Kerttu Niskanen’s decisions reveal Finland’s harsh situation – expert: “If you don’t get anything, why give?” | Sport

Urheilu’s expert Ville Nousiainen considers the women’s national team to be mainly a buffet, from which the athletes go to pick up their own portion without proper commitment.

The Finnish women’s relay team took third place in Oberhof on Sunday, their first podium position in the World Cup in almost three years.

However, it was not the biggest Finnish topic of conversation in the low-blooded, only nine-country competition. The one who noticed the most was the third place finisher in the 20 km mass start (p) on Saturday Kerttu Niskanen was not in the Finnish team. The last time he skied the World Cup relay was in December 2022.

Niskanen suffered from a stomach ailment during the Oberhof competitions.

– I emphasize that I do not condemn Kertu’s decision, because I do not know what his health situation was on Sunday. But on a general level, even her previous attitude to relay competitions outside of prestigious competitions indicates that there is at least not too much team activity in the women’s national team, says Urheilu’s expert Ville Nousiainen.

Distance to action

Niskanen has generally distanced herself from the national team community after her husband took over her coaching responsibility in 2019 Juho Mikkonen. In the completed training season, Kerttu Niskanen was nominally part of the A national team, unlike his brother Ivo Neck.

Kerttu Niskanen did not use the resources of the A national team at all during the training season, and due to the financial difficulties of the Ski Federation, there would not have been much use of them. Nousiainen believes that this aspect also affects the attitude of Finland’s number one female skier towards the federation and the national team.

– If you don’t get anything from it, why would you give? That’s how an athlete easily starts to think about it, when it’s still known what he has brought to the counter during his national team career.

Niskanen paid for his summer’s long and expensive high-altitude camping trips himself.

– When Kerttu and Krista (Pärmäkoski) were young, the cooperation and resourcing of the women’s A national team was at a completely different level. Thanks to that, Kerttu and Krista, who were young at the time and were chasing the stars, later rose to such a high level. This chain should not be broken, and in Sweden and Norway it is clearly better taken care of than in Finland.

Krista Pärmäkoski has approached the World Cup relay duties much more kindly than Niskanen.

Last season, the situation was at its worst until February at the beginning in Toblachwhere an almost mass refusal was seen before the women’s message.

Partly it was due to the fear of giving a bad performance in the only World Cup relay of the season before the World Cup. At this point, Nousiainen also throws the ball to the coaching staff – of course, he reminds us that athletes have always been good at this kind of tactics and playing.

But, for example, an authoritarian head coach Magnar Dalen’s during 2006–2014 this would not have happened.

– If it hadn’t been about confident relay skiers, i.e. those like back then Virpi Kuitunen or Aino-Kaisa Saarinen or today Krista and Kerttu, yes, he would have told such a borderline case that there is no need to ski in the future.

Nousiainen states that the situation is relatively comforting as long as it is possible to speculate on what Kerttu Niskanen skis and what he doesn’t.

– Her career won’t continue for much longer, and Kristahan may quit already this spring. After that, much darker scenarios are swirling around the women’s national team, especially regarding normal trips and the relay.