Rosa Pohjolainen, who was on the sidelines due to an injury last season, is trying to make a breakthrough in the slalom World Cup.
Those from Hyvinkää Rosa Pohjolainen and Erika Pykäläinen will form the Finnish women’s alpine skiing A national team in the starting season.
The athletes get to work under a familiar coach, as the new head coach of the national team is Mikael Kurkiwho is also well-meaning.
Kurki says that a lot of work has been done in the city for training. Slope entrepreneurs have taken a positive view of alpine skiing and have allowed enthusiastic skiers to practice.
– Hyvinkää has short distances and easy access to the slopes. All training conditions can be found within three kilometers, such as sports fields, says Kurki, who already worked with Pohjolainen and Pykäläinen during their junior years.
– When the current national team athletes have been young, they have practiced a lot both at home and in camps. It comes from that strong action during their junior years.
Lessons from Norway
Kurje’s contract is for one year, but it includes an option that extends beyond the 2026 Winter Olympics.
He has worked in Finland, among other things, as the youth representative of the sports federation and spent the last few years in Norway, first as an academy coach and then as a national team coach in the men’s European Cup group. The European Cup is the second highest international level of alpine skiing.
In two consecutive years, the overall winner of the European Cup slalom competition came from a group where Kurki was involved as a coach (2021–2022 Alexander Olsen2022–2023 Halvor Gunsleksrud)
The new head coach plans to bring a communal training culture with him from the fjords to Finland.
– Sports culture in Norway is extremely high. There is a very strong understanding of the sport and community activities. There are many atmospheric factors that we can improve in Finland.
According to Kurje, in Norway, the aim is always to make the conditions such that they serve the goal as well as possible.
– The hours are not counted, but the aim is to complete the work and then analyze it.
The northerner returns to the slope
The national team suffered from health problems last season. Rosa Pohjolainen’s knee cruciate ligament broke in the spring of 2022, and she was on the sidelines all of last season. According to Kurje, the now 20-year-old promise has recovered excellently.
– Rosa has been counting down, we were first at a nine-day training camp and now we are in Norway at another camp, where there will be seven training days.
– Everything looks very good. He has been able to train to the fullest and complete the entire program. In addition, he is extremely motivated.
Pohjolainen’s goal is to make a breakthrough in the slalom world cup. In addition, he aims to develop in giant slalom in the European Cup. Pykäläinen aims to raise the level of his giant slalom and reach the second round of the World Cup. In slalom, he is looking for development in the Europa cup.
Also the B national team Nella Korpio and Julia Toiviainen compete at the international level in the coming season. In addition, the aim is to raise athletes from the C national team to the European Cup.
– We are building a sport and activity culture for the coming years. The goal is to make the team activities such that it has a clear structure and the athletes have an understanding of what and why they are training, and how we can get the best result.
The Alpine Skiing World Cup starts on October 28 with the giant slalom in Sölden.