ZHANGJIAKOU. Finnish skiers scolded their results from the previous Olympics, so is everything good in Finnish skiing? Not completely, say Sports experts Jussi Piirainen and Toni Roponen. Experts consider the catch of the Beijing Games to be good, but in order for the situation to remain at least similar, action is needed – right now.
– If you want to do differently than, for example, in a Finnish hill jump, it is important to react when we have these good athletes, Roponen said.
The Finnish ski team won one gold, two silver and three bronze medals and five points from the Beijing Olympics. That’s two medals more than four years ago from the Pyeongchang Olympics. There would also be more points and better rankings than Beijing. Finland took two sixth places from Pyeongchang, two fourth, one sixth and two seventh from Beijing.
Finland’s medal success was on the shoulders of four athletes: Iivo Niskasen, Kerttu Niskasen, Krista Pärmäkoski and Joni Mäki. Iivo Niskanen stated With their Instagram account (switch to another service)he is already looking to the next Olympics, but Pärmäkoski, among others, has said that these Olympics are probably his last.
– How these current tops advance to the next Olympics will make it easier to win medals at the next Games. But we also have a lot of young skiers on the national team and even now there are younger skiers on the national team who are ready to make a result in the next competitions, Piirainen said.
Add more demanding competitive conditions
The average age of the Finnish ski team in both men and women is 28 years and the medals for personal trips were in their thirties or over. Joni Mäki, who took the medal in doubles with Iivo Niskanen, is 27 years old.
Both Piirainen and Roponen believe that the Beijing medalists will be able to make a tough result even after four years if the motivation remains good.
However, Roponen points out that Finland is lagging behind, for example, Norway, Russia and Sweden in the way athletes are able to succeed at a young age, even on normal journeys.
In Roponen’s opinion, it is important to draw a line on what we think about the future of Finnish skiing. Does it just mean success in the championships? Because if Finns want to succeed in the championships, a change in domestic competition conditions is needed, according to Roponen.
– There have always been and will always be demanding conditions in value competitions. They require maximum durability and oxygen uptake. In Finnish skiing, one of the culmination points is how we can take talented athletes forward so that they can succeed on international trails, Roponen said.
– A big factor is, for example, the fact that we ski too much in Finland in too easy terrain. No qualifiers can be held on “hippo trails” with a height difference of 25 meters if you really and genuinely want that potential for success in the championships.
In Roponen’s opinion, in Finland the competitions should be dared to be taken to the most demanding terrains other than in the last Finnish Championships in the spring. It is not a question of not finding enough challenging tracks in Finland.
– If we want our competition system to support the making of top athletes and prepare them for the World Cup with a wider range of people, we must dare to take competitions to the most demanding conditions.
Roponen, who has been a university coach in Denver for a couple of years, has closely followed the training of the American generation of male skiers born in the 21st century. These young people have been training and competing in really demanding conditions for the last few years, so they are ready to succeed at a young age. According to Roponen, the situation is the same in Switzerland, Germany and Norway, among others.
– Successful skiers in Finland have always practiced long climbs for years in demanding conditions and developed it for maximum endurance, Roponen reminded.
An honest discussion about the chances of success for skiers
There have been no major changes in international skiing in recent years, but the sport is moving forward all the time. Above all, sprinting has developed and the pace of competition has increased. It has brought new demands on athletes and training.
– Skiers need to be able to ski faster than before, and it requires more speed reserve and more power levels. However, it must always be remembered that this is an endurance sport and an endurance sport. That is the most important factor in the background, and this is often forgotten in Finnish coaching and the training of young people, Piirainen said.
– Training is thought too much through speed and strength, skiing in easy terrain in Finland and making a profit there. Then there is the surprise when you go skiing on World Cup level, or especially value level level tracks. They require raw durability.
Roponen also fears that in Finnish skiing, training often becomes too anaerobic, too speed-focused and strength-focused. He reminds that sprinting also requires top talent.
– We need to be able to separate the sprint into a clear entity. Those athletes who don’t have the potential to succeed on other trips aim for the sprint. Athletes who have a huge capacity through endurance qualities and who want to succeed in value competitions have to train in demanding conditions, Roponen outlined.
According to Roponen, the biggest problem for Norwegian women, among others, is that most people do not know how to focus on the right kind of training. Therese Johaug he practices differently than others because he is not looking for success in sprinting.
In Piirainen’s opinion, the right steps are being taken in Finland, and in his opinion, there is nothing more that can be fixed in the situation. However, in the case of children and young people, it must be possible to ensure that athletes who are fast enough to join the sport.
