Lasse Viren, Juha Mietto, Tiina Lillak., Matti Nykänen..
Sportspeople are different. They know this from a very early age, having a physical prowess that escapes the rest of us. As they grow older, their status increases and achievements pile up, and their lives become more and more estranged from reality. So long as they jump higher, run faster or play better than their contemporaries, the plaudits keep on coming.
Of course, when they fail, the opposite reaction can be hard to take. England footballer Paul Gascoigne is a prime example of what happens when a sports star cannot deal with the
expectations heaped on their shoulders. His life has collapsed into alcoholism and his coaching career has disintegrated.
In Finland things are a lot more civilised. Sports people are held in extremely high regard and very few of them suffer the kind of hounding that destroyed Gascoigne. Probably the closest
example would be Matti Nykänen, the ski jumper who brought Finland four Olympic Golds and six World Championship wins. Despite still hitting the headlines for the wrong reasons, Nykänen has
managed to recover his life to some extent, however, and is widely regarded as more of an amusing distraction than a national disgrace.
Former footballer Mika Aaltonen is one those highly motivated and talented individuals who seems to have used sport as an enjoyable pastime before launching his career proper. The TPS
youngster was a bright star in Finnish football when he scored a spectacular goal against Italian giants Internazionale in the 1987-88 UEFA Cup. After that goal he moved to Milan on a
three-year contract, but he bristles at the suggestion that they signed him on a whim.
“Before that game I was already selected as the best player in the U-21 team and the key player of the Finnish league,” says Aaltonen. “Besides that, I had spent two winters in Holland, the
first one in Feyenoord and the second in Twente. I had offers from five teams abroad before the Inter game.”
Despite having many wonderful opportunities and experiences in football, Aaltonen always knew that he would go back to studying. He had been a precocious upper secondary school student and
had a grade point average of 9.4 (Finnish school grades are marked from 4 to 10). “I did my master’s degree and started my doctoral thesis while playing professionally. Patience and
willingness to work hard for my goals have always been my motto. I don’t feel that my present career has come after the football, I have always concentrated on it.”
Aaltonen’s academic career is centred on Strax, the research unit for strategic intelligence and the exploration of futures at the Helsinki University of Technology. He enjoys his work and
is a global leader in the field. “I have written 11 books and a hundred articles about future studies, given a huge amount of lectures for various audiences in Finland and abroad. We have a
great agenda that attracts people worldwide,” he says.
Academia is one avenue for the retired Finnish sportsperson. Another, more popular choice, is to go into politics. It often seems that the Finnish parliament is full of former sporting
heroes who have retired and now legislate for their country.
One of the more famous Finnish MPs was the former wrestler Tony Halme. He represented the True Finns Party, which stood on a populist, anti-immigrant platform. Halme had a long and varied
career. He worked as a window cleaner and an actor, including the role of Viking in the Finnish version of the TV show Gladiators. Halme’s election in 2003 was something of a landslide as
he won 16,390 votes in Helsinki – a bigger total than Prime Minister Anneli Jäätteenmäki.
Soon after entering parliament, Halme was already in trouble, giving a radio interview where he stated that president Tarja Halonen is a lesbian. “We have a lesbian as president and me as
an MP – apparently anything is possible,” he said. Halme later claimed that he actually thought Halonen (who has been the chairperson of SETA, the Finnish sexual equality group) was gay and
didn’t mean it as an insult, but the damage was done and the tone set for a bumpy ride in his political career.
The police found steroids and testosterone in Halme’s flat after he fired a gun there while drunk in July 2003. He vowed several times to give up alcohol but could not shake his demons and
was eventually sectioned, though not before he was severely reprimanded by the parliament for a speech in which he suggested violent punishments for paedophiles.
Replacing Halme in parliament at the last election was Markku Uusipaavalniemi. Known to Americans as M15 (his name begins with M and has 15 letters), Uusipaavalniemi led the Finnish men’s
curling team to the silver medal at the 2006 Torino Winter Olympics. With two world championship bronze medals and two bronzes and a gold at the European Championships, Uusipaavalniemi is
the undisputed king of Finnish curling. He also manages the Oulunkylä ice rink, a facility built specifically for curling.
Uusipaavalniemi won only 2,800 votes in his Uusimaa constituency, but as he stood for the Centre Party in the same constituency as prime minister Matti Vanhanen, this was enough to take him
to parliament. His priorities are ‘supporting family businesses and sport,’ and he has developed something of an evangelical passion about the impending doom that he believes will engulf
the Finnish economy. He was once the best maths student in Finland, and he has successfully completed a Rubik’s cube in 25 seconds. If recession does some to Finland, he will surely be
clever enough to help the government lead us into a recovery.
The infamous Matti Nykänen is one former Finnish sportsman who must be mentioned in any article on the topic. He is a living legend in this country, and his escapades are eagerly followed
in the tabloid press. A singer, actor and philosopher, Matti’s talents seem limitless.
One recent story in Ilta-Sanomat was headlined ‘Kimi (Räikkonen) goes for a sauna with Matti.’ Whether or not Nykänen makes money from these stories is immaterial, they serve as good
publicity for the ‘Nykänen brand’ and for the merchandise he sells to help fund his retirement from ski jumping. One recent plan was to open a pub, and Nykänen’s manager Manu Syrjänen was
quick to point out that Finland is not the only option for a man of his talents. “People here don’t always understand Matti’s global popularity,” said Syrjänen. “Denmark, Norway, Poland and
Japan are full of fans who want to see their idol.” We can only hope that they get their chance soon.
Some former sportspeople who have found success after their first career:
• Juha Mieto was a skier who won five Olympic medals, including a gold at the Innsbruck games of 1976. He was elected to parliament in 2007, winning 13,768 votes for the
Centre Party in the Vaasa constituency.
• Lasse Virén won 4 gold medals in long distance running events at the Summer Olympics, and was elected to parliament in 1992. He served as an MP for the National
Coalition Party for 15 years until he left parliament in 2007.
• Tiina Lillak held the world javelin record for a time and is fondly remembered as one of the great Finnish athletes. She now runs a sports massage business.
