The domestic GP series of athletics continues on Wednesday in Lappeenranta. The competition will be shown on Areena and the app at 17:30 and on TV2 from 18:30.
“Now is the time to be honest, to all of you, but above all to myself. Yesterday was the breaking point for me that broke the camel’s back.”
Senni Salminen had jumped 13.22 in the Paavo Nurmi Games and finished tenth in the competition. The result was far from the results of Senni Salminen, who two summers ago jumped to a Finnish record of 14.63 and, with the help of the wind, no less than 14.70.
Salminen had not felt well for a long time, especially at the competition venue. In Turku, emotions finally overflowed.
Salminen had not told the truth about his feelings or his condition to everyone in his team. That he hadn’t really enjoyed racing since the summer of 2021 and every race had mostly felt like a fight for survival.
When Salminen told Paavo Nurmi about it in his hotel room after the race, he noticed that he felt relieved. That’s when he decided to tell an even bigger audience. So he wrote an honest text to his Instagram account.
“I have been a complete shadow of the Senn who came to the attention of most of you a couple of years ago. A lot of everything happened, both good and bad, and I couldn’t keep up.”
Salminen admitted that it has been exhausting to pretend that everything is fine, and he had been doing that for a couple of years already.
– I couldn’t – or didn’t want – to admit it to myself. Maybe even last season I believed it myself up to a certain point, but even the value races were quite a battle, Salminen says now.
After Turku, Salminen had thought of participating in the Kuortanene GP race, but a heel problem prevented him from competing. So he finally gave up on the game and for a month focused only on training and finding something fun to do.
Now, after a break of more than a month, Salminen is ready to compete again.
Too much everything around
Senni Salminen came to the attention of the general public two years ago, when he made a breakthrough on international fields as well. He broke the 18-year-old Finnish triple jump record and improved the readings just a couple of weeks later.
– Before the season, my dream was to make it to the Olympics and then I was a medal hope. There was a lot of spinning in it, and we didn’t really know how to filter it, Salminen recalls.
– There was a bit too much of everything, and I collected a lot of those pressures myself. When it didn’t go as I had planned, it was a hard blow.
Salminen’s competition journey in the summer of 2021 at the Tokyo Olympics ended with the qualification. The same thing happened the following year at the World Championships in Eugene. At the European Championships in Munich, he reached the final, but was unable to fight for medals.
Salminen admits that he is extremely hard on himself, and he does not allow himself to fail. When the competitions became one failure after another, Salminen lost faith in what he was doing.
– I had the feeling that I would be anywhere else but at the competition venue. It was just a really bad place. It felt like there was nothing funny about it. It’s like being somewhere on the plank of a pirate ship that you’re leaving now, but at the same time you feel that the end result is not good.
Gentleness and mercy to yourself
When Salminen had published his text on Instagram, it quickly gathered reactions and snide comments across genres. Salminen said that he also received messages from his foreign competitors who were ready to talk and listen.
– Many have similar experiences. It’s nice to remember that you’re not alone, even if it feels like it in the worst moments.
Salminen hopes that on Wednesday he will feel better at the Lappeenranta GP both during and after the race. The heel that was bothering him a month ago has been symptom-free, he has been able to do two very good jumping exercises and gained confidence in his jumping.
– We’ll see what happens tomorrow. Let’s start improving the best of the season, it shouldn’t be an incredibly hard requirement, he laughed and pointed to Paavo Nurme’s race result.
Although a good result is important to Salmi, it is even more important for him that he is able to treat himself with a new kind of gentleness and mercy. Salminen wants to remember that he is only doing this for himself.
– I’m looking for such a brave, technically good jump. By far the most important thing, however, is that I would notice at that jumping place that now it’s fun, I’m enjoying myself and I’m present. Then there will be a good result, Salminen says, and he knows that you can’t just look for that feeling.
– It has to come from somewhere in the spine, but let’s wait. Yes, it will come from there.
The domestic GP series of athletics continues on Wednesday in Lappeenranta. The competition will be shown on Areena and the app at 17:30 and on TV2 from 18:30.