Heikki Tonteri, the new lubrication manager of the Finnish national ski team, likes challenges. They are known this season because of the fluoride ban.
Simo Arkko,
Laura Arffman
The job of lubrication manager and maintenance manager of the Finnish cross country team has been windy in recent years.
Before this season Mika Venäläinen worked in the position for two years. His predecessor Martin Norrgard was in the position for only one year.
He started in the new season Heikki Tonteri.
– I guess I like challenges, though. When I was given such an opportunity, I thought that if I didn’t go, I would be sad in the rocking chair that I didn’t try, Tonteri told Urheilu before Ruka’s weekend.
Tonter is really facing challenges due to the fluoride ban, for example. They were already in Ruka’s freezing snow, when he raised his hand to signal a mistake. Maintenance was not successful enough in the women’s competition.
With the fluoride ban, skis and their grinding are more important, and lubrication cannot make up for the differences like in previous years.
– I have told someone that maybe it could have been an easier check. Probably not many maintenance or lubrication managers have been in a situation where there are so many changes.
Sensational Olympic gold
Tonteri was in the national team as a ski instructor from autumn 2011 until the 2015 World Championships in Falun. After that, he started polishing the skis of the national teams in his home country and was, so to speak, a gig worker in the cross-country and combined national teams.
Tonteri was involved in, for example, the World Championships in Planica and the Olympic Games in Beijing. However, his most memorable experience is from the Sochi Olympics in 2014.
Then Iivo Niskanen and Sami Jauhojärvi sensationally took Olympic gold in the pair relay.
– It’s nice to remember things from Sochi. In the men’s heat, there were as many grip problems as Napsu. When we got it straightened out, it made the Olympic gold a great thing. It came unexpectedly anyway.
Criticism is part of the nature of the sport
More than 12 years ago, I lubricated skis with Tonter for the first time Aki Hukka describes the new lubrication manager as a fundamentally calm man with solid experience.
Hukka, who has also worked as a maintenance manager, describes that Tonteri is under a magnifying glass all the time. Through the public, you get pressure on your neck if you take them.
Huka’s instructions to Tonter are precisely related to the great publicity of the sport.
– He doesn’t read comments in the afternoon papers, but concentrates on his own work and work. It helps a lot. There will certainly be criticism. It is part of the nature of the species and it must be endured.
– All rude comments can be left at their own value. They have no meaning. Everyone here does their job really professionally and well.
Also Matti Haavisto is on the same lines about cooperation.
– No one needs to know everything. A professional group and professional men, so everyone bears responsibility for their own area of expertise. Heikki, of course, puts things together and sees to it that the activities are running on race days.
– He is the right man in the right place. Full credit goes to Heikki.
Skid data was erased
In Tonter’s opinion, his most important task is precisely that he learns to lead a group and brings out the best in each maintenance man.
Tonter’s own strengths are in grip and test skiing. However, he, like many others in the service truck, has had to start from scratch with fluoride-free creams.
– All old skid data has been erased. It doesn’t do anything anymore. Now all the products are new and you have to learn them from the beginning. An awful lot of testing. That’s what this means in practice.
Trust in the group
According to Tonter, only a few people in the Finnish service truck have done preliminary tests with fluoride-free creams last spring and the year before. However, it has been completely scratching the surface.
– This fall, we really got down to business.
The line-up has also changed a bit.
– The basic structure is the same, but good men have been left out. I think we have a good group, I’m not worried. I trust every guy completely.