Urheilu’s expert Kaisa Mäkäräinen often suffered from the cold during her active career. Finland’s all-time biathlete had to adjust his equipment because of this.
Cold conditions and athletes’ frostbite have been the talk of the early season in ski competitions. After Saturday’s race, the Finnish skiers complained about the problems caused by the frost. Ropose’s eyes and thighs froze, Pärmäkoski’s toes, Kerttu Niskanen’s muscular problems didn’t like the cold weather either.
Sports expert Kaisa Mäkäräinen understands well the pain of athletes, because he still suffers from frostbite on his fingers.
– My fingers get frostbite when I go to the freezer section of the store to buy ice cream. Recovery is slow on a ski run or in the store if you sweat more. After each frostbite, the cold tolerance decreases, says Mäkäräinen.
For biathlon, it is extremely important that especially the fingers stay warm. During his active days, Mäkäräinen not only used training gloves, but also put shell gloves on top of them. He also fashioned hooded gloves for himself. The thin gloves had a good trigger feel, but the windproof hood protected the fingers enough.
– There were many kinds of tunings, and now they have also been seen in Östersund. Maybe they have watched our old competitions, Mäkäräinen laughs.
Mäkäräinen’s first good season in 2010–11 was quite cold. The season started in Östersund’s twenty-degree frost, and at the end of the season, the World Cup medals were fought for in the freezing temperatures of Hanti-Manjsiski. In the following season, the USA competed in even colder conditions.
Mäkäräinen remembers that the guardians told that at its worst it was as low as 34 degrees below zero. Slovenian Jakov Fak got third degree frostbite on his trigger finger and was very close to not having to have the finger amputated. Fak had to interrupt his season, but with hard rehabilitation he got the blood circulation working again in his finger.
Mäkäräinen did not prepare for the cold with just clothing, as he also resorted to using tape familiar from hockey pucks.
– I put duct tape around the barrel and charging pin, because the iron is colder. Back then, you didn’t have to stick directly to the cold pipe when it had a small layer of insulation. It helped surprisingly a lot, even though it sounds insignificant.
Mäkäräinen admits that he doesn’t miss the cold at all. He himself tolerates heat better than cold.
– I was cold enough and the focus was on how to keep myself and my fingers warm. I have shot many penalty rounds because I have not felt the finger. It’s easy to keep the body warm when you can throw on a top jacket, but peripheral blood circulation is a different matter.