The Finnish Olympic team does not see a race chaplain, reports Yle.
Leena Huovinen photographed in 2019. Pasi Liesimaa
The Finnish Olympic team will see a significant change in the upcoming Milan–Cortina Winter Olympics. A tradition that has continued for more than 60 years, in which the team’s general management included a representative of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, i.e. a match priest, is broken, reports Over.
Leena Huovinenwho has handled the task of race priest since 2004, confirmed the matter to Yle on Monday.
Huovinen has participated in a total of 11 times in the Summer and Winter Olympics. His role has been important for many athletes as a provider of spiritual support and maintaining team spirit.
Head of unit of the Church Board Jarmo Kokkonen told Yle that the Olympic Committee’s decision surprised them.
– The cooperation between the church and the committee has always gone well, and the feedback the competition chaplain has received from the athletes and the rest of the competition team has been very appreciative, Kokkonen told Yle.
According to Yle, the Finnish Olympic Committee offered Huovinen the opportunity to work in the team as a safeguard officeras the responsibility officer required by the International Olympic Committee. According to Kokkonen, the task did not fit in with the duty of secrecy required by the priest’s professional title.
Huovinen stated that the decision did not remain a source of bitterness.
– I got to do 20 years of wonderful work in wonderful competition teams. But I have never received a very clear answer as to why the race priest is being given up, Huovinen told Yle.
Finland’s first competition priest, vicar Martti Alajafunctioned unofficially in the 1960s and from 1972, the competition chaplain was officially part of the team’s general management until the Paris 2024 Olympics.