Crazy madness. The judo coach gets the word combination João Neto to laugh, even if the Portuguese does not understand Finnish.
For his coachee, from Pori Pihla Salonen the above-mentioned term, on the other hand, is familiar. As if to prove it, the young judoka shows the Pori Ässie patalogo embroidered on his black judo belt.
Using the same belt, Salonen competed for the under-21 European champion last September in Prague.
Since last spring, Salonen has been living in Coimbra, Portugal and training under the coaching of former EC and WC medalist Neto. Now, however, we are at the Pajulahti sports college, by the tatami of the Nikula hall.
Salonen is participating in an international judo camp, where Neto also visits to lecture and share his own coaching teachings.
Pihla Salose is receiving exceptionally high interest, as she is the first Finnish Junior European champion in judo in 29 years.
Especially in women’s judo, the Junior European Championship has often heralded an Olympic medal as well. Salonen admits that he would very much like to be the first Finnish Olympic medalist in the sport.
– Absolutely! But not just a medalist, but an Olympic champion. I’ve had that idea in my mind since I was in the second or third grade of school.
Salonen’s first training camp and competition experiences in the Baltics are almost as long ago. There he often fought against boys. Some of them are also involved in the Pajulahti camp.
– Back then, the boys I fought against in Estonia were a head shorter than me. Now they are a head taller than me. They were really good training opponents because they were so persistent and didn’t give up, Salonen describes.
I aimed in Paris
Salonen is aiming for a place at the Paris Olympics in 2024, but the clear main target is the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. Then and during the following Olympics, he should be in his prime as a judoka.
Last fall, after his European Championship gold, Salonen also participated in the under-23 European Championships. There, however, the road stood up right from the start with the loss to Spain’s Ariane Toro.
Toro took a steady turn and finally progressed to European Championship silver. A couple of weeks earlier, Salonen had defeated him and defeated the reigning world champion in the final.
In the future, Salonen will move to the 57-kilogram category. In practice, you have to gain more strength and collecting the ranking points needed for an Olympic place starts from zero.
Coaching manager of the Judo Association Jaana Jokinen says Salonen is a very potential future top judoka. At the same time, he reminds that judo is a very competitive sport all over the world.
There are seven different weight classes in the Olympics for both women and men. While two bronze medals are always awarded, there are 56 Olympic medals awarded in the individual categories. There is also a team competition.
The large number of medals attracts many countries to invest in the sport, keeping in mind the PR benefit brought by Olympic success.
– Many national teams have a large organization in competitions, including nutritionists. In addition to the big investments, especially in the Olympics, all athletes are thoroughly scouted, which reduces the margins even more, says Salonen.
– With the EC gold and other successes, Pihlaki will certainly be taken into account and his matches will be followed even more closely. In the new weight class, the opponents are also physically stronger for a while.
Portuguese coach Neto describes his protégé as an uncut diamond.
– I think he has opportunities for the sharpest top of the sport and we are working towards that. However, the journey is long and there is a lot of work. If his motivation and enthusiasm remain as they are now, anything is possible.
According to Neto, Salonen is aggressive and very good in close matches. In the coach’s opinion, the Finn’s great strength is his playing style, which is different from his opponents.
– He fights rather than men. I think it’s because he has trained a lot with boys in his time and his father also has a very similar style.
Pihla’s father Sami Salonen is a former national team level judoka himself. Today, she works as her daughter’s physical trainer in cooperation with Neto.
The roots of the cooperation go back a few years, when Neto visited Salonen at the national team camp in Portugal. Last spring, Salonen moved to Portugal the day after graduation.
The new daily rhythm has required the most getting used to. In Finland, the morning exercises started at eight o’clock before school, in Portugal only at noon.
The first practice of the day is about two hours of personal physical or sport technique practice. Sports practice is done in a group in the evening and it usually doesn’t start until a little before eight and ends at ten in most countries.
The daily training resistance is top class, as Neto also coaches the fifth-place finisher at the Tokyo Olympics Catarina Costa. On weekends, the Portuguese national team also often trains in Coimbra, and Salonen trains with them.
Besides judo, he studies Portuguese at the University of Coimbra. The target is local physiotherapist studies, which will be conducted in Portuguese.
Salosten’s original plan a few years ago had been to move Pihla to St. Petersburg as an exchange student, but the corona pandemic and later Russia’s attack on Ukraine prevented study and coaching patterns in the eastern neighbor.
Not just results sports
Sami Salonen, who follows training at the Pajulahti camp, diligently exchanges information with athletes and coaches from different countries by the tatami. The father, who invested heavily in his daughter’s judo hobby, says that he experienced a certain aha moment when he was on a tournament trip in Tallinn with the then 10-year-old Pihla.
– The Latvian girl who was Pihla’s opening opponent gave her a chocolate bar as a gift and a little later I saw Pihla playing hide and seek with the local girls in the corridor of the gym. It somehow made it clear in my mind that this is not just a results sport.
Since then, the Saloses have gone on tournament trips not only to pursue results, but also to meet friends.
In addition to increasing life experience and friendships, however, the father-daughter coaching relationship has always been characterized by an ambitious competitive spirit. We have tried to take the steps to success long-term and in our own style, with a touch of the Pori madness mentioned at the beginning.
– Isn’t it Olli Lindholm too (the late soloist of the band Yö) said that if the door says “push”, it will be pulled open. We have boldly gone in the wrong direction in many cases, says Sami Salonen.
– For example, in the SC competitions, we have applied for a higher weight class if there have been good opponents there. We have not sought the easiest route to get to the medal.
Pori madness? Perhaps, but Salonen’s career has been built in a variety of ways. The sports repertoire has included, for example, wrestling, gymnastics, athletics and climbing.
He has also played soccer and ice ball. Currently, he has boxing as his side sport.
– We didn’t specialize in judo that early. I believe it brings versatility and different views to judo.
– I have always been very determined to win in everything. For example, I remember how once we went to my cousin’s birthday and as soon as we got in I asked, were we the first ones? Pihla laughs.