That was certainly nowhere near the most offensive article that has been written about Harri's career end. But I do disagree anyway. I kind of think, that it really takes a lot of courage and independence make that kind of decision. To decide that while they may have a superb talent for something and while everyone thinks they should work on it and become great and while "everyone else with that kind of talent would have taken and run with it and made it big", to just make up your own mind and decide that in fact it is not what you want from your life is very admirable. His life, his talent, his own business what he does with that. And that is something, that many are not able to put in practise if they have same kind of pressure to do the conventional thing (which in his case would have been to do everything he could to be a top jumper.)
If he later finds out, that he misses jumping more than he hates being a pro athlete and everything that comes with that or believes he is better able to handle that part of it all, and decides to make a comeback, I'm more than happy. But I also think, that it's also admirable to be able to do unconventional decisions about your life even when everyone else thinks they know better.
That being said, Berkutschi's article is nothing compared to Finnish media, when it comes to Hapa bashing. I found it especially absurd when MTV3's Jari Porttila was very, very dissatisfied with how little respect and attention Rane got on his career end. This month after they had handled Hapa's career end with publishing (again) an article with Hapa's 'Top 10 screw ups' (which even had few big factual errors in it :hihi
and writing a new article about what a lazy coward he is. Apples and oranges of course, but still...
EDIT: Also the other thing is, what is wrong in Finnish top sport system, when many very, very talented individuals are not able to live with it. Hapa just being a recent example. And I'm not sure, if they even see that. The Finnish top sport transform committee (the one for also Kojo works nowadays) told at last autumn how they would interview more than 100 active or recently retired top athletes in Finland to find out how they became to the top and what helped them and what they would have needed more or less to help them even more. Only after press took notice and mentioned, that they seemed to plan to ask only the ones the current system has served well and not from the ones, who would have had talent for more than they were able to achieve or who have had other big trouble with the system or other things, they now this spring told that they have added few names (people who have been top athletes and had more or less success but who have been known to march to the beat of their own drum) to the list to find out, what went wrong with them or what they would have hoped had been done differently. Hapa is one of these people they now also plan to talk with. I do hope, that they really do listen also these people (also for example Seppo RĂ€ty came to that new list and i think he will also have a lot of valuable insight to the matter.)
