Olympic champion Pertti Ukkola, 73, has led thousands of exercises for KooVee’s wrestlers since his active career. At noon on December 28, a one and a half hour training session began in Tampere’s Nääshall, which was especially important for the coach who had seen it all.
Above all, it was important To Elmer Mattila24, to this fiance To Elisa Partase and from the beginning of the couple’s year to the two-year-old, mercurial and cheerful Eli– for the boy.
On this day between Christmas and New Year, Elmer Mattila returned to real wrestling training, so to speak.
– I’ve been jogging a bit and on the mat, but I haven’t participated in full-scale mat training for 18 weeks, Mattila said before Ukkola, who expected about 50 percent training performance from the athlete, compared to previous maximums, blew his whistle and started the training.
The reason for the long absence is revealed when Mattila lowers the top of the wrestling tights to her waist. The abdominal area is pierced longitudinally by a surgery scar that has already healed well, but reminds of something very serious.
A bolt from the blue
Urheilu already told in August what kind of lightning had struck Mattila from a clear sky. The wrestler who was selected for the fall World Championships and participated in their finishing camp in Hennef, Germany, was taken to the Siegburg hospital due to very strong stomach pains that caused bloody vomiting. There, the situation was suddenly found to be very critical: the patient’s intestine was going necrotic.
– There was no guarantee that I would wake up when the anesthesiologist lulled me to sleep. At that point, however, I couldn’t think about anything but that I had to get rid of those pains, Mattila recalls about 4.5 months later on the sidelines.
His life was narrowly saved in an emergency operation, where a 6.5 cm long tumor was removed from the abdominal cavity. The oncologist, i.e. the tumor specialist, soon had more cold water down his neck.
It was a GIST cancer tumor classified as a soft tissue sarcoma, which is extremely rare especially for a person of Mattila’s age, and which is typically found in the small intestine. In Nordic studies, the frequency of occurrence has been about 15 people out of a million over the course of a year, the most typical age to get sick is 60 years old.
When Elisa Partanen recalled the moments of horror in August, they still caused emotional upheavals.
– I don’t even really remember anything about those days. I was desperately trying to get information everywhere and of course I was afraid of being a widow. There were even suicidal thoughts, says Partanen, who eventually brought her husband home from Germany.
Relief pictures
The wildest panic subsided a little when the national team coach who took Mattila to the hospital and stayed by his side Brother Karri Suominen started sending pictures of the patient, which proved that life was left to win, or at least at that point in the lead.
– The homecoming was a wonderful moment, but it was hard for Eelin to understand why her father didn’t pick her up as usual or manage to have a riot. The maximum load was five kilograms at first, and Eeli already weighed ten, Partanen laughs.
The pain tolerance of a top wrestler is something completely different from that of a founder – which was now costing the life of a young family man. Throughout the summer, Mattila had suffered from intermittent, even very severe, stomach pains, which were suspected to be symptoms of reflux disease.
– I told him many times to go to the doctor, but he wasn’t allowed to go there. They say it was just heartburn. Now you can joke a little about this matter, but there would be few jokes at the gravestone, the spouse will count.
“It would have been embarrassing”
Mattila admits without hesitation that her fiancé is right.
– The Finnish man did not go to the doctor. At the time I felt that it would have been embarrassing to go there to complain if nothing had been found. Now, of course, you can say that you should have gone. It has never felt so good to be with family and other loved ones than after all this. You look at life with quite new eyes now.
You can see from everything that Mattila’s spouse and son are extremely welcome people in the training hall. Eeli’s godfathers also sweat in the same training group Sakke Purolainen and Artem Shapovalovwho was selected for the autumn World Championships as a substitute after Mattila had to miss out.
– I have cried with emotion because Elmer has such a community behind him, both here in Tampere and in the national team. If we all had the same support group, there would be a lot less problems in the world, says Elisa Partanen.
Interesting paper
An interesting piece of paper is taped to the wall of the equipment booth in the wrestling room. The guys in the training group have each guessed on which day Mattila, who prefers to hang out in her spare time, will be able to return to “real” training. Coffee wins Eetu Jääskeläinenwho has guessed exactly right: December 28, 2023.
In Finland, Mattila’s cancer treatment has been continued mainly by a private cancer clinic in Helsinki. German surgeons were able to remove the tumor completely, and no new ones have appeared. But the targeted cancer medication, planned for many years, has caused severe side effects for the patient.
– Bloody, extremely painful ulcers have appeared on the mucous membranes of the mouth, which have sometimes prevented eating completely. Because of the side effects, the entire medication has sometimes had to be put on hold. Now we are debating how and with what doses the medication could be made to work without such bad side effects, or whether it should be stopped completely, says Mattila.
The family lives in Härmälä, Tampere, in a wooden house, which Mattila has skillfully renovated with her own hands. At the age of 11, the daughter of a well-known family in the neighborhood got sick with the same cancer as Mattila 2023, who wrestled in three prestigious adult competitions.
– He has completely recovered, Partanen knows.
The Hodars stayed
Mattila is a top weight class athlete whose diet has been quite disciplined. Now, of his own volition, he has made it more specific.
– I’ve always liked very much, especially hodari, but now I’ve tried to completely leave out such processed foods. Nowadays, the day always starts with a ginger shot.
When it became clear to Mattila on the bottom of the German hospital bed that life is not going to end in this emergency, national team coach Suominen and heart friend Shapovalov picked him up and took him for a short walk to the hospital corridor with the permission of the staff. In Finland, the rehabilitation progressed at first with just the signs of walking.
– A few hundred meters felt as if I had trained twice as hard on the mat. I would never have believed how quickly a person’s condition can collapse. Now it is being restored step by step, and patience is needed. At no point was there any doubt that the wrestling would continue.
Mattila plans to return to competitions this year, initially at the domestic level. An Olympic poster hangs on the wall of Nääshalli. In Paris this year, Mattila will not represent Finland at that level, but the following games will be organized by Los Angeles 2028.
– It is a strict goal.