Swimmer Kalle Mäkinen’s spring has included not only student writing, but also a training session with his role model Ari-Pekka Liukkonen. Mäkinen, 20, who won five Finnish Championship golds in December, has set his goal high.
Emma Hyyppä,
Antti Sahlström
It is very rare for a high school athlete to beat his or her own role model. This spring’s student has succeeded in that trick Kalle Mäkinen.
Last December, at the age of 19, Mäkinen jumped into the consciousness of the Finnish sports community when he won as many as five Finnish Championship gold medals at the Finnish Short Track Swimming Championships in Espoo. In addition to all this, the winning times in the 50 and 100 meters backstroke were Finnish records.
Mäkinen decided with his free distance of 50 meters Ari-Pekka Liukkonen as the Finnish champion of the ten-year reign. Liukkonen is the long-distance European champion and Finnish record holder.
– I was able to squeeze out all the work I have done, Mäkinen says in his home hall in Myyrmäki, Vantaa.
Although Mäkinen realized at the Finnish Championships in December that he was already knocking on the doors of the world’s swimming elite, everyday life has been the same since before the breakthrough.
Mäkinen, who has just turned 20, is finishing his high school studies at the North Hague Co-educational School in Helsinki and has written his mother tongue and social studies as his last subjects.
Mäkinen does not think that the accepted grades are at stake, although he admits that the training aimed at the top has eaten away a bit from his studies.
So in the spring, Mäkinen will hit the white with his head, but from then on, the future is open. However, it is clear that the role of swimming in Mäkinen’s life will not diminish, at least.
– My goal is to get to the Olympics to swim. Training is already beginning to turn to the Paris Olympics (2024). Now I go swimming for good value starters and develop myself. We have to raise the basic level to what I swim in the Finnish Championships, Mäkinen says.
Knee pain is no longer a memory
Mäkinen has really had to work to get to this point. In February last year, his patella went out of practice. Torn ligaments were repaired on the operating table.
– At the time, the main thing was that this would be nothing. Despair struck, and I thought again, when it was my third knee surgery, Mäkinen recalls.
The same had happened to the second generation before. The cuts have fixed a structural defect that caused the displacement.
– It was a bit of a ticking time bomb. Your feet now feel better than ever. You could knock a tree, but I guess the knees won’t be any more terrible problems in the future.
Less than a year ago in May, while still recovering, Mäkinen closely followed the long-distance European Championships in swimming, where Ari-Pekka Liukkonen won European Championship gold in the 50-meter freestyle. At that time, Mäkinen could only dream of participating in adult competitions – let alone defeating the European champion on his main trip.
The highlight of Liukkonen’s 32 career in Budapest was also significant for Mäkinen, who was 13 years younger.
– Ari-Pekka’s European Championship gold created that flame for me. He, too, has overcome his difficulties, which he has spoken openly about. Why should I? From there I started to look to the future and things got going, Mäkinen repeats his thoughts.
From role model to training company
Ari-Pekka Liukkonen has unknowingly had a big impact on the career of Mäkinen from Espoo. Already ten years ago, when the elementary school Mäkinen was just starting to compete, Liukkonen was already a world-class swimmer.
– Throughout my swimming career, AP has been a legend in swimming circles. AP once came to Pirkkola for the competition and distributed autographs there. I was immediately the first in the queue to ask for it and throw the flap with him. I didn’t think then that one day I would take AP’s scalp, Mäkinen laughs.
Mäkinen, who has since become parimetric, noticed that he is very similar to his 208-centimeter role model as a swimmer. Although some time had passed since Liukkonen’s previous defeat in Finland, he accepted the silver medal without grumbling. The duo immediately started planning joint exercises in Jyväskylä, Liukkonen’s hometown.
– I thought that if you happen to learn and learn from there. At the turn of February-March, I spent a little over two weeks in Jyväskylä. It was really nice to train with a professional training team, Mäkinen says enthusiastically.
Marko Malvelan In addition to Liukkonen, Olympic representatives, among others, train in the top group led by Jyväskylä Mimosa Jallow and Fanny Teijonsalo.
The experience was rewarding for Mäkinen.
– AP wants to help others. He has so much experience. Just how to act in such a tough place, in the finals final. I have gladly collected all the tips, Mäkinen says.
Will Liukkonen’s wild SE be broken one day?
The short track European Championships last November were Mäkinen’s first adult championships. The pace was not yet enough on the main road to continue.
– After all, the first value competitions felt right at home, Mäkinen says.
And once Ari-Pekka Liukkonen has been beaten, one day Mäkinen wants to break the Finnish record of 21.58 in the long distance of this 50-meter freestyle. Liukkonen won the European Championship gold with a peak time of 21.61.
– That Finnish record has been considered unbroken. Quite a hard time. Its if you swim in the finals, as the AP showed, it wins gold. At the same time, I could list the medal as the second thing I aim for, Mäkinen says.
Mäkinen and other top Finnish swimmers will compete in the international Helsinki Swim Meet competition on May 5-6. April in Helsinki’s Mäkelänrinte.