Year of Sport 2022 A good story is of great benefit to the athlete, says snowboard boss Satu Järvelä

Sport|Sports year 2022

International leading a sports federation as well as the country’s top athletes in the manager’s stable. Satu Järvelän days are filled with snowboarding all year round, with the exception of small breaks for Christmas and Midsummer.

Järvelä, 44, is the chairman of the World Snowboard Federation (WSF). Athletes who are helped include snowboarders, for example Enni Rukajärvi and Matti Suur-Hamari.

During the Olympic season The visibility of snowboarding will be boosted when television viewers gather in February to watch the success of Finns.

“Once in four years, people who don’t normally follow will start following the sport. If an athlete has a story that he or the background team can tell, it can and should be put to great use. If there is success, it will increase the athlete’s interest even more, ”says Järvelä.

For example, Järvelä acquires partners and arranges interviews for both Olympic athletes and young promises belonging to the team.

Although interest is at its peak during the Olympics, due to strict advertising rules, personal sponsors do not generally appear at the Olympics and Paralympics. There are exceptions in cases where the sponsor of the Olympics or Paralympics is also the athlete’s personal partner. This is the case, for example, with Matti Suur-Hamar and Toyota.

Järvelä says that he understands the strict rules, although he finds it amusing that his own partners, who have long supported the athlete’s journey to the top, are not allowed to show up during the highlight of his career.

“Of course, before and after the Olympics, you can do different things that show your partners.”

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According to Järvelä, the amateur side has strengthened during the corona period. Young people who descended 20 years ago may have returned to the hill with their entire family.

Of the Olympics and the active parties in the qualifying arrangements are the International Ski Federation FIS and the International Olympic Committee IOC instead of the WSF.

The history of snowboarding has been a balancing act in a two-union system. When snowboarding became an Olympic sport in the 1990s, the IOC placed the responsibility for organizing on the shoulders of the FIS. It capped the ISF of the then snowboarding federation, as the federation already existed when Olympic status was obtained. The cause caused about a quarter of a century of political sabotage between the organizations.

The ISF was later disbanded and replaced by the Ticket to Ride (TTR) tour, which developed a ranking system for the sport, for example. Since the merger of TTR and WSF, since 2018, an agreement with the FIS has been rubbed in. In the future, the WSF will focus on sport development, juniors and amateurs, the FIS will be responsible for top sports.

“The agreement has been signed and approved by the members in a vote. We should still have an official signing ceremony once the tickets and tags have been completed, ”Järvelä says.

During the corona period according to Järvelä, the amateur side has strengthened.

Young people who descended 20 years ago may have returned to the hill with their entire family.

On the competitive side, Finland lags behind the golden times of the 1990s. Järvelä says that in her active career in the Finnish Cup competitions, there could have been 30–40 skiers in the women’s series. Now the number is 10-20.

“Of course, in snowboarding, everything is not based on competition but on creativity and fun. One can always develop and transcend oneself regardless of age. You can even count with a large group of friends. ”