Want to hear perhaps the worst joke in the world?
Well, let’s tell you nonetheless.
– What was heard about the tiger when it was hit?
Emma Kimiläinen snuggles on his own wooden leg in the middle of a very demanding neck muscle workout, but gets to continue until the end of the two-minute workout.
Kimila’s physics coach Anssi Ulvinen twists his head and imposes a “time penalty” of 20 seconds for such a bad joke. When Kimiläinen makes his laughter stop, he kindly completes his punishment – and laughs again.
This is reportedly the case in Ulvinen’s and Kimiläinen’s trainings in general. In the upstairs hall of the Kontula industrial hall, you train very seriously, but not really.
– There’s never a depression with Emma. Sometimes, for example, in a hard strength workout, swear words can fly, but it’s kind of a boost. Meininki is good and relaxed behind the scenes too, Ulvinen says after almost two hours of training in front of two journalists and a photographer.
– By the way, an ordinary person would not even be able to do that neck exercise that Emma did for just over two minutes, Ulvinen points out.
Rare contract
Emma Kimiläinen, 32, is not an ordinary street person.
Or well, as a human, Kimiläinen is like any woman from a neighbor who leads a dog. When he walks down his home street and in a nearby park, no one pays any attention to Kim and the Tyson dog he adopted from Lithuania.
But the profession makes Kimiläinen exceptional. She is the only Finn in the international women’s formulas championship class in the W Series. She is the eldest and only mother of the drivers in the series. His teammate is 19-year-old Czech Tereza Babickova. The youngest driver in the series is 16-year-old Japanese Juju Noda.
– I could almost be her mother, Kimiläinen laughs.
It will be great if I can show by my own example that family is not an obstacle but an opportunity.
Emma Kimiläinen
In February, Kimiläinen received a rare honor: the big international sports brand Puma just wanted Kim from the drivers of the W Series in his stable and as a global brand ambassador. Kimiläinen is the only Finnish athlete to have received a similar agreement from that brand.
– It’s really great that they chose me as their number one athlete out of all the W Series drivers. In a way, we share the same message. They believe in my talent and my story, which I want to share as a professional athlete and mother.
– There are a lot of women who have career dreams, but who feel that as mothers they may not be able to achieve them. It will be great if I can show by my own example that family is not an obstacle but an opportunity. I have pointed out on many occasions that motherhood has made me a better athlete and driver, says the mother of a girl who will soon be 9 years old.
During more than a couple of months of cooperation, Kimiläinen has become acquainted with the brand’s headquarters and people in both Germany and the United States. There have also been significant sporting benefits from the collaboration.
– They allowed for an extra day of testing two weeks before the start of the season. We also get extra tests during the season, Kimiläinen says.
Only one goal
The W Series championship has been run twice, in the seasons 2019 and 2021. In the opening season, Kimiläinen was Fifth in total points, last year third.
The 2019 season was already ruined in the opening race in Hockenheim. Kimiläinen was involved in a crash, which caused him to be absent from the next two races due to a neck and head injury. Half of the six-race season was over.
Last year, Kimiläinen was strong in the tests, but at the beginning of the season he got a different engineer than in the tests. In the W Series, the umbrella organization dictates the background teams for the drivers, and Kimiläinen had bad luck with the engineer.
No common ground was found despite the hard work. The engineer could not make the changes requested by Kimiläinen to the car’s settings.
In the end, in the middle of the season, the decision of the sports director of the series was to change Kimiläinen’s race engineer. After that, Kimiläinen immediately drove his first victory and pole position of the season. In the last four races, he rose to the podium (places 1–3–2–3).
Now the Finns’ starting points for the period are excellent in all respects. According to his coach, he is in better physical shape than ever. The driving feel is also good now.
– When the season 2021 started, I hadn’t driven anything for a year and a half, but the other drivers who had fought for the top spot with me had been driving something else all season. Now I am much more prepared and know exactly what that car requires and what I expect from the team and the engineer.
Kimila’s goal for the season is clear.
– There is no separate ultimate and minimum goal. The goal is a championship, and I know there is every chance. But for that to happen, everything has to go well.
