Leevi Mutru’s miserable trip to the competition led to a blazing love story – Petter Kukkonen has his keys in the game | Sport

For Leevi Mutru, who ended his combined racing career on Sunday, his sports career brought a wife.

LAHTI. 28 year old Leevi Mutrun the career of a top athlete ended on Sunday at Lahti’s Salpausselka. The experienced combined athlete said goodbye to the racetracks in a festive way surrounded by his teammates and sprayed with sparkling drink.

At one time, in the World Cup, in the team race, he was on the podium Ilkka Herolan, Eero Hirvonen and Arttu Mäkiahon for Mutru, who celebrated with Lahti, it was a natural place to say goodbye to the connected circles.

He achieved the best individual World Cup ranking of his career five years ago in Salpauselä, being ninth.

In his final race, Mutru, who clearly finished last in the competition, got a cap on his head on the terrain. Mutru, who is studying to become a mathematics teacher, received a teacher’s map stick as a gift from his teammates.

– I will probably be involved in the teacher’s work quite a lot in the future, Mutru says.

Coincidence led to a love story

Mutru has suffered a lot of injuries in his career. The worst shock happened three years ago in Lahti, when he had a cerebral hemorrhage after falling on a hill.

Various adversities put a brake on the foreclosure of the potential of World Cup medalist Ilkka Herola’s peer. Urheilu’s current expert and former head coach of the combined Finnish national team Petter Kukkonen however, tells a great story about how you can find more content in life through top sports.

Almost ten years ago, in the aftermath of the combined summer GP race in Oberstdorf, Mutru met her current spouse, Polina Mutrun.

– In Leevi and Matti at Herola the competition did not go well and they were left out of the final race. We then went to the pub to discuss things. That’s where he met his future wife, Kukkonen says.

– That coach has to recover from everything. Mere monitoring of performance is not enough, we are getting dizzy everywhere, says Kukkonen.

Mutru, on the other hand, says that her husband Mutru had originally come to the competition venue to meet Lasse Ottessen in the context of competition arrangements. The Norwegian currently works in the International Ski Federation as a combined competition manager.

He is also a former top ski jumper who was on the verge of winning team silver at the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics.

– They were familiar from the Sochi Olympics. After a few trips, Polina had gone to watch the games and she had to go see Lasse.

– However, he had forgotten to come due to being busy, but I then went to chat, which started quite a story, Mutru says.

According to Kukkonen, he acted as a kind of helper at dinner parties. Mutru has a different understanding of the matter.

– I went alone to talk to him. At some point, Kukkonen and Matti Herolan tried to come and keep company.

– But when they saw that things were slipping, they didn’t bother to bother. Maybe it’s a good thing, Mutru recalls a funny story from almost ten years ago.

Mutru wants to thank Kukko.

– Many thanks to Petter for these years. He has had a big influence on what I do. All in all, I’m grateful for this trip, Mutru says.