will show the badminton Arctic Open from Thursday in Areena. See the schedule of live sports broadcasts at this link.
When the hard blow of the badminton racket hits the game equipment, a strong whooshing sound echoes in the air of the Meilahti sports center.
Badminton is the fastest racket game in the world, because the ball’s departure speed is incredible at best, more than 500 kilometers per hour.
– Of course, the speed slows down when the ball hits the other side of the net, says the professional badminton player Joakim Oldorff21.
Oldorff got a wild card into the Badminton World Tour tournament, the Artic Open. The tournament played in Vantaa is of a really tough level, as almost all the world’s top 30 players are participating. Oldorff is currently ranked 56th in the world.
All opponents in the main series are ranked ahead of the Finn.
– If you want to win even the first match, you have to play at a really high level, Oldorff’s coach knows Anu Nieminen.
The Artic Open started today, Tuesday. Oldorff’s opening match is on Wednesday. Finland is also participating in the tournament Nella Nyqvistwho plays in women’s singles.
Oldorff already competed abroad at an exceptionally young age
Joakim Oldorff started the sport at the age of 6. His father had played some badminton and Joakim went to play with him on the weekends. Enthusiasm grew quickly and the boy joined the Espoo badminton club Tapion Sulka.
Internationality came into the picture quite early on. Oldorff took several game trips to Europe with his father already at the age of 9.
– The father would hardly have guessed that the son would become a professional player, but we had really nice father-son trips and they have left warm memories.
It is exceptional that a young athlete goes to get international experience already at that age. It goes without saying that those trips were a huge benefit in terms of my future career.
– I think that an awful lot of people in Finland didn’t do that, especially at such a young age. My father was able to give some advice and I got a really good experience for the future.
The experience has also been shown on the fields. Oldorff achieved his first international tournament victory at the age of 15 in the Czech Republic. It was the first U19 international tournament win.
In 2020, he won EC bronze in boys’ singles. The European bronze medal for adults came off at the beginning of the year in Germany.
Places in the Danish and Swiss leagues
Coached Oldorff for seven years Anu Nieminen praises his athlete and says that he trains with a good attitude.
– Joakim takes feedback very well and is able to have tough discussions. I enjoyed coaching him.
Oldorff also highly values his coach and his skills. In his own playing career, Nieminen played in four Olympic Games
There are ten athletes in Nieminen’s coaching group, some of whom train every day with Oldorff and some a couple of times a week.
At Meilahti Liikuntakeskus, he often has a national team player as his training partner Aleksi Mäki.
– You can’t practice badminton alone and it’s important that the training opponent is in good shape, says Oldorff.
The professional player lives in Espoo with his parents and mainly trains at home. He also plays badminton in the Danish league for Team Skaelskör’s Slagese team and in Switzerland for the Yverdon-Les-Bains team.
Coach Nieminen, who lived in Denmark for 20 years, thought that it was important for Oldorff to see how Denmark, the number one country in Europe, plays.
– I wanted Joakim to be dropped in the middle of the group where the badminton culture is already ready.
Oldorff has been training at the Peter Gade Academy in Denmark from time to time for three years. The academy is located in Copenhagen, but the club where he currently plays in the league is an hour’s drive from the Danish capital.
– It’s a high-level league and you get a reward from it. It’s a good combination, says Oldorff, who also trains at Peter Gade’s academy on his trips to Denmark.
Denmark is currently, along with France, the hardest badminton country in Europe. The country has strong badminton traditions, and Paris has Denmark Viktor Axelsen won Olympic gold in men’s singles.
An Asian world champion as a training partner
But it’s not enough to play in Denmark. If you want to be on top of the world, you have to go even further. to Asia.
– In our sport, Asia is the one that dominates, Nieminen knows.
There used to be only four hard badminton countries in Asia, now there are ten. The toughest countries include Indonesia, China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea and Thailand.
– A month ago I was in Taiwan and Vietnam training, says Oldorff.
The toughest tournaments are played in Asia, most of the world’s best players live there and the conditions are different. It is therefore important that a European badminton player who wants to be at the top of the world trains in Asia.
A few years ago, Oldorff trained with the Singaporean national team and had the Singaporean 2021 world champion as his training opponent, Loh Kean Yewin. The level difference was clearly visible.
– He is really fast, tactically skilled and has good body control. He is powerful, agile and his punches are well covered.
The last comment means that Yew knows how to hold the racket as long as possible before hitting, so that the opponent cannot read where he is hitting.
You look towards Los Angeles
Next year, the World Championships and European Championships will be played in badminton. According to the current situation, it seems that Oldorff would be able to participate in both competitions.
The future is aimed at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games. The person from Espoo would like to be on the medal ball there. So far, Finland’s best achievement in the Olympic Games is Ville Långin entering the top 16 in 2008 in Beijing.
From this year’s Olympics in Paris, Oldorff was left on the beach, when the place was taken by a more experienced one Kalle Koljonen.
Coach Nieminen believes that his protégé will make it to the Olympic Games, but if he wants to succeed, he still has to work really hard.
In order to reach the absolute top, Oldorff should improve his game in every area, but according to the coach, the most important areas of development are currently in physics and strength acquisition.
– That way we get more dangerousness in the attacking game, says coach Nieminen.
It’s been almost four years since Los Angeles. You can do a lot in that time when you know what you’re doing.
– Top players can play at a really high level even on a bad day. It separates the world’s peaks from others, Oldorff concluded.