– Of those fast-paced athletes, it is possible to breed top individuals that meet the requirements of the sport in different sports, because in endurance sports, you have to start doing endurance in good time, Piirainen said.
According to experts, Finnish coaching focuses only partially on the right things. In Piirainen’s opinion, it is too easy to get caught up in small things that don’t matter much to the end result. The award is being smashed for too short a period of time, and not looking far enough for the development of a sports career or thinking about what is required at the top adult level.
Roponen believes that there should be an honest discussion with athletes about where they have a potential chance of success.
– Lauri Vuorinen is a very good example of this. He focuses on sprinting, skiing normal trips at home, but knows he has no chance of making it in the world, Roponen said.
– Now you have to find the right pathways for these future peaks so that they can train like professional athletes.
The first-timers of the Olympics learned an important lesson
Jasmi Joensuu25, and Remi Lindholm, 24, are the skiers who are expected to succeed in the coming years. Both gained valuable experience at the Beijing Olympics, although Joensuu in particular had to be disappointed in the sprint due to a stick crash.
– I hope that it will be brightened in such a way that I will turn it into a victory and in the future I will be able to laugh at it. The Beijing Games were an educational trip, if nothing else, Joensuu said.
Joensuu knows exactly its own potential and mostly focuses on sprinting. He thinks he can still ski really hard for 10 miles, but its longer distances don’t suit his capacity.
– The best sprinters in the world are tough goers of ten and five kilometers, so you have to be able to ski hard even on normal trips. And of course free skiing is what I’m putting even more focus on in the future.
Lindholm has toured with the national team in the World Cup this winter and received good sparring from the other national team. He considers it important to see how the tops work outside of the Games and what the everyday life of a top athlete really is.
Practicing more than a thousand hours a year, Lindholm saw close to what he needed to develop in Beijing.
– I went to see the message as a stickman, and yes those hubby skis hard uphill !. More muscle endurance and fitness is needed, Lindholm reflected.
– You have to think more about those camps. If a little would look for bigger hills from abroad next summer.
Joensuu believes that the pace in skiing will increase even more and the tactical game has developed tremendously. In his opinion, endurance fitness alone does not mean everything, because especially in sprinters, the speed and tactical side must be in order.
– I think they are things for me that are my strengths. I have to refine them even better, Joensuu said.
Lindholm is on slightly different lines with Joensuu, as he thinks skiing will be an endurance sport forever.
– That’s the biggest factor. In the long uphills of the Olympics, for example, there was no question about who is the fastest, he said.
According to Joensuu, the Finnish system supports national team athletes well, but the biggest challenge is for young people, who should move from the world of young national teams to adult competitions. Joensuu once solved his own situation by going to the University of Denver to study and train.
– That solution was very important to me, and that’s why I’m still on the racetracks with skis.
Much is required of the ideal skier of the future
Finland did well at the Junior World Championships in Vuokatti last winter Alexander Ståhlbergin and Niilo Moilanen under. In addition to the two, experts highlight, among other things Niko Anttolan and Petteri Koivistonwhich have potential and can be expected to succeed in the future.
– I hope that the Finnish coaching system will support them as athletes so that they can train properly and also in the right conditions. In this way, they would be able to develop potentially all the time, and the typical situation in Finnish skiing would not be such that they would not develop at all at the age of 20–25, Roponen said.
According to Piirainen, there are actually a rare number of really potential skiers coming out at the same time, because usually only a few top skiers come to Finland.
– We have a lot of activities based on individuals. We do not have the same mass production as in Norway or Russia. Of course our system, a new line of coaching Finnish track (you switch to another service)seeks to resolve this point. It is partly a question of resources, but it must also be possible to improve this activity, Piirainen said.
According to Piirainen, hard work cannot be overemphasized. Each athlete should play with their own strengths and focus on those sports that have the best chance of getting the best results.
– We have several talented skiers who have the opportunity to raise their own level and take on a bigger role in national team activities as well. Hard work and the development of sustainability are needed, because when it comes to harsh conditions like Beijing, there is still room for improvement.
Roponen is currently most concerned about the whole of Finnish women. Jasmin Kähärän despite the success of sprinting, the march of young women is still to be seen.
– There are quite a few talented athletes with oxygen uptake and endurance properties who could rise to the top 15 in the world. There are budding sprinters in the women and Kähärä is a top talent, Roponen said.
– Kähärä’s chances of success are above all as a sprinter, but with hard work he can also become a skier on normal trips.
Piirainen and Roponen agree on what the top skier of the future will look like. This must be inherently fast, it must have a hard maximum oxygen uptake as well as endurance.
– An athlete who is very talented in oxygen uptake, but inherently extremely fast, has the opportunity to succeed on any journey, Roponen said.