to him, a young person’s admission to a prestigious competition is such a big deal for a young person that he would expect the Sports Confederation to pay all the expenses.

“It would be great if that were the case.”

Janne Vehmaa remembers that the athletes also had to pay for accommodation at the youth European Championships held in Espoo in the summer of 2023.

“I think the association still ordered a hotel where you had to stay,” says Vehmaa.

Helsinki Kisa-Veikkoin She Gives Up participated in the 800 meter race in Lima, where he ran his record 2:05.36 in the semi-finals. The time was not enough for the final place.

That left 1,200 euros for his own expenses.

“That’s a big amount for a young athlete who doesn’t have sponsorship income yet. I think the competition limits set by the Sports Federation were tough. Every athlete who achieved them would have deserved to get the trip without a deductible or a medal carrot,” says Ceder, a 17-year-old with great promise.

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Hopefully, the deductible could be waived at some point.

Ceder felt no pressure because a possible medal would have reset the deductible.

“I’m not yet at medal level in the world, but the competition was quite exciting. At least I need big races like this so that I can also run better tactically.”

According to him, for young people, competitions should be more about gaining competition experience than medals.

Out of pocket trips have come up in athletics before, even though it has been part of the Swedish Sports Confederation’s financial practices since the post-corona pandemic.

In the spring of 2023, a sprinter Samuli Samuelsson criticized the Sports Confederation that the Finnish relay team would have had to pay a total of 1,600 euros for participating in the Nordic championships.

The Finnish men’s 4 x 100 meter relay team was not seen in the competitions held in Copenhagen.

Sports Federation chairman Riikka Pakarinen defends the federation’s practice at the World Youth Championships in Peru.

“Unfortunately, you have had to ask for a co-responsibility for the youth value competitions. We understand that it can be a large amount, but we hope that the sponsor and the club can support”, says Pakarinen.

How does the Sports Confederation justify the carrot brought by success, which would have eliminated the deductible?

“It’s always been like that, we stand behind the carrot of success. Hopefully, the deductible could be waived at some point”

Cost of living is also related to other species. Six young Finns will compete next week in the shooting sports World Championships, also in Peru.

According to the Shooting Sports Association, some of the athletes pay for their trip, some do not.

“Let’s go according to the criteria. One athlete will receive 70 percent support, the others will receive 100 percent support,” the association’s communications manager Leave a Palo tells.

On Tuesday, it was reported that Finnish skiers will have to pay a deductible of no more than 500 euros for the World Cup.

In the past, para-athletes have also criticized competition trips they paid for themselves.

Travel expenses due to the increase in prices, the costs of competition trips have increased.

At the same time that public support for sports is being reduced, self-expense trips by athletes may threaten to increase in the future.

The new executive director of the Sports Managers’ Association Atte Age reminds of an old cliché: you have to think about things differently.

“Now is the last moment to act. The support from the state and Veikkaus will decrease, so that the wider mass will no longer get the same. Companies are needed to finance sports,” says Varsta.