The coverage, which Iivo Niskanen found to be unrealistic, heated up the Olympic hero once. At the same time, of course, you can ask Niskanes how it went as if he wanted to, writes Pekka Holopainen.
Pekka Holopainen sports reporter
When the ski season has reached the turn of February-March, Iivo Niskasen the related media attention in 2014, 2018 and 2022 has mainly been related to the friend’s Olympic victories and in 2017 to the individual World Championship gold.
With these merits, the four-time Athlete of the Year, who is preparing for the last three years of his career, has risen to the top of a very unique cabinet in Finnish top sports. Even though the requirements of integrity and exemplary behavior that are basically attached to top athletes are repulsive, Niskanenka cannot escape them from the top of his closet.
The headlines after the Suomen Cup in Kuopio, at least for a verbal confrontation with a national-level competitor, do not sit well with his painful position as an honorary citizen, especially since this episode was preceded by a very special display of equipment at the Vantaa Championship in February at the beginning of.
Light physical contact
Before attempting a more in-depth analysis, the long story is quickly over. My neck got hot from Kuusamo’s Erä-Veikkoin Kalle Parantainen, who at the champion’s title run on Sunday angrily but legally broke the driving lines of the title man and claimed to have still kicked Niskanen. The footage does not 100% support Parantainen’s claim.
But even weaker, at least until Monday, the footage made available supported According to Iltalehti, according to which the aggressive Niskanen would have beaten Parantai in the goal area. According to the best available video, also shown on aam’s Jä¤kihiki program, the physical, very light, contact would have been made by Parantainen.
The house fires had already dissipated from Niskas on Monday. Parandainen had received conciliatory messages – to which he had not reacted yet – in which Niskanen admitted that even his own actions at Puijo did not deserve praise.
Process forward?
However, the state of mind of Niskanen, who generally gets along with the media quite smoothly, is described by the fact that he is very seriously considering taking the original story that referred to Iltalehti’s use of physical force to the Public Word Council for consideration.
When a person is shaking for two decades in the media spotlight, it is clear that there is material in the crowd that you would like to advertise. However, Niskanen has mostly done that with limited-scale schools for the deaf, after which the joint work has continued from a clean slate. Relying on the JSN process mentioned above would be a truly exceptional, even extreme act.
It is undeniable that Niskanen’s methods sometimes half-humorously make one wonder if the man was jogging when impulse control was handed out.
At least not on a long run. I have been there many times when he has experienced a much more severe disappointment in the main competitions of the season than would ever be possible in the domestic competitions. At the 2021 World Championships in Oberstdorf, of course, the surface burned in front of the TV cameras; otherwise, despite the disappointment, the use has been faultless.
Two results
It’s really appropriate to ask: What the hell is making Niskanen get so hot right now in these village races?
The self-paced training season, which the athlete considers to be excellent, has so far produced two results that Niskanen feels are in line with his standards: November 11 in Olos and November 25 in Kuusamo, where of course the poles got a ride as the man narrowly finished second.
When operating with such athletic and financial contributions, when the career has turned to the end straight away, regret and frustration can manifest in many ways: unsold, in overdrive in Kuopio.
In the next few days, Iivo Niskanen is looking for a wet weather pair to help him achieve a really tough international result on Sunday at the World Cup in Lahti. The last time he was so badly in need of such a confirmation of faith was at the beginning of 2014, when he was hunting for his first place in the competition.