Powerlifting|The powerlifting association restricts athletes’ right to compete, which the Suomen Urheilijat ry considers illegal. According to powerlifter Jesse Pynnönen, the restrictions affect low-threshold competitions the most.
Finland On Wednesday, Urheilijat Ry published a press release on Instagram in which it criticized the Finnish Powerlifting Federation decision restricts athletes from competing.
According to the powerlifting federation’s decision, participating in powerlifting competitions other than those under the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) or the Finnish Sports Ethics Center (Suek) would result in an athlete being banned from the national team for a year. If the activity is continuous, the federation can terminate the athlete’s license.
Finnish athletes see the decision as illegal.
Lawyer and chairman of the Sports Law Association Hannu Kalkas says that the decision may well be against the law.
“If the Ice Hockey Federation did the same, NHL players would not be selected for the national team,” says Kalkas.
“And if you played in the NHL the next season as well, you would be banned from competition.”
Christmas of the European Court of Justice the decision according to which the organization of sports competitions must be opened to free competition. Sports events are now seen as business, and therefore the EU Treaty’s rules on free competition also apply to sports.
“The EU Court’s ISU decision concerns competition law. This [Voimanostoliiton] the decision restricts the right to compete,” says Kalkas.
“However, you cannot know the illegality until the matter has gone through the courts.”
If an individual athlete were to be banned from competition based on the decision of the Voimaliitto, and the athlete appealed against the sentence, the illegality would have to be tested.
Powerlifting Association justified the decision by the fact that competitions are also organized by professional associations not committed to anti-doping work. This means that the organizer of the competition does not undertake to organize the doping testing of the participants.
The chairman of the power lifting association Tero Hyttinen according to the restrictions, the aim was to sharpen the association’s profile in the spirit of anti-doping.
“I have been chairman for ten years. The regulation has been in force even before that at the request of the member clubs,” says Hyttinen.
According to Hyttinen, they wanted to draw the line because in the 1990s, athletes who received lifetime bans for doping violations were founding trade unions and organizing competitions outside the union.
“By competing under the federation, it shows that you want to compete cleanly,” says Hyttinen.
Hyttinen says that the association is committed to complying with the decisions of the Sports Legal Protection Board. The board is an appeals body independent of sports organizations.
Hyttinen says that the young athlete complained to the board last year, which stated that the union had every right to a disciplinary solution. In the situation, the athlete’s underage was considered a reason to shorten the sanction.
“If there was a case where the restriction was found to be against the law, the union would commit to complying with the board’s decision even in that case,” says Heikkinen.
According to Heikkinen, the Powerlifting Association relies on the legal expertise of the Olympic Committee. The restrictions are based on association autonomy, i.e. the right of associations to operate freely in accordance with their own rules in the absence of law.
Power taker Jesse Pynnönen restrictions have the greatest impact at the grassroots level.
“It probably won’t have much of an effect on those very top athletes who only focus on powerlifting and an international career,” says Pynnönen.
“If you wanted to compete with a low threshold, for example, in crossfit competitions in addition to the competitions under the powerlifting association, it would not be possible because crossfit is not an activity under WADA.”
According to Pynnönen, the same applies to village competitions, such as Karkkila’s strongest competition, where money is collected for the benefit of young people. There are also competitions around the world whose doping testing is handled by a third party.
Doping testing is often a matter of resources, Pynnönen points out, and not all competition organizers have enough budget for WADA’s testing.
In Pynnönen’s opinion, confrontation does not help the sport, and power sports athletes should not have to choose sides.
In other sports, the threshold to participate versatilely in various sports competitions is lower. For example, endurance runners can participate in a city run that does not require a license and still compete in the Kaleva Games or represent the Finnish national team.
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