– As long as the hustle and bustle doesn’t go overboard and squeeze the wheel, everything’s fine. I don’t give too much value to winning, meaning I’m not forced to win; I’m no worse person if I don’t win. When he approaches driving through joy, the results follow, he knows.
The bringer of joy
Through joy. Following Emma Kimiläinen, it becomes clear that this is her guideline for the rest of her life.
Many remember last season Kimiläinen’s air-colored and shout-streamed ventilation on team radio as he drove his first pole position of the season in September in Zandvoort, the Netherlands.
After that, Kimiläinen and his new race engineer Danny sang in the depot as karaoke with the entire rest of the depot crowd spitting the Wannabe hit at Spice Girls.
Even if you are injured and have a hand in the pack, what prevents you from training your legs or stomach? You can always do something.
Emma Kimiläinen
Kimim is usually the one who makes other people around him shine. I hear you can’t get angry with almost anything.
– I’m really in a bad mood. I usually find something positive in everything. Even if a million things go wrong, there is always good to be found. You just have to think about what all is well, and then you have to stick to them, Kimiläinen says.
– Even if you are injured and have a hand in the package, what prevents you from training your legs or stomach? You can always do something. No paralysis is out of the question, he assures.
According to coach Anssi Ulvinen, there is also a very ambitious, disciplined and determined athlete, and perhaps a somewhat stubborn woman, under Kimiläinen’s shattering shell.
– If Emma decides something, she usually does it too, Ulvinen says.
– Most of all, we have small disagreements about dropping him. Sometimes when I announce that this workout was here, Emma says there wouldn’t be anything else to do; there would still be power. That is when compromises are tried. My job is to act as a kind of handbrake for Emma, the coach laughs.
From time to time, Kimiläinen “escapes” out of reach of his handbrake. In the winter, he spent a lot of time snowmobiling and skiing in Lapland. Long toboggan runs are a good workout and develop the same features needed to drive a formula car.
– I also like to ride motocross, and when the weather is nice, I like to go mountain biking. I have been practicing these sports since I was a little girl and I will continue to do so, Kimiläinen says.
The downside of publicity
Kimiläinen has always drawn a strict line between a public figure and a private individual Emma Kimiläinen. For the past more than six months, he has had to taste the shadows of publicity.
Almost immediately after last season, Kimiläinen’s divorce was reported. About a month later, hints began about Kimiläinen’s new relationship. Since then, Kimiläinen has published on social media random group photos of the ex-footballer Sami Hyypiän with.
Kimiläinen has noticed that his private life is of interest to many: new headlines come in every week, paparazzi use the gym in the yard, and people send out secret images to the media after seeing a couple in a store or traveling.
– I usually shrug or laugh at things that are written about me or us. And I don’t want to comment on them or waste energy on them. But if fundamental human rights, such as the protection of privacy or the copyright of images, are violated in the name of entertainment, I too sometimes boil over, Kimiläinen says.
These cases have led Kimiläinen to consider the morality and ethics of some media outlets and whether a person in public for their work has no right to keep their private life out of the public eye.
A matter of career choice, someone says now. Public profession, shouting another.
Except this is not the whole truth. Few athletes consciously choose to be a public figure.
– Publicity is part of my profession, and it’s totally ok. But it seems hard for some members of the media to accept that we want to keep our private lives private. Kimiläinen points out that there are other people involved in life, such as children who are not in public.
According to Kimiläinen, children are the main reason why he wants to protect his own and his relatives’ privacy.
– I would like to have peace with myself and the people close to me and live quite normally, he says.
Happy person
But: through joy and positivity. Kimiläinen even consciously pushes nasty things out of his mind.
– For me, many things are pretty insignificant in the end. I think it’s exactly the same: it’s pointless to get caught up in a negative emotion. Go ahead, and try to focus on the good stuff.
As for the beginning of the season. Kimiläinen has already actually decided to win. And that means …
– At least the feelings are really good. As the coach said, I think I’m in better shape than ever before. And mentally, I’m in really good shape. I am somehow really happy in my life.