Eveliina Piippo contracts all competitions at Imatra – “My attitude towards the World Championships is what it shouldn’t be” | Sport

Eveliina Piipo’s career has been full of adversity. The irregularity in upper body training has caused concern, especially for the smoothness of the traditional way of skiing.

will show Imatra’s WC skiing on 10.–12.1. on its channels. The broadcast of the couple prints starts on Friday at 1:45 PM on TV2 and Areena.

– I’ve avoided all the exercises where you could really see where we’re going, so there’s still hope, national team skier Eveliina Piippo told with a smile about his news during the season’s first championship weekend.

26-year-old Piippo has suffered from adversity in his career, such as back problems. The previous season practically ended in February with a broken back.

This season, Piippo has competed in the World Cup only in Ruka’s 20 km free co-start race, where he was 40th. He says that after that he went jogging and did different training than before the opening of the World Cup.

At Imatra, Piipo’s competitive streak starts right away on Friday with the free pair sprint, where she aims for the Finnish championship Vilma Nissinen with Vuokatti Ski Team. Only a win is good for the duo.

Piippo has also signed up for both Saturday’s 10-kilometer traditional race and Sunday’s 20-kilometer combined race.

Traditional worries

In individual competitions, Piipo is particularly concerned about the smoothness of the traditional way of skiing.

– The last two years have been pretty rough in terms of upper body training every now and then. An attempt has been made to fix it now, but it is still far from the best. Especially the draw, Piippo thought.

It would be enough for Piipo to keep up with the traditional tip. He places the most expectations on the latter half of the combined competition.

– But even that doesn’t help if it’s a light year away before you change your skis. Yes, I should have time off to ski really hard so that I still have an international future this year.

Piippo, who thrives on normal distances of freestyle skiing, made a splash in the spring of 2023 by finishing tenth in the 50 kilometer women’s race. The women will ski that distance for the first time at the World Cup level on March 9 in Trondheim.

The absence of top names eats away at the value of SM medals

Even before the start of the Imatra WC, the absence of numerous national team skiers from the starting line, due to illness and the Tour de Ski that ended on Sunday, has sparked discussion.

– Maybe my own attitude towards the WC in general is what it shouldn’t be. It doesn’t matter to me, especially at this point in the season, whether these are small national or SM competitions, Eveliina Piippo describes.

– But for others, these are really the main races of the season, so it (the absence of top names) eats away at value. Even if I were to take the third individual medal here, it wouldn’t feel the same as taking it in the spring.