Three-time Paralympic medalist in the javelin, Marjaana Heikkinen, continues her career with great goals.
Three-time Paralympic medalist in the javelin Marjaana Heikkinen has decided to continue his career. He achieved bronze in London 2012, silver four years later in Rio de Janeiro, and bronze again in Tokyo 2021.
At the Paralympics in Paris, however, the medal streak was broken after Heikkinen, 57, ended up in sixth place in the F34 class, which was a bitter disappointment for the enduring success. The result of 16.58 did not correspond to the performance level of Heikkinen, who has a SE result of 19.58.
After a difficult race season, after maturing the situation, Heikkinen made his decision. The unremarkable results of the summer left too much in the tooth.
– After all, I couldn’t think that I would end my career in such a situation, where the whole truth about throwing was not what was seen in Paris.
The decision to continue was also prompted by the size of the spear Kimmo Kinnusen return as Heikkinen’s coach. Heikkinen threw the best arcs of his career under Kinnusen between 2015 and 2020. Kinnunen is the 1991 men’s javelin world champion.
Kinnunen replaces Heikki, who has coached since 2021 Olavi Parjanen. There is no drama associated with the change, but according to Heikkinen, it is a natural choice at this point.
– During the last two years, development went downhill for too long. The throwing technique got so messed up that with a joint decision we changed a new pilot to take it forward.
– When the technique is lost, six competitive throws are quite a few. Especially when they are thrown in a row. It takes quite a lot of repetition to return to the old technique.
It’s difficult to coach a chair thrower with a disability. Heikkinen praises Kinnusen for being very good at this matter.
– Kimmo has done quite a lot of work on it and has embraced it excellently, and otherwise our cooperation has already worked well in the past.
Heikkinen’s goals remain clear. Only a medal will do when going to a value competition. He has e.g. three European championships and the same number of World Cup silver medals, the most recent of which is from last year. In real life, a minimum of 18 meters is often required for a medal these days.
– Throwing must become automatic and sufficient so that at least at the World Cup level we can fight for medals. Probably no athlete knows whether the career will last the entire Olympics. The amount of work and training and training tricks along the way, let alone the competitions… Everything can change in an instant.