The sheet decorated with the text “Meirän iskä on paras” billows in the wind and snow flurries.
A crowd standing next to the sheet cheers one driver on the Varkaus speedway track with particular enthusiasm. That driver is Aki Ala-Riihimäki and the cheering team, on the other hand, is his family: his wife and three daughters and a son-in-law.
Family and a blanket of encouragement are now there whenever possible whenever the 57-year-old Ala-Riihimäki competes on the back of an ice speedway bike. A bigger motivator for the family than getting involved in the sport is that the father has been able to fight his way back into his beloved hobby.
In September 2007, everything changed in an instant.
Ala-Riihimäki tripped while stepping out of the train and hit his head on the surface of the station platform with severe consequences. He suffered a severe brain injury and the left side of his body became paralyzed. He spent the next six months in a wheelchair.
Self-adjusted orthosis for the entire leg: “Yes, the doctors even took a video of it”
In the 90s, Ala-Riihimäki from Ilmajoki quickly rose to the top of the world in ice speedway, also achieving World Championship medals at the national team level. Active career continued in the 2000s. On the fateful day of his accident, he had gone to see an enduro bike to get one for side training. That’s why he also had a riding gear bag with him on the train, which he apparently tripped over when getting off the train at Pännäinen station.
The consequences of the accident were not only physical. When he finally got home from the hospital, for example, he marveled at the new sauna building in his backyard. He had built it himself only a couple of months before, but a black hole had appeared in his memory from the entire previous summer and spring.
Ala-Riihimäki finally regained his athletic ability thanks to more than a decade of rehabilitation and especially his own tenacity. One example of determination is the orthosis of his left leg, which extends from the groin to the sole of the foot, i.e. a support that allowed him to move without crutches and crutches.
– I got this when I was in Helsinki in rehabilitation. For eight years, I had to walk with this, because the leg could not support otherwise. From here, the joint could be released when sitting down, Ala-Riihimäki illustrates.
With the orthosis, the leg was supported straight. Releasing the locking mechanism of the knee joint made it possible to bend the leg when sitting down. Ala-Riihimäki “further developed” his own aid and installed a rubber band in the knee joint, which enabled the orthosis to bend even when walking. With it, he started rehabilitating himself with walks.
– Yes, the doctors in Helsinki took a video of that rubber band tuning, but apparently it never made it into production, Ala-Riihimäki laughs.
He was only able to go to Helsinki for a rehabilitation period almost two years after his accident. Before that, he went through very hard times.
– Half a year in a wheelchair was really hard mentally, when with the rehabilitation started in my homeland, my health did not really progress as expected. Lying on my back, I couldn’t even bend my leg. I had nightmares and thought several times that I would never be able to move normally again.
– I couldn’t even lift a milk can with my left hand for a long time, but I made my hand stronger by jumping. Before my accident, I ran three marathons, and yes, I have made the decision in principle that I will run a marathon in the future as well. I just don’t know when it will happen yet.
Riding a snowmobile sensitized Nina’s wife: “That’s Aki’s thing”
Nina Ala-Riihimäki followed her husband’s successful rehabilitation from the shelter.
– Aki’s rehabilitation has been a long and rocky road in many ways. It has been a tough experience for the whole family, but on the other hand, it has also brought our family together really close. The accident kind of took Aki away from us momentarily. In the early stages of his recovery, he was no longer the same person we knew. Because of the brain injury, he couldn’t remember things, was more impulsive and really tired. Due to the loss of mobility, he was really down.
– For me, the best memory is the moment when he got to ride a snowmobile for the first time, six or seven years after his accident. He had made some kind of tuning on the left handle of the sled, which kept the hand on the handle. Tears came to my eyes when he was finally able to move on his own with the motorized device. That’s Aki’s thing.
Especially Aki’s thing, however, is the ice speedway. To a layman, it’s not the first sport that comes to mind as a suitable hobby for a person who miraculously survived a serious injury. Almost three-centimeter studs and a 500 cubic meter motorcycle without brakes form a scary whole.
13 years after his accident, however, Ala-Riihimäki climbed back on the ice speedway bike and has been living his new driving career for three years already. Last winter, he even drove to become the Finnish champion.
– During the 13 years of convalescence, the sport was always on my mind, but it was simply not possible. When I finally got rid of the aids, however, the decision to return began to mature. If such a serious thing happens when you get off the train, then this kind of thing can’t be such a dangerous thing.
– I guess the speed and dangerous situations fascinate here, and my competitive drive is strong. Ever since I was little, I have been interested in all kinds of competition. I once dreamed of a career as a pole vaulter and ice hockey goalie, but I became an ice speedway driver.
At the beginning of the joint trip, my wife gave me driving route tips
Nina Ala-Riihimäki is also exceptionally familiar with the sport, as she herself has been one of the few ice speedway female drivers in the world. The hobby started naturally, as all three of his brothers were ice speedway drivers.
Aki says that he saw his future wife for the first time when Nina competed in Kemi in the winter of 1991. Aki himself was only there as a spectator at that point, but according to the story, he already knew then that there would be a suitable wife candidate for him. Actually, their paths crossed during their free time a few months later.
However, Aki, who previously enjoyed speedway, did not say that meeting Nina influenced his new choice of sport. At the time of the interview, however, Nina reminds that she gave Aki driving line tips in the early years of his ice speedway career.
In addition to driving, the burly ice speedway conker has always been interested in technology. In the Varkaus PM competition, he rides a prototype bike he built himself, which is noticeably longer and lower than other bikes. However, getting to the finals remains a dream.
– My goal was to make the bike more stable above all at the start. That’s where it worked, but nowhere else. The competition was quite a disappointment, and it didn’t even turn out to be a good test. But we won’t give up. The next competition is next weekend and I will build an improved version there.
The wife listening next to me confirms that this will definitely happen. Her own husband’s return to the ice speedway bike after rehabilitation hasn’t scared her either.
– I have encouraged him a lot for this return. However, now we have also had our first grandchild and it seems a bit like papa shouldn’t hurt himself. Such an important person has come into our lives, Nina Ala-Riihimäki laughs.