The judoka, one of Finland’s biggest Olympic hopes, met the media when she handed over the belt she used in the European Championships to the sports museum Tahdo.
HELSINKI. Heads turn in the visiting group when Martti Puumalainen enters the premises of the sports museum Tahto. The 190-centimeter and 132-kilogram judoka is an attention-grabbing case for his size, but thanks to his results last year, Puumalainen is currently one of the most famous figures in Finnish individual sports.
The European championship and the Masters tournament win spawned, in addition to plenty of visibility, the Breakthrough of the Year award at the Sports Gala held in January. Puumalainen has noticed that there is strong interest in him not only in Finland but also among foreign competitors.
– The gang comes to the camps harder and wants to attack me in particular. It’s an opportunity for me to grow and develop into a better fighter. Appreciation has also grown, which can be seen in the fact that even the toughest types say hello these days, Puumalainen says.
The life of a top athlete includes constant traveling for international competitions and camps. When the interview is done on Thursday, March 21, Puumalainen has been on a trip for four of the last five weeks. This year, he has managed to pursue judo in Austria, Japan, Uzbekistan and the Czech Republic.
The next direction is Turkey, where there will be the second last race before the World Cup races in Abu Dhabi in May. The crown of the summer awaits August 2nd, when the heavyweight Olympic medals will be contested in Paris.
Puumalainen is known as an outspoken athlete who is not afraid to say his goals out loud, but whose approach to top sports has a real dose of realism.
– If you don’t accept that you can also lose, you can’t be relaxed and dare to give your all, because you’re too afraid of losing, says Puumalainen.
Aces dug up from the sleeve
Judo has 68 throwing movements and 32 mat movements that a professional judoka must master. However, each competitor only has a few moves on which to build their judoka self.
– I know maybe three movements very well, Puumalainen says tongue in cheek.
– Well, this was a slight understatement, but I’m really focusing on a pretty small amount.
Since Puumalainen is now a marked man at the top of the sport, it has been necessary to expand the movement repertoire this year, so that the opponents cannot study the Finn like an open book. The new canine teeth are only used in the main competitions.
– I’ve had to dig a couple of aces up my sleeve, Puumalainen is content to say.
The strange dream repeats itself
The Puumalainen, who turns 27 on April 14, is already an experienced competitor, but the summer Olympics will be his first on the five-ring stage.
The Olympics have not changed Puumalainen’s waking routines, which include repeating the movements of competing judokas before going to bed.
At night, a dream has started to repeat itself during the Olympic year.
– Judo has not appeared in my dreams, but I have had strange dreams recently. For some reason, I’ve had the same dream many times, that I wouldn’t have received a graduation cap and would have had to go and study for a while. It’s a nightmare, Puumalainen says.
Puumalainen says he repeats the same routine when he wakes up.
– I always make sure that the cap is found and that the pictures from the graduation party are saved.
Puumalainen can’t judge whether the most important year of his career has a part in the recurring dream. However, he states that there are no superstitious types. In handing over the EC gold belt to the sports museum Tahto, there was no internal struggle.
– I can’t stand any superstitions, I only believe in myself. Not to anything else, Puumalainen acknowledges.