– Maisa trains really, really conscientiously and you can really see how she wants to improve and how she likes to train. It’s really admirable.
– Maisa knows how to focus and shut out everything around her. His thoughts stay together, even if there is some exciting big race.
Maisa Kuusikko you will hear a lot of praise from your training buddies at the Tampere Gymnasts when Sportliv visits the balance gymnastics hall of the Ikuri sports hall.
One of the praisers is Finland’s latest Olympic visitor in women’s balance beam gymnastics Annika Urvikkowho participated in the qualifying competition in London 2012, but did not advance to the final.
– Maisa makes good plans. When he has made his plan and decided that this is how it will go, it will probably also go there in the competitions, says Urvikko, who during his top career had time to participate in the World Championships a total of seven times.
Many have tried, but no one has come close to 17-year-old Kuusiko’s achievement in last year’s World Championships. There she became the first Finnish woman to reach the final of the quadriathlon.
Kuusikko himself lists two main explanations for his success. The fact that he really likes to train really hard and the fact that he has repeated his competition series in training so many times that they feel completely bombproof in the games.
– When I tell myself before the competition performance that I can do this, I trust that I really can.
Watch Sportliv’s mini doc Maisa Kuusiko:
A gymnast in the third generation
Kuusikko calmly and systematically goes through the reasons why she succeeded in making history for Finnish women. He mentions the coaches: nowadays Igor Cherepov and Ida Laisi are responsible for his daily sport coaching, but his own mother taught him the basics Ulla Kuusikko.
Kuusikko has grown up in a family that is active and interested in sports. Both parents are physical education teachers. Maisa and her brother who is a couple of years older Pulled have already been able to try many sports as children.
Soon, however, the siblings began to follow in their parents’ footsteps. Father Ramin the sports have been football and ice hockey, and today Veeti plays football in Tampere’s Ilves.
Since both grandmother and mother are former gymnasts, it was natural that Maisa started in the children’s trick group at the age of four. At the age of six, he participated in his first station competition.
– I’m lucky in that I think I’ve always been good at competing. It has come naturally to me and I have always had a strong will to win.
Although some of Kuusiko’s friends find the competition situation very stressful, he himself has always been of the opinion that the day of the competition is the best day.
– I don’t like the feeling of tension and I’m always nervous at the races. Over time, however, I’ve learned to control the feeling, and I’ve never been afraid to go to the Games.
Six is not superstitious. He doesn’t do everything exactly the same before every race to make sure it goes well. However, he has developed certain routines.
– Before I fall asleep the night before the competition, I go through all the series in my mind once. I see movements as I see them myself, not as they appear to an outsider.
On the day of the competition, he goes through everything one more time, just before the competition performance.
– If I start thinking too much about series on race day, it easily creates more tension and extra pressure.
Competitive excitement for better or for worse
In the women’s all-around competition, four different frames are used. Tension affects performance in different ways on different racks.
According to Kuusiko, tension can even be useful in jumping and permanto, while with booms and different level trees it can ruin everything.
Over the years, he has learned how his body’s level of adrenaline affects him.
– At Permanno, where the series is dynamic and you move in a large area, adrenaline can be useful.
– When jumping, however, you may have to accelerate a little further, because adrenaline easily makes the running step stronger and longer than in training.
The difference is a hair’s breadth with the handlebars, whether you can get hold of the tiller after detaching it or not. You have to learn to handle the tiller a little differently in competition than in practice.
However, the most critical tensioning is on the boom.
– You have to be able to calm yourself and the situation. The boom is only ten centimeters wide. If the legs shake, it’s easy to fall off the stand.
A self-critical perfectionist
Although Kuusikko is only 17 years old, he already has plenty of international competition experience.
– My coach Igor has taken me to competitions around the world since I was little. It has reduced the competitive tension.
The coach’s behavior in competitions is also of great importance. According to Kuusiko, you can recognize a good coach by being able to say the right things at the right time, but also to keep quiet.
– My coaches read me very well. If things don’t go well, they encourage me and remind me that I can do these things. If there is a good boost, they give me room to handle the job myself.
Kuusikko takes pressure mainly from the fact that he wants to succeed and show what he knows he can do.
– I’m quite self-critical, and even if the race really went really well, I can still get annoyed by some small mistake.
Only at the point when the new movement has been repeated thousands of times in training, can you start doing it in competitions.
– I can be a little impatient and wait for it to succeed the first time, which it rarely does, but if you can do it successfully, it will be a great feeling.
A back injury postponed the start of the competition season
Like most top gymnasts, Maisa Kuusikko has also experienced the downsides of hard training.
After the euphoria of the success of the World Championships in November, Finland’s new gymnastics star fell brutally to the ground: back pains intensified and their cause turned out to be a stress fracture.
Because of that, Kuusikko has been able to start his competition season later than usual.
– Of course, I was really disappointed and sad. I had had a very successful race season and had been able to do my series countless times in practice. Then suddenly I couldn’t even run or swing on the crutches.
The day before Sportliv visited Maisa at the beginning of January, she had received good news from her doctor. The new MRIs showed that the back is on the mend.
After almost two months of only compensatory and rehabilitative training, he was allowed to swing on crutches for the first time in a long time.
After gently rocking back and forth a few times, he jumps down from the stand and vents.
– It’s always great when after an injury or disability you can do the same things you used to do again – even if swinging is not a movement I normally do, Maisa says with a laugh, but states that it is a big step forward.
– I have a good feeling that this will turn out for the better.
During the spring, Kuusikko has gradually been allowed to expand his training. Although the preparation for the competition season has not been the best possible, 2023 can still turn out to be rewarding for Finland’s 2022 gymnast of the year.
The luck in the accident was that just before he had to take a break from training, he had time to prove that he has what it takes to be at the top.
Of course, the injury could have come at a better point. The European Championships will already be held in mid-April in Antalya, Turkey, and they are one step towards the Paris Olympics.
At the European Championships, places for the World Championships are allocated to both teams and competitors. The 23 best four-players make it to the World Championships, where they compete for places in the Olympics.
– I feel that I am in as good shape as I could be with such a short preparation. Of course, the streaks aren’t as certain as they were last season because there have been so many fewer replays. However, the goal would be to make complete and clean series and get a place in the World Championships, says Kuusikko before the European Championships.
Female gymnasts from Finland have participated in only four Olympics, in 1952, 1960, 1964 and 2012.
European Championship in Gymnastics in Antalya, Turkey, 11.4.–16.4. will show the games on its channels from Thursday 13 April. from Shipping information can be found here.