How Rok Draksic helped turn Finnish judo into a team with real momentum

Finland is usually linked with ice hockey first. In judo, though, the picture has changed fast. Over the last few years, Finnish athletes have started to show up with serious results on the European stage and beyond.

The biggest signs are hard to miss. Luukas Saha is a world bronze medallist and recently added silver at the European Judo Championships Seniors Tbilisi 2026. Finland also has a European U23 Champion in Louna-Lumia Seikkula, while Pihla Salonen claimed a European junior title and additional medals at that level. For a country that was rarely discussed in judo, that is a major shift.

A lot of that progress is linked to head coach Rok Draksic. The former European Champion from Slovenia arrived five years ago and focused on more than individual potential. His first big move was to bring the best athletes together so they could train in one place, helped by the new Olympic Centre in Helsinki.

Finland’s rise did not come from one result, but from a new structure.

Before that, the top judoka were spread across different clubs and did not work together consistently. Draksic’s idea was to create a real team environment instead of isolated groups. He also warned from the start that quick success was unlikely and that the level needed time to grow.

According to him, it took two to three years before the changes began to appear clearly in competition results. The shift was not only technical. He described it as a change in mentality too, with judo moving from something closer to a hobby toward a more serious high-performance sport.

The results brought visibility. Finnish media travelled to Tbilisi, and the European Championships were shown live on television for the first time, as Draksic noted. That kind of attention matters in a country where judo had long struggled for recognition.

Now around 30 to 40 athletes train regularly at the Olympic Sport Center. The long-term target is Los Angeles 2028, with a leading group of eight to nine athletes under review every six months. After qualifying two athletes for Paris 2024, Finland is now thinking bigger, with an Olympic medal included in the strategy.

This is why Finland’s recent medals feel bigger than a short hot streak. They look like the outcome of a system that is finally working.

Source: EJU_News