Finnish skier tells about his harsh reality – paid 10,000 euros for skis out of his own pocket | Sport

Anni Alakoski was supposed to ski at the Tour de Ski, but instead she got sick in Vuokatti. The disappointment is huge, because a skier who buys his own expensive skis would have badly needed his screen space.

Turned 26 in November Anni Alakoski got the heavenly bodies in their place in Vuokatti’s Scandinavian Cup on December 16.

Reisjärvi Pilke was bred to the winner of the ski 10 km (p) intermediate start in the race, whose second and fifth place was Norway’s Silje Theodorsen and Sweden Lisa Ingesson are currently representing their home country on the Tour de Ski tour.

The skier belonging to the B national team was very happy when the coaching management rewarded him with a selection for the Tour de Ski representative group. But on December 28, Alakoski, who now represents the Kainuu Skiing Club, announced on his social media that his dreams had been crushed due to illness. There would be no point for the Tour.

– It goes without saying that the disappointment was absolutely huge, when the importance of such choices and screen places is so extremely great for the skier of the B national team and there are always only a certain number of them, Kerttu Niskanen Alakoski, who watched Sunday’s victory at home in Vuokatti, sighed.

He has recently been on a full training break due to respiratory problems caused by the influenza virus. Coach Mikko Virtanen has been cautiously talked about the possibility of skiing the Scandinavian Cup in Otepää, Estonia in two weeks, but it depends entirely on the development of the disease picture.

– From there, you could again give demonstrations in order to get to the World Cup to give demonstrations to those who select the skiers for the A and B national teams in the spring. In other words, continuous performance, Alakoski, who skied eight times in the World Cup for points, i.e. in the top 30, laughs.

Parade example

The young woman is like a parade example of an athlete who puts everything on the line to “even” get to the A national team, from which, according to the old saying, it’s much harder to get out than to get there.

Although the Ski Federation’s financial difficulties have been thoroughly reported, the resources are still different in many ways from those of the B national team, whose everyday life in the last training season was practically training in Vuokatti.

One such resource is personal sponsors, which the A national team skier can get more easily than the B national team skier. For Alakoski, vital partners have been acquired by, among others, his father, a long-time influencer in cross-country skiing and the Ski Association Reijo Alakoski.

– Financial support from family and partners has been vital, says Alakoski, who interestingly has been in the same situation as his mother in her career.

Anne Alakoski (nee Bishop) was a super talent as a junior, who in the 1970s and early 1980s belonged to the national top, but didn’t quite manage to break into the rock-hard representative teams at the time.

No ski contract

The most interesting situation in Alakoski is with the most important tools, i.e. skis. A national or international team contract with a ski brand is usually a matter of course for a skier of his level, but Alakoski does not currently have any kind of contract.

It practically means such a special thing that he has the freedom to compete with whatever brand of ski he wants.

Alakoski, who had skied with the Salomon brand all his career up to that point, decided last spring to try something new and start skiing with the equipment of the circus’s number one brand, i.e. Fischer. Competition skis for a skier of this level cost 800–900 euros a pair, and Alakoski had to get equipment for each skier so that a dozen were full.

– About 10,000 euros went into it. It goes without saying that I really hope to get a team contract and I’m trying to show it.

For comparison, with the same brand fast Iivo Niskanen will receive around 50,000 euros per year from the Austrian brand for the basic contract alone, and the success will be topped off with generous bonuses.

– For the rest of the season, a particularly important international competition, i.e. in addition to the World Championships and the Finnish Cups, is the 20 kilometer (p) intermediate start of the Lahti World Cup on March 2, Alakoski says.

The Tour de Ski continues on Wednesday with free sprints, which shows live. The broadcast of the Davos sprint qualifying starts at 15:25 and the sprint finals at 17:58. ‘s live sports broadcasts can be found at this link.

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