Viivi Lehikoinen’s fight for a full scholarship continues.
A fencer Viivi Lehikoinen intends to appeal the grant decision he received to the administrative court.
In the winter, the Ministry of Education and Culture did not grant Lehikoinen the full sports grant of 20,000 euros, but he had to settle for half the amount.
The decision aroused surprise, because Lehikoinen had a season behind him in which he ran the Finnish record of 400 meters and reached the European Championship final.
Lehikoinen and his manager-lawyer sister Inka Kärkkäinen made a detailed 25-page request for correction of OKM’s decision.
“OKM made a negative decision. The appeal process is still ongoing. We continue to the administrative court. The appeal is still being worked on,” Lehikoinen says now.
For example, a ringette player has also been in the headlines Susana Tapani case.
Like Lehikoinen, Tapani received a half scholarship – for hockey. However, he decided not to play hockey.
Lehikoinen says that he does not want to compare his situation to others.
“I don’t think about what others get. The appeal is more about criteria and principle. I’m not interested in why I get less and someone else gets more, but that the criteria are equal for everyone.”
21 athletes received the full grant of 20,000 euros for summer sports, of which 13 were track and field athletes.
In Lehikoinen’s rectification request, it was stated that all recipients of the 20,000-euro grant do not meet the criterion of “establishing themselves at an international level” mentioned in the ministry’s application notice.
In his correction request, Lehikoinen states that his level has established itself at a high level. In addition to his achievements at the EC, he reached the semi-finals of the World Championships in the SE time, was the fourth best Finn in the performance points of the International Athletics Federation (WA) in the 2022 season, and has pressed below the result limit of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris three times.
However, the results don’t really matter yet, because the hunt for the border doesn’t start until next July.
The scholarships were distributed according to the presentation of the elite sports unit of the Olympic Committee. According to Lehikoinen’s rectification claim, HUY’s preparation was severely deficient.
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