Last week, alpine skier Rosa Pohjolainen skied almost out of the blue for the junior World Cup medals. However, he is not changing his major.
Joel Sippola,
Riku Salminen
Alpine skiing talent Rosa Pohjolainen20, made Finnish alpine skiing history last week by becoming the first Finnish woman to ski downhill for the World Youth Championship medals.
Pohjolainen was third in the race. About men Andreas Romar was bronze in the plunge at the Junior World Championships in 2009.
The biggest joys of the Finnish alpine skiing season have come from the downhill side anyway. 23 years old Elian Lehto has been responsible for the Finnish men’s all-time best diving positions in the World Cup, being 11th twice.
Whereas Lehto, who was born in 2000, is known as a pure pacer, Pohjolainen has become known as a promising slalom runner. In the World Cup, he reached the points for the first time, i.e. in the top 30 already at the age of 17, being 27th in Levi.
His career’s best World Cup finish is 14th two years ago in Schladming, Austria. The Finnish promise experienced a big setback almost a couple of years ago, when he had to undergo surgery and the rehabilitation from it kept him completely away from last season’s competition slopes.
The World Youth Championship bronze came as a complete surprise to Pohjolainen.
– I haven’t really counted speed events in the last two years. We were just trying to find the courage to count, says Pohjolainen.
With Palander on different lines
One of the legends of Finnish alpine skiing Tanja Poutiainen-Rinne once reached a medal in the speed sports in the super giant slalom. He also reached the top three in slalom and giant slalom, in which he reaped success both in the World Cup and in prestigious competitions as an adult.
For him, the super giant slalom quickly fell by the wayside.
– This came completely out of the blue for all alpine skiing people. I would never have believed it, but it was a really great calculation, Urheilun Kalle Palander a week ago in Urheilustudio.
Palander sees that the Pohjolainen would have what it takes to make an alpine skiing career precisely as a downhill skier.
– When you looked at the calculation, it was a really good-looking thing to do. There were hardly any training invoices, but I went there completely cold.
– There is room in women’s speed sports. The level isn’t exactly amazing. Now you should try it. The javelin is his main sport, but add more diving competitions only there, Palander said.
Pohjolainen says that when he was younger, he did speed sports until it was only possible within the framework of Finland. Before the Junior World Championships, four years had passed since the previous skydiving competition.
Pohjolainen can’t yet say how much diving will be in his future competition repertoire. He is a slalom skier in his alpine skiing identity.
– However, adult competitions are quite a different world from youth competitions. First, you should train a little more speed sports to see if there are opportunities or not. At least we keep it in the background to support technical sports, says Pohjolainen.