On Saturday, World Judo medalist Luukas Saha and his dog Nala visited the sports studio. They received a direct question from skier Krista Pärmäkoski and Edvin the dog.
10:23AM•Updated 10:23AM
– Are you single? Krista Pärmäkoski ask a brave question Edwin-for his dog at ‘s Sports Studio.
– And when are the races?
The question is directed at the Judo World Cup medalist Luke Saw Nala– for the dog.
– Quite an aggressive start, Saha answers.
– We have thought that this Nala is such a beautiful girl that it would be nice to have offspring someday.
So Nala is single. According to Saha, the dog park has had many applicants, but Nala has not accepted.
Saha will be at the Sports Gala at the beginning of the year one of the candidates for the breakthrough of the year award. Saha broke into the world’s elite last spring. He took third place in the Kazakhstan Grand Slam in the 66-kilogram category. A couple of weeks later, Saha took Finland’s first judo World Cup medal in 43 years.
Saha also put Moldova at the top of the world list at the Paris Olympics Denis Vierun for really tight ones.
Nala the dog has been a big part of the peak year. It is a rescue dog brought from Bulgaria.
– It was a hug and run rescue. It had many twists and turns. We were training at a high altitude camp in Bulgaria. Nala was four months old then. It melted the heart and went along after many twists and turns, Saha recounts the events of about a year ago.
Someone might think that getting a dog would be a pretty wild decision before the biggest year of a sports career.
– Many people think it’s pretty crazy. Half a year before the end of the Olympic qualification brings a guy like this to disturb life. However, I have noticed that I stress less and focus on life in a versatile way. Of course, I do all the work for sports, but when there are other things in life, sports have gone better, Saha says and says that Naha has been a kind of “mental coach.”
Staying with Nala is also relaxing.
– There’s not much else to worry about when it’s eating expensive shoes in the hallway, Saha laughs.
Last weekend is the background to the fallout. Saha’s spouse had bought nice shoes for Linna’s party. He also got to use them, but now they are gone. The couple had left home on Friday evening. The shoes had been left in a bad place.
– Nala had studied them. Those shoes are old. Those shoes are now eaten. Can’t blame Nala. It was my fault when I left it in a bad place, says Saha.
An interesting revelation about Stubb’s abilities
Saha actually came to the attention of the entire nation at the Paris Olympics, when he bowed to Vieru, the world number one, after a really tight twist. After that, the President of the Republic Alexander Stubbs went to hug Luukas Saha. The Association of Sports Journalists recently awarded Lehkuva Antti Good–Koivisto took a photo of that situation as the most moving sports photo of the year.
Saha sees that the photo summed up the past Finnish sports year. Historically, Finns did not win any medals from the Paris Olympics.
– Finnish sports have not gone as expected. That picture must have caused a lot of emotions because of that. That moment was meaningful to me. I gave it my all. The Olympic medal depended on that, Saha describes.
Saha regards the gesture of the president of the republic as a fine tribute. After this, Saha and Stubb went fishing together for an hour in Tampere. At the castle party, this was no longer discussed, but only a few words were briefly exchanged during the handshake.
Saha, however, reveals that the president of the republic is taking a fishy job.
– Old people were slaughtered together. The throw left him quite well in the end, Saha said.
This year, the judoka who has brightened up the Finnish sports community has a more serious message for the viewers of Urheilustudio. Saha has seen with his dog Nala on fishing trips that Finnish nature is doing quite badly at the moment.
– I have always been a nature person. Now, with this hobby of fishing and hunting, nature has become even more important to me. The situation of the fish stocks in particular has deteriorated a lot, Saha begins.
The Tampere resident says there are many reasons for this. Climate change, overfishing and deterioration of water quality.
– If we talk about migratory fish stocks, the main reason is the construction of dams. No proper passageways for fish have been made. No one can deny that hydropower had to be built during Finland’s industrialization. However, it could have been done so that the fish stocks would have been preserved, Saha states.