– Then you don’t use these pictures.
Jaeger Niko Anttola is in a bad mood, even though the autumn sun is shining beautifully on the Kainuu Brigade shooting range and Thursday’s traditional pea soup lunch on September 14th has tasted good.
Pea soup has always been Anttola’s, 20, favorite food, along with a box of meat macaroni. There are only two weeks left until the departure day of the skier, who is one of the most brilliant talents in Finnish individual sports.
Chief trainer of the 10-man reconnaissance group made up of winter athletes, vääpeli Timo Varis checks how Anttola’s aiming shots have hit the target before the real action, the marksmanship exercise called RK7. Not very well.
– It’s bullshit, Mr. Vääpeli, Anttola characterizes his performance.
He seriously returns to his shooting position and digs out the sight transfer key from his equipment. Ex-racing skier Varista smiles.
– Niko has missed some shooting exercises due to the long national team camp. There may be some adjustment in the scope, but the right shooting position is probably more of a search, Varis estimates.
On September 28th, conscripts returning home from half a year’s service will have their penultimate shooting practice.
– A good, motivated group that has understood that the primary goal of national defense training is to learn national defense skills, says the trainer.
Niko Anttola’s sports life changed dramatically on March 3 this year. The skier, who just turned 20 years old, and who is still superior in terms of technical skills, anchored the Finnish men’s first 4×10 kilometer relay medal in 14 years at the World Championships in Planica.
Anttola became Finland’s youngest ever male anchor in a prestigious competition, and the result was almost a perfect match, i.e. World Championship silver.
The World Cup screens he had given the head coach Teemu Pasanen on the 2010 Olympic tracks in Whistler, Canada. At the turn of January-February, Anttola won the gold and silver medals at the Junior World Championships with skiing so technically wonderful that he Petter Northug could not believe his eyes on his TV couch in Trondheim.
The silver lining for him failed in Planica, as symbolically the core of the A national team born in the early 1990s, i.e. Cross mat Hakola, Iivo Niskanen and Perttu Nice onewho had been longing for new blood in the team for a long time.
In Anttola, a second-generation skier, new blood came in very oxygenated.
When Anttola ended his phase-rich season last spring, many drew a black cloud on his athlete horizon.
Anttola had decided to start his conscript service at the turn of March-April in the Kainuu Brigade, which today also functions as a Winter Sports School. Kesäliajien Sports School is in Santahamina, Helsinki.
Among Whistler’s other World Cup medalists, Anttola got a sprint skier as his fighting partner and roommate Eero Rantalawho broke his ankle in May during the army orienteering training.
During Rantala’s home care, Anttola was able to enjoy such a rare luxury in the army as a one-man staff. The quality of the night’s sleep was guaranteed by excellent sound insulation: the cabin was previously used by the garrison’s social curator, whose conversations with the conscripts are highly confidential.
The super talent’s decision to enter the service and handle it properly was seen as a big risk to his development. Head coach Pasanen remembers the tone of the spring discussions well. For example, the world champion in junior sprint skiing Niilo Moilanen development after the army had not progressed quite like a pendulum.
– Niko’s service was very well planned. Coach’s (father Marko Anttola) and the defense forces, communication has worked excellently. The essential thing was that the training is precisely adjusted according to the total load caused by military training, national team coach Pasanen reminds.
In the army, for example, you don’t always get an optimal night’s sleep when you are on forest trips or military exercises and spend the night in a tent.
Of course, a top endurance athlete like Anttola monitors his own total load all the time based on his own knowledge and with the help of modern technology.
– Of course, it makes no sense to accommodate training intended for development in the state of total physical load caused by training. It was very clear to me that the decision to join the army now will not negatively affect Niko’s career as a whole, says reserve officer Pasanen.
In August, Anttola participated in a three-week tough national team camp in Italy’s Passo Lavaze, where the youngster’s condition seemed “very good” in the head coach’s eyes considering the time.
Contrary to what has been thought, Anttola didn’t have to take a significant leap in training due to his military service.
