Jarmo Mäkelä, the former CEO of the Finnish Sports Confederation, remembers Ilkka Kanerva as an energetic and listening leader.
- Jarmo Mäkelä kept in touch with his friend Ilkka Kanerva until the last weeks.
- The ex-athletics boss admires Kanerva’s way of listening to others.
- Mäkelä brings up a parable that fits Kanerva in addition to Nelson Mandela.
The Coalition Party told Finland’s longest-serving Member of Parliament late Thursday night Ilkka Kanervan died of a serious illness at the age of 74 years. Kanerva was also known as a long-standing athlete.
Information about the sudden departure touched the former chairman of the Finnish Sports Federation Jarmo Mäkelää. Kanerva and Mäkelä were former colleagues, but also long-term friends.
– I read the information late at night. It was a very shocking and shocking situation.
Ilkka Kanerva’s energy and ability to use his networks impressed Mäkelä. Pete Anikari
The duo met in 1986. Kanerva served as SUL’s federal commissioner and chairman of the board, while Mäkelä started as the head coach of the jumps and all-matches.
Kanerva was later elected chairman of SUL. He served from 1991 to 2005. During the same period, Mäkelä worked as the association’s sports manager, head coach and top sports director.
Kanerva’s energy and desire to listen to others made an indelible impression on Mäkelä.
– Ilkka gave incredible time and energy to encourage the organization. The meetings of the union’s board lasted a long time. He wanted people coming to the meetings from the provinces to have a say. Ilkka listened. He really enjoyed that atmosphere.
– He gave the Sports Federation so much time out of his busy time that it could not be a mere sense of duty. He genuinely liked the job and felt that he also got a lot out of meeting people himself.
Like Mandela
Jarmo Mäkelä kept in touch with Ilkka Kanerva until the end. Timo Hartikainen / AOP
Friends talked a lot on the phone.
– On Fridays, calls often came from European airports when he was on his way to a board meeting of the International Athletics Federation. He wanted to discuss the agenda of the meeting, Mäkelä recalls.
– There were phone calls on the weekends. He was going to club anniversaries or other occasions to talk. He asked if I knew of any long-term influences from the company that he could bring up in his speech. He used his own networks very skillfully. That is real leadership.
Mäkelä feels that there was practically no threshold for contacting Kanerva.
Whatever the thing or time, the phone was easy to pick up.
– He was a very generous person. Nelson Mandelasta it is sometimes said so. I think it also fits Kanerva. He always got help from him.
Until February
Ilkka Kanerva participated in the activities of Paavo Nurmi Games. Jaakko Stenroos / AOP
Mäkelä worked as SUL’s CEO from 2012 to 2018 until he retired. Contact with Kanerva was maintained.
The friends last discussed a few weeks ago.
– It seems that he was still operational until February.
Mäkelä did not know that Kanerva was seriously ill. He guessed the situation when an experienced politician went on sick leave and withdrew from the public eye.
– From radio silence, it was possible to assess that something more serious was involved. Such a sudden death was a huge shock.
Mäkelä hopes to be able to take a model from Kanerva.
– I have been thinking about how I could take into my life even a small part of the positive ways to meet and treat the people I had. It has a message for many Finns.
Species are dying
Jarmo Mäkelä and Ilkka Kanerva worked for a long time for the benefit of Finnish athletics. Vesa Koivunen
Heather has been widely recalled in sports circles. SUL, the Finnish Olympic Committee and the Paavo Nurmi Games in Athletics, among others, have expressed their participation.
SUL collects an address, which is handed over to Kanerva’s relatives at a memorial service.
Kanerva sat on the board of Paavo Nurmi Games. The race event changed the face of a deceased athlete into a profile picture on social media.
– Member of our Board Ilkka Kanerva. Rest in peace. Always in the heart, Paavo Nurmi Games wrote on Twitter.
Kanerva served as Vice-Chairman of the Olympic Committee from 1993 to 2008. The president of the Republic Sauli Niinistö awarded Kanerva a major cross of merit in Finnish sports culture and sports on April 1, 2022.