Where did the athletes from the successful Finnish sport disappear to? Olympic medalist Peetu Piiroinen opens up about the harsh situation of the halfpipe

Live broadcast from the snowboarding halfpipe at Areena on Friday at 07:55. Broadcast on TV2 at 12:15.

Antti Autti, Markko Koski, Peetu Piiroinen. Halfpipe, or snow chute, has been a successful sport for Finnish snowboarders in the 21st century.

Autti won the World Championship gold for Finland and Koski and Piiroinen won Olympic medals.

At the Olympic level, halfpipe was on the program for the first time at the 1998 Nagano Olympics. Since then, Finland had a full representation of four athletes until the 2014 Games. There were also three Finns at the 2018 Olympics.

However, Finland did not have a single representative in that sport at last year’s five-ring games in Beijing. Piiroinen, who works as an expert for Urheilu, states the harsh fact out loud.

– In Finland, the counting of the halfpipe has practically stopped. Almost no one counts the pipe.

GM of the Finnish national snowboarding team Antti Koskinen compa from the Circles. The national team currently does not have any skiers competing in halfpipe.

– A big change happened in 2018, when Janne Korpi, Markus Malin and Peetu Piiroinen ended their careers. They were the last of the Mohicans in international competition. After them, there hasn’t been anyone interested in competing in pipe, ex-head coach Koskinen says.

The Snowboard Federation has had to admit the realities.

– When the domestic situation does not support the calculation of Pipe, we have had to think carefully about how much we invest in it. There was no possibility to create a separate halfpipe program, says Koskinen.

Expensive and laborious

Koskinen describes the development of snowboarding as interesting. Halfpipe was the first of snowboarding’s freestyle sports (jumping sports) to reach the World Cup level. Other sports are big air and slopestyle, which is currently the most popular form of competition.

According to Koskinen, the main reason for the halfpipe’s waning popularity is due to the circumstances. During the 21st century, snow chutes have become even larger.

By the time of the Vancouver Olympics, seven-meter high chutes were added to the games.

– We came across such a phenomenon that building a big Pipe is terribly expensive and laborious. In addition, it had to be built in such a way that there are no big mistakes. If there is a small bump on the bottom, it becomes really unsinkable.

Many skiing centers have difficulties building a large chute because of the price and its requirements.

– I feel that halfpipe has specialized too far.

Koskinen says that, for example, Nagano’s Olympic chute was clearly smaller than today’s chute.

– In Turin 2006, it was close to the current size, but it was a little smaller. At the Vancouver Olympics, current standards were already met.

On the terms of other species

According to Koskinen, Finland invested in chutes in the 1990s, because halfpipe was the only competitive sport at that time. The top Finnish names of that time were, for example, the first Finnish halfpipe world champion Fairytale Lake, Aleksi Litovaara mixed Sebu Kuhlberg.

– Slopestyle was an unknown concept at the time. Most Finnish ski centers had pips. It was the first venue built for snowboarding. It was popular.

Since the pipes were smaller, they could be built in several places. Even in the 1990s, Finland was able to meet the demands of the international top.

– The initial investment was not that huge. The renovation was done by hand or with a small amount of machine power. Now very massive tools are needed to build and maintain them, Koskinen opens.

Due to their large size, pips were produced later in Finland, which is why the season for counting pips is shorter. At the same time, the popularity of big air and slopestyle began to rise.

According to Koskinen, with the amount of snow needed for one pipe, you can build 4–5 jumps or at least the same number of different rails. It serves a wide user base.

– The development went in the direction of building jumps and rails, because they can be created with less snow. With the environment, the user base is shaped in the direction of what is offered.

Snow chute training mostly in race training

According to Koskinen and Piiroinen, there are currently only a few gutters in Finland.

– The biggest possible pipe would be the opportunity to build in Ruka and Vuokatti. Both centers have had to withdraw from them for the time being, Koskinen states.

Piiroinen trained pipe mainly in competition training and at some foreign camps.

– I learned quite a few tricks in competition training. In the games, there was a pipe for the last one.

In a smaller direction?

Piiroinen considers it possible that the halfpipe may drop from the Olympic competition program.

– There are fewer participants than in slopestyle. I don’t know if over time it can fall off. It would be nice if a group in Finland also got excited to count the pipe.

According to Koskinen, international snowboarding is thinking about how halfpipe could be revived. He presents one way in which halfpipe could be considered a viable sport.

Koskinen sees that the sport needs to take steps back.

– It would be possible to deliberately build smaller pips where World Cup competitions could be held. Sure, the tricks wouldn’t be the same as now, but it could pose a new kind of challenge to the species.

– It could bring Pipe counting closer to the average hobbyist. Competing might seem more attractive.

Koskinen says that the national team still tries to keep the halfpipe on display.

– It is good for a boarder who does slopestyle and big air to know how to do pipe at least at a basic level. It’s useful, at least on Pipe’s side.

According to Koskinen, halfpipe has a clear advantage compared to, for example, slopestyle.

– You don’t have to jump from point a to point b like in a jump. The pipe can also be lowered at a quiet speed. You can learn to gather more speed.

The Freestyle and Snowboarding World Championships are shown on channels. Below is the Finnish team and the schedules.