The Finnish Olympic Swim Team almost doubled in size as the Finnish Olympic Committee announced that Mimosa Jallow, Emilia Pikkarainen and Hanna-Maria Seppälä would be heading to Rio.
Jallow, Pikkarainen and Seppälä along with Jenna Laukkanen will make up the nation’s the women’s 4 x 100 medley relay an event that Finland has not had a team in since the 1996 Olympics. The same four women won the bronze at the European Championships in May.
The five athletes who were previously named to the team and will be swimming individual events in Rio include Matti Mattsson, Ari-Pekka Liukkonen, Matias Koski, Tanja Kylliäinen and Laukkanen.
All three women who were added to the Olympic roster today have achieved FINA B qualifying standards, which would allow them to swim individual events at the Games since Finland would not have more than one athlete in the same event. Even though they are all eligible to compete the only athlete that has confirmed entry into an individual event is Jallow who will swimming the 100 backstroke at the Olympics.
The surprise is that it has not been decided if Pikkarainen will be swimming the 100 butterfly or not. She has posted a 59.09 this year, which is well under the B standard of 1:00.80 and just off of the A standard of 58.74.
Very (pleasantly) surprised to see Hanna Maria Seppala. 2003 seems like a long time ago.
It always makes me happy to see Hanna-Maria Seppala on another international team for Finland. Her world champion form may be long in the past at this point, but she still seem to enjoy a job that takes her all over the world.