– It has been a bit of a misconception. When we’re already moving with that 850 hours per year, no dramatic additions can be made to that in an instant, and it wouldn’t have been done without the army either. A few ten hours per year at the most, coach father Marko Anttola states.
– In spite of the army, the amount of training is now the same, and the training exercises have been very successful.
When Anttola, who had spent half of his half-year service in the garrison according to his bills, had spent more than two months in the army, he looked the truth in the eyes in Jyväskylä.
The conscript strapped himself into the harness of the ski and began to use roller skis for the direct oxygen uptake test of the free technique, which was supervised by the legendary test doctor Kihu of the Research Center for Racing and Elite Sports Esa Hynynen.
– It went to complete exhaustion, I collapsed on the harness.
The test result proves the condition
The Anttolats don’t want to reveal the exact VO2max number obtained from the mat, which describes the maximum oxygen uptake capacity, but it was a relief.
The test in question was uncharted territory for Anttola; previously he had been on the carpet of the test laboratory to test himself by cane walking or running to the rising corner of the carpet and accelerating speed.
By hooking up and making background calls, it turns out that Anttola reached a VO2max reading of about 83, which is excellent for a 20-year-old. Anything over 90 is the world’s absolute top level in every endurance sport.
– Even that number can be increased for a few more years. Niko is still so young, says Marko Anttola.
Niko Anttola admits that even he did not unreservedly believe that the rapid development could continue during the army months.
– However, it was a decision and a principle that this should be dealt with in a timely and matter-of-fact manner and remember that no one’s sports career is the most important thing here. I’ve had a good time, the group has bonded together and we’ve known each other for many years anyway, says the quiet and modest athlete.
His overall package is added to an increasingly professional direction by the new member of the team, the manager Aki Pajunoja. He is also Krista Pärmäkoski a familiar man from the background.
– Of course, I am happy to be back home and at the same time relieved that this time went so well in terms of sports as well. Last season didn’t end well. The work continues, and the sport keeps me humble. Of course, the praise given by a legend like Northug still felt really good, says Anttola.
– There is absolutely no need to fear this place in terms of training. You can train really well here, says fellow smoker Eero Rantala.
Vääpeli Varis admits that he has been upset by the talk about conscript service specially tailored for athletes as a graveyard for sports.
– First of all, a top athlete like Niko has been offered more camping by the defense forces than by the A national team. They are completely training camps, there is no potter digging. Vuokatti’s training grounds and other resources with test stations are about 30 kilometers away, and the boys go there to practice practically every day.
Varis reminds us that the service content of the conscripts serving at the Sports School has been purposefully and radically developed so that both the athlete and the national defense benefit optimally from the service time. In service, only things that are important are done, everything extra has been stripped away.
– We have also collected data on the subject. It certainly doesn’t show that the military is causing the athletes a back pack in the big picture. For many athletes, for example, at a good national level, we will certainly offer the most professional year of their career, Varis assures.
Niko Anttola’s running club is another A national team skier who has often gone to Kajaani and Sotkamon Vuokatti Remi Lindholmwho currently works as a sergeant in the Kainuu Brigade.
Ristomatti Hakola did the same job for years in Kankaanpää’s Niinisalo and Santahamina garrisons, but he transferred to the reserve in the spring. A career in the defense forces is possible for an athlete if he completes a year of service and returns home as a non-commissioned officer or officer. Anttola did not consider such a career and wanted half a year’s service.
Let’s go back for a moment to where this story started, i.e. to Kainuu Brigade’s shooting range number 3.
Anttola has got his gun aimed and himself loaded. At the end of the RK7 test, the men shoot from the magazine at rotating targets from a 50-meter rampart, switching from prone, kneeling, and standing, with a fierce rhythm.
Anttola, who has now become the Olympic champion in skiing, shows what his men are also in a cross-country suit.
– Hits twelve through twelve. Maximum result, the scumbag Varis says on the board.
For some reason, Anttola has nothing against the use of images that immortalized this moment.