COMMENTARY: Kaisa Varis and an ethical headache for the sports fraternity

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By Pekka Aaltonen
     
      Skier and biathlete Kaisa Varis and her legal adviser Olli Rauste have recently been able to enjoy the overturning by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) of the sportswoman's lifetime ban for doping - put in place in February 2008 - on a technicality relating to the analysis of the B-sample.
      Rauste has criticised sports administrators for abandoning an "innocent" athlete in her moment of greatest need.
     
The debate on the issue has roiled turgidly back and forth without any great sense of direction, largely because none of the parties involved has dared to say aloud what they really think.
      One of the prime causes for the reluctance to speak out is Rauste, who is certainly in his blocks and ready to leap into action on any statements that might be made.
     
The whole business might have faded into the background, along with the fate of Varis's competition licence, if the Secretary-General of the Finnish Sports Federation (SLU) Jukka Pekkala had not dared to write on the ethical aspects of the case in Helsingin Sanomat at the end of last month.
      "Trust and reputation are matters of life and death for sport", wrote Pekkala.
     
Trust and reputation are also the sort of things that have to be earned. They cannot be won by lawyers and nuances of punctuation, however correct they might be.
      In last Thursday's A-Talk panel discussion screened by the Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE, Pekkala and the Chairman of the Finnish Biathlon Association Kalle Lähdesmäki steered a very careful course, mindful of the rocks and shallows on all sides.
      The only genuine opinions on display came from skiers on the Paloheinä ski-tracks in Helsinki, interviewed in an insert during the programme. Based on what they had to say, Kaisa Varis would be advised to withdraw from the fray.
      Then again, there were some voices from Paloheinä who understood Varis's position. According to Olli Rauste support has also come from the orienteering branch. The volume of that support is subject to some doubt. At least my vote is not included there.
     
The discussion programme also revealed why Varis does not enjoy the sympathies of the general public.
      She showed no signs of contrition whatsoever for her first doping offence, in connection with a positive EPO test at the Nordic Skiing World Championships in Val di Fiemme in 2003, and did not answer the question of whether she had in fact used the banned hormone on that occasion. In 2003 she received a two-year ban from that sport.
      When asked about the events of 2003, Varis coolly responded that the punishment handed down had been served.
     
On April 3rd, the Finnish Olympic Committee's competition chaplain Leena Huovinen wrote warmly and eloquently about Varis in a Helsingin Sanomat article, referring to mercy and forgiveness.
      Huovinen had written the piece before the television programme went out.
      As a general rule of thumb, mercy and forgiveness in the public mind do tend to require at least a measure of contrition and of apology.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 5.4.2009   


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Kaisa Varis´s lifetime ban overturned on technicality (16.3.2009)

See also:
  Kaisa Varis given lifetime ban by International Biathlon Union (12.2.2008)

Links:
  Kaisa Varis (Wikipedia)

PEKKA AALTONEN / Helsingin Sanomat
pekka.aaltonen@hs.fi