The skiing couple Lauri Vuorinen and Johanna Matintalo competes in the Finnish Cup and the SC skiing in Ounasvaara in their home country.
Those who met while skiing Johanna Matintalo and Lauri Vuorinen share a quite extraordinary everyday life from a layman’s point of view. Skiing is present in life 24/7 and requires a strong understanding of what comes naturally to them.
– The fact that the other person understands and is able to support in good and bad moments is really important. There is no need to explain or open up about the choices you make for sports, says Vuorinen.
The couple naturally talks a lot about skiing, but tries to discuss other topics as well. Even so, it cannot be avoided that tips about, for example, skiing technique or ski choices are shared, even though Matintalo is the more active party in this matter.
– Lauri has been asked for tips a few times. I’m probably the party that wants more advice. Lauri doesn’t need so many tips from me.
In addition to training and competing, Matintalo and Vuorinen’s everyday life consists of simple things that are of great importance to everyone. They get a lot of strength from each other, love and time together.
– Wouldn’t it be so nice to do this alone rather than together. When everyday life is the same, we spend the afternoons at home between training sessions. It wouldn’t be nice if the spouse was working in an office at that time. Of course, spending time together at home is really nice, says Vuorinen.
Sleeping in your own bed gives you an advantage for home games
Johanna Matintalo and Lauri Vuorinen moved to Rovaniemi years ago because of the longer skiing season. In their opinion, the fact that the home is located a couple of hundred meters away from the race tracks is a greater benefit for them than knowing the home tracks.
– The end of the season may start to weigh on the season. Yes, we can handle the race, but I wouldn’t really be able to go on the trip. It’s really nice to be able to walk to the games from home, it reduces the overall load. And you get to sleep in your own bed, that’s always an advantage, says Matintalo.
The proximity of the home to the racetracks brings other advantages as well. According to Vuorinen, sometimes it has been acted almost as if Juha Mieto.
– A couple of years ago, we followed a bit of the same style. After fifty, we mostly went straight to the sauna with our skis on.
The season ends on home tracks
The current season has been quite good for Johanna Matintalo and Lauri Vuorinen. Success has come on both team and individual trips. The successful training and competition season has kept Vuorinen in good shape until the end of the season, which he says also affects his feeling for the rest of the season.
– It does motivate, and when the rest of the season goes well, it’s a bit “on the tongue”.
Johanna Matintalo’s season did not start as expected when she fell ill with corona. From the Ruka World Cup, the season started to change direction little by little.
– As I got into the rhythm of the competition, my fitness started to improve, and now at the end of the season I feel like I’m in the best shape of the season.
Matintalo is a little sad about the arrival of spring, but is happy that he was able to squeeze in a few good weekends for this season.
The domestic skiing season ends at Ounasvaara’s spring hang on the first weekend of April.
On Friday, the men’s and women’s championships of normalmäki are on the program. On Saturday, the men’s and women’s combined hill and cross-country sections, as well as the relay finals of the Finnish Cup, will be contested. On Sunday, it’s the turn of the men’s and women’s general series, as well as the long distances of the U23 series on traditional.
The skier couple hopes the public will find Ounasvaara.
– Yes, I have high expectations for the coming weekend, to get the team here properly, Vuorinen states.
will broadcast the Finnish Cup in Rovaniemi live on its channels. You can find live sports broadcasts at this link.