Finnish athletes 'competing clean' at Paris Summer Olympics

Finnish athletes start flying to Paris this weekend, ahead of the Summer Olympic Games which begin with an opening ceremony in the French capital on 26 July.

Some 57 Finns are competing in 14 sports at the two-week event, the biggest delegation of sportsmen and women that Finland has sent to an Olympics since Sydney in 2000.

In the week that Finland’s best-known professional boxer Robert Helenius faced a lengthy ban after testing positive for a banned substance, officials say they’re sure that Finnish amateur athletes are competing clean at this summer’s Paris Olympic Games.

“Athletes are tested anywhere where they are training or staying. The testing pool system helps us to locate the athletes, and anti-doping organisations cooperate with these international doping controls,” explains Katja Huotari, the Doping Control Manager at the Finnish Center for Integrity in Sports FINCIS.

How common is doping in sports in Finland?

Statistics show that it’s very rare for people taking part in Summer Olympics sports in Finland to be caught on the wrong side of anti-doping tests - and even rarer still that an elite athlete would be caught cheating.

For example in 2023, FINCIS carried out more than 2,800 blood and urine tests both in and out of competition in 80 different sports: from Summer Olympics staples like athletics, swimming and gymnastics; to more niche sports like underwater rugby, enduro mountain biking, and pull-ups. However, only five violations were found (two of them for the same person).

Looking at the last few years, the most common sports which fell foul of anti-doping rules were American football, fitness and arm wrestling, although there are also some basketball, powerlifting, sailing and boxing positive test results which date back to 2019.

Finnish cross-country ski doping scandal

It’s a far cry from the dark days of doping in Finnish sports, which saw six cross-country ski athletes testing positive at the World Championships in Lahti in 2001. They were disqualified, and some were stripped of the medals they had already won. The sport’s entire medical staff quit in the ensuing scandal.

“Doping testing and analysis have developed a lot in the last ten years,” says Katja Huotari.

“Not only in Finland, but globally. International standards are mandatory for every anti-doping organisation. The anti-doping world is totally different now than it was in 2001.”

Education programmes for elite athletes

Even before any Finnish athletes get on a flight to Paris this summer, they’ve had to undergo a lot of education about anti-doping - and learned to incorporate it into their training, competition and rest period schedules. It can be an intrusive process, with athletes obliged to inform authorities of where they will be at any given time in case they’re require to give samples for testing.

Finnish Olympians have to complete an e-learning course called ‘Clean Win’ based on the World Anti-Doping Code, and they’ll also receive personal coaching from one of the country’s anti-doping experts.

“Athletes also have the possibility to ask about all anti-doping issues, and they get specific information related to anti-doping rules in Paris,” explains Piia Pöyhönen the Education Manager at FINCIS.

For athletes competing in the Paralympics, there’s additional e-learning courses they need to complete.

“Based on statistics and our knowledge, Finnish sport is clean,” Pöyhönen tells Finland Insider.

“Knowledge of anti-doping matters has increased, and we have been doing this anti-doping education for a long time.”

The FINCIS anti-doping education efforts extend beyond Olympic sports. All national sporting organisations are require to plan their own educational activities to include anti-doping.

“Many sports organisations require their members, for example in the national team or in the highest leagues, need to complete the FINCIS e-learning course,” says Piia Pöyhönen.

Since the cross-country ski scandals of 2001, the e-learning course has been completed more than 35,000 times.