Comment|In the future, the selection of the Finnish team should have clear criteria regarding the chances of success and full certainty about the state of health.
Finland competed in the recent European Athletics Championships with a large team of 67 people.
Competed and competed, because not all athletes were in full competition condition.
Many Finns had left for the “eternal city” in Rome, pregnant or even injured. Of course, this should not be the case.
For a young athlete, the desire to get to prestigious competitions is strong. Then you don’t want to reveal minor or persistent injuries to the public – not always necessarily even to the coach, because the question is about personal health information.
Ultimately, the responsibility lies with the athlete, but the starting point is that you go to the Games healthy.
Roman The European Championships showed that the selection system should be re-examined.
Now the decision of the Finnish Sports Confederation (Sul) was to include every eligible athlete. If not, the athlete would probably complain to the Sports Legal Protection Board, and the Sports Association does not want that.
The management of the sports association will consider its strategy in the fall after the season. A big team is certainly an advantage of the sport, but even that has its limits.
The team was supplemented to Rome also at the last moments, when Finland received additional places due to the absence of athletes from other countries.
In the future, one could think that these additional places will not be used, because there may not be enough high-quality athletes to fill them. However, you can always surprise.
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Ultimately, the responsibility lies with the athlete, but the starting point is that you go to the Games healthy.
In a neighboring country In Sweden and many other countries, the situation is different. The aim is to select athletes who have a chance to get into the top 16 in their sport.
If a similar condition were included in the selection criteria in Finland as well, the team could be much more capable of striking than what was seen in Rome.
In the July-August Olympic Games in Paris, the selection criteria are inherently tougher than in the European Championships.
The costs of the European Championship team in Rome were around 100,000 euros. The sports association can afford it, so money was not an obstacle to the choices.
Finns got one medal and twelve points at the European Championships. In the previous European Championships 2022, nine athletes made it to the top eight.
In 2018, there were only three point athletes, the same in the EC arena in 2016. The biggest bottoming out in the 2000s was seen at the Helsinki European Championships 2012, when only two athletes reached the points.
In this way, Finnish athletics took a step up in Rome, even though the team was too big.
In the last 30 years, the best EC result has been achieved in 1994, when the games were also held in Helsinki. Then a total of 17 athletes reached the points.