Judoka Luukas Sahan26, the year 2024 has brought him a sensational World Cup bronze, excellent Olympic performances in Paris and the friendship of the President of the Republic to Alexander Stubb56.
– When you think about the starting points and everything that happened this year, and the fact that I have a World Cup medal around my neck and have been fishing with the president, I could say that I am a little surprised, says Saha.
Saha will enter the Linna’s party as the medalist of the prestigious sports competition today, Friday, and is also a candidate in two votes for the Most Exciting Sports Moment of the Year at the upcoming Sports Gala on January 16.
President Alexander Stubb was at the Paris Olympics watching both of Saha’s matches at the Champ de Mars judo arena and was the first to console the extremely disappointed Saha after the second match.
The president’s revival surprised Saha.
– Alex was really proud of my hard fight. I got a great feeling when the president was really involved in the atmosphere, and not just staring from the end of the bench. It was a great thing to experience, says Saha.
The President as a fish buddy
Later in the fall, Saha and President Stubb also met by the waters of Tammerkoski.
– I got to hang out in the morning with @alexstubb by the waters of Tammerkoski. We got to discuss not only sports news but also nature values, which often strongly unite people, Saha wrote on social media in mid-September.
Stubb also wrote about the event on his own Instagram account:
– It was nice to chat about going around the world and learn about fishing. Nothing was received, but does it matter. The card had to be acquired. It was agreed that I will come to watch Luukas’ Olympic final in Los Angeles in 2028, Stubb wrote in connection with the photo.
Saha, originally from Turku, rose almost from scratch to the ranks of potential Finnish successes and was a big surprise with his bronze at the Judo World Championships in Abu Dhabi in May 2024. The World Cup medal was the first for a Finnish judoka at the adult level in 43 years.
The feat was sensational compared to Saha’s slow start of the year, when he won only one match on the international tatami mats in less than five months.
Before May 10, Saha lost all his opening matches at the Almada GP, the Paris Grand Slam, the Linz GP and the European Championships in Zagreb. Only in the Antalya Grand Slam did Saha beat one of his opponents, ranked 135th in the world.
– Even though there was a losing streak, there was a really good training season and confidence underneath. I think I was on the tatami for less than a minute in a couple of matches, then I hurt my shoulder and had to miss the Japan camp. At that point, I had to rehabilitate the shoulder and aim again for the last judo qualifying block.
A legendary last-minute crash
Finally, the Finnish national team coach, a Slovenian Rok Draksic all the pieces of the workcart and the purposeful shield clicked on the tatami.
Over the course of ten days in May, Saha dug up the top results from the last two big competitions of the spring season. Third place in the Astana tournament, which was the first Grand Slam medal ever for a Finnish man, raised self-confidence to the ceiling.
– After all, the third place in Astana was a really tough thing in itself. Everyone knows the Grand Slam of tennis, and the medal won in Kazakhstan can be compared to it in a certain way, describes Saha.
Only a week and a half later, the historic World Championship bronze also crashed into the trophy cabinet of the Finn competing in the 66-kilogram category on May 20. At the same time, it brought Paris into the Olympic machine along with Saha.
– However, that’s how it goes, that World Cup medals and competition medals are taken into account by the eyes of the general public. People who have not followed my judo career and look at the results later can talk about overnight success, that is, how suddenly everything magically changes.
Saha does not have any youth or Junior competition medals. This may partially obscure his steady rise towards the top of the world. Before this year, however, he had finished 5th in the tough Paris Grand Slam 2022 and 7th in the European Championships 2023.
He reminds that those who know him well know exactly how much he has put in hard basic work over the years and has taken some tough scalps along the way.
– The level has existed in a certain way, all the pieces had not just fallen into place before. Now, quite legendarily, it crashed in the last moments, describes Saha.
The Olympics and the nightmare that followed
The Paris Olympics were a big disappointment for Saha, who was in good shape. He was practically closer to the medal than many people even noticed.
In the first round, Saha convincingly beat the Turk Muhammed Demirelinto whom he still lost in the spring European Championships.
In the second match, the Finn was extremely close to a jymy surprise, but the world number one in the series Denis Vieru withstood Saha’s intense and energy-sapping initial pressure and, among other things, at the last second slipped away from Saha’s already budding mat binding, which, if successful, would have ended the match.
– After Paris, for a couple of weeks I woke up at night, it was like a nightmare. Why couldn’t I keep Vieru in that binding? It was somehow so close. However, the way was open to medals and after that I was facing similar guys, whom I would have beaten. This lingered for a long time.
– Fortunately, at that point I had the World Cup medal in the background. It hasn’t lost its luster at all, it’s really cool to think about it all the time, Saha admits.
The lack of success in Finnish elite sports speaks to the bench sports crowd. For the first time in the history of the Summer Olympics, Finland was left without a medal. Finland’s balance at the Summer Olympics in Paris was nine points.
– I’ve missed watching it, even though I’m not the most active sports follower in general. Against this, we have quite a few flashes of light in judo, when my World Championship bronze and the other year’s Martti Puumalainen In addition to the European championship, there have been several prestigious youth competition medals in the youth and junior categories.
Mental strength
Luukas Saha has shown that he has the ability to face and deal with both successes and disappointments.
The judoka who lives in Tampere is an exceptionally strong athlete mentally. Saha does not focus too much on his opponents or their strengths before the match, but tries to keep his peace of mind and focus on his own performance.
– An awful lot of people are stressed in general, and I’m not talking about Finns in particular, but judoka and the Olympians.
According to Saha, collecting points is always in the back of the mind for judokas, when they are celebrating points and which match should be won.
– I certainly didn’t look at the Olympic ranking once during the entire qualification. I went one race at a time and kind of forgot about the Olympics. I knew running around wouldn’t help. And I really didn’t know that I had to reach at least a deadlock in the World Championships to get to Paris, Saha reveals.
Also at the Olympics, Saha didn’t want to know the opponents and charts until the morning of the competition.
– I watched fishing videos in the Olympic village and ate my own snacks, so I was able to pass the time there. In general, I always get a better charge the harder the guy is.
Saha admits that he has to think more about Linna’s celebrations in advance than an Olympic performance.
– You have to prepare enough to be properly dressed there. But otherwise, I don’t get a feeling in advance, isn’t there a nice place to chat, laughs Saha.