Athletics|Topi Raitanen wants to help young Finns towards top sports.
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Topi Raitanen and Janne Ukonmaanaho launch the Stadion Cooper event on September 10.
The event collects money for scholarships for young endurance runners.
Raitanen hopes that the event will solve the immobility of Finns.
Raitanen gives his opinion on the commotion that has been swirling around the Finnish Olympic team since the Paris Games.
Steeplechase Top Raitanen launches its coaches together Janne Ukonmaanahon with a new event on Tuesday, September 10. At that time, an event called Stadion Cooper will be organized at the Olympic Stadium, where several 12-minute tests will be run.
140 registrants and 60 invited guests will be included. At the same time, money is collected from the participants for the fund established by Raitanen and Ukonmaanaho. Scholarships are then distributed from the funds of the fund to young endurance runners. The stadium’s Cooper’s test is to be made an annual event.
“Some years ago, Janne and I were brainstorming the idea of what would be something that Finnish sports people would remember us for – hopefully in addition to several prestigious competition medals,” says Raitanen.
The 28-year-old from Tuusula has won the EC gold in his career in 2022.
The background was also the desire to be involved in solving Finns’ immobility and developing young people’s weak physical capacity. Raita is saddened that, for example, in endurance running, which is dear to him, the number of children and youth enthusiasts has dropped.
“It would be really nice for us to be able to raise money for the group that wants to bully themselves on the pitches,” Raitanen says.
“We hope that we can take concrete actions to develop things. Our fund is a small but important step towards something better. We want to bring our cards to the table.”
In the future, Raitanen and Ukonmaanaho’s purpose is to distribute scholarships to middle school and high school-age young athletes who are in the middle ground between quitting their hobby and starting training aimed at elite sports.
“We would like Finland to have young people aiming for the top in the future as well,” Raitanen says.
Teenagers are at a joint stage in their careers. Until the teenage years, parents pay for the hobby and, for example, training camps. Approaching adulthood, the realities of life strike.
Along with training and competing, you should live somewhere and eat something. It requires money, which in turn usually requires doing work or studying. At the same time, those who dream of top sports come across a challenge.
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It would be really nice for us to be able to collect money for the group that wants to bully themselves on the fields.
In Raitanen’s opinion, it is essential that all other life submits to the demands of elite sports. Sports must be the most important factor that sets the rhythm of the day.
“Work or studies shouldn’t affect whether you have to wake up at six in the morning or sleep until half past eight before the morning workout,” Raitanen says.
A flexible everyday life requires money. It’s hard for young athletes to get that, because they don’t yet have hard results to show potential partners or a large number of social media followers.
It is precisely this stage that Raitanen and Ukonmaanaho want to financially support. Raitanen is excited about the task.
“Hopefully, we will be able to award bigger scholarships every year. We want to use our own expertise. We get to read and hopefully interview scholarship applicants,” he says.
“We want to find people who have a concrete need for money and a balance sheet. Those” who have the desire and enthusiasm to listen to tips and go in the right direction.
The crown of Topi Raitanen’s career is the European championship.
Striped is a model example of hard goals set at a young age and systematic progress.
He himself switched to steeplechase quite old, as a 17-year-old high school student. He had run hard for himself as an orienteer and acquired a few partners in his previous sport.
Raitanen graduated in 2016. The following year, he started a sports marketing education program, which guaranteed a basic income as a study grant. At the same time, he made an athletic three-year plan.
At that time, the goal was set for the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. Collaborators were brought in and committed to finance the road to Tokyo.
Raitanen’s own level of demands was on the decline.
“I had three years to show myself and my partners that it’s worth giving me a chance and it’s worth investing in me,” Raitanen says.
“If I didn’t make it to the Olympics and didn’t show that I was going to be a good hurdler, I would stop there. I would be 24 then, and changes should be visible. If nothing came of the steeplechase”, I would come up with something else.
In 2020 in Monaco, Raitanen ran Finland’s third best time of all time, 8:16.57, which is still his own record. Corona moved the Olympics and thus extended the three-year project by one year.
At the Tokyo Olympics, Raitanen finished eighth as the best European and rose to the international top.
“I gave myself an honest time to try. It was worth it.”
Topi Raitanen’s season did not go as expected.
of Tokyo the Olympics and next year’s European Championships in Munich are the best achievements of Raitanen’s career so far. The last two seasons have been difficult for various reasons.
Raitanen was part of the Finnish Olympic team, which was historically without a medal in Paris.
A heated discussion began about the state of Finnish elite sports, which was combined with the athletes’ criticism of the Olympic Committee. Four athletes sent an open letter to the editor criticizing the actions of the Olympic Committee management in Paris.
According to the Finns, the athletes were left alone in the competition village, when the management’s attention went to, for example, hosting the invited guests.
Raitanen says he partly agrees and partly disagrees with the criticism.
“Not all personalities are the same spirit creators as others. Some of the strengths are that the practical matters were organized very well at the Olympics, Raitanen commented.
“If the manager doesn’t know how to talk to the athlete with the right words after the race, that doesn’t make him a bad person.”
Raitanen reminds that it is common for track and field athletes to go around the games alone during the season.
“I wouldn’t like to believe that it would suddenly matter to the result if you compete by yourself or only with your own coach.”
Topi Raitanen ran strongly in the Sweden match at the Olympic Stadium.
Striped is, however, concerned about whether elite sports are sufficiently valued in Finnish society.
In his opinion, for example, it can be harmful if athletes are always seen in the media “crying for public support”.
“You also have to earn appreciation,” Raitanen says.
On the other hand, he reminds that, based on statistics, Finns like to watch sports on TV. If we want the Finns to do better in prestigious competitions in the f
uture, it is necessary to take care that top sports are doing well in the country.
Janne Ukonmaanaho and Topi Raitanen developed a new event.
In addition to appreciation, one can also consider whether Finnish society is such that it can withstand or needs elite sports, which are raw and ascetic activities.
In independent or post-war Finland, sports offered an opportunity to rise in class or improve the standard of living. From the field of a poor province, you could get on top of the nation’s closet if you managed to run on the chewing track.
Now Finnish young people have countless ways of self-fulfillment, many of which are easier than using a lactate meter in speed endurance training on a Tuesday morning in November at 8:30.
Raitanen says he understands young people.
“They wonder if they want to go into the world of top sports, when from the outside it may seem that more things are bad than good. Sports require a lot of time, effort and money,” he says.
In his public profession, Raitanen has also experienced harsh criticism from both sport legends and the media, which he thinks is just something he has to endure.
“Despite everything, my message is that you can also get good things from sports and the sacrifice is worth it. “
Raitanen could recommend elite sports to his children, if they were ever blessed. On the other hand, he could also recommend, for example, playing the violin.
“It would be important for children to find something they like to do. To work passionately and achieve one’s own goals,” Raitanen says.
“That’s the best thing in life.”
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