The recent Olympic Games was a disaster for Finland. Despite 9 million euros in spending on high-level athletes and hundreds of millions more devoted to subsidising other sporting activities, the Finnish National team did not win any medals in the 2024 Olympics. The time has come for cuts in sports funding.
Finland’s Olympic showing has been an embarrassment. Finnish athletes returned without a single medal scored in Paris. Suomi was outcompeted by 91 countries including Saint Lucia, an island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean smaller than Tampere.
The same thing happened at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Kazakhstan, Armenia, Fiji, and even San Marino all did better than Finland, which placed 85th with no gold medals and just two bronzes. This situation should serve as a wake-up call. Despite significant investments in training, infrastructure, and athlete development, Finland’s athletes returned with no medals and even fewer memorable performances.
The reality is Finland should cease much of its sports expenditure. The current state of Finnish sports is a clear indicator the used model of sports funding is failing. We are not seeing the returns which would justify the millions of taxpayer euros spent annually on elite sports programs.
Ultimately, when we are not winning medals, we are funnelling large sums of public money into the pursuit of what effectively becomes a personal hobby; albeit a hobby which is venerated at rare times by the masses and remains a sacred cow in Western societies, but a hobby nonetheless.
Just as it would be absurd for one to demand subsidies for scrapbooking, birdwatching, gardening, yoga classes or stamp collection, it is inexplicable why sport should be funded on the back of hardworking taxpayers. The majority of Finns see no tangible benefit from this expenditure. While it’s easy to get swept up in the excitement of international competitions, the sobering truth is that elite sports are a poor investment from any rational standpoint.
The immense funding of sports by the state is not only woefully inefficient, it is ethically obscene. In a time of economic strain and hardship, diverting millions away from Finnish taxpayers into sports is an abomination. The opportunity cost of each euro is substantial, with Finns currently taxed at exorbitant rates.
The millions of euros currently allocated to sports federations, high-performance centres, and athlete scholarships should be left in the pockets of taxpayers. This immense sports spending is occurring at a time when the state is egregiously refusing to pay a living wage to thousands of conscripted soldiers, who often earn less than prisoners.
We need not abandon sports altogether. Physical activity is undeniably important. However, the only rational way to decide which sports are worth devoting significant resources to is through the free decisions of consumers. That means private, not public, funding is the answer. It is Finnish people who should decide with their eyeballs, their willingness to buy tickets to sports events and participation in physical activity on their own dime. Otherwise, we end up in an aberrant situation, where state bureaucrats decide the value of each sport on their whim.
Sport should be a voluntary exchange of value between free individuals who practise and admire it. Sports, like any other human activity, must stand or fall on their merit—on the value they provide to those who choose to partake in them, whether as participants, spectators, or patrons. The value of sports is not intrinsic. There is nothing inherently valuable in someone excelling at throwing a javelin across the field.
To suggest the government should step in and finance sports is to assert the judgement of state bureaucrats should supersede the judgement of individuals. If a sport thrives, it does so because it has proven its worth to those who voluntarily support it. If it fails, it is because it has not met that standard of value.
When a sports committee knows it can rely on government handouts, it does not need to strive for excellence. It has no incentive to cater to the desires of its audience. At such a moment, a divorce of success from merit occurs. There is no more connection between effort and reward. Sport becomes the end goal itself. No wonder Finland isn’t winning any Olympic medals.
Every ticket sold, every broadcast watched, and every piece of merchandise purchased is a vote of confidence. Sport left to its own devices is a testament to the value it provides. Currently, sport is merely a sad reflection of the destructive force of state intervention. We need to save the Finnish sport from the state!
Image: Wikimedia Commons (Erki Pictures)/Erik van Leeuwen
No image changes made.
Comments