Windsurfer Tuuli Petäjä-Sirén’s career was supposed to continue for another year and a half until the Summer Games in Paris, but family reasons and the challenges of a new competition class weighed in the decision to quit.
Emma Hyuppa,
Riikka Smolander-Slotte
Olympic silver medalist in windsurfing Tuuli Petäjä-Sirén end his sports career. According to Petäjä-Sirén, 39, both family reasons and athletic reasons weighed in the balance.
Petäjä-Sirén has two children under school age, the younger of whom was born in 2018. The children have been satisfied when their mother has been home for a month after the World Cup.
– Children are starting to be old enough that they too have hobbies and expenses. It’s not so nice to plan the whole family’s schedules only according to mom’s expenses. I look forward to time spent with my family in the future, says Petäjä-Sirén, who works as an architect.
Petäjä-Sirén won silver in the windsurfing RS:X category at the London Olympics in 2012. In January 2013, he was chosen as Sportsman of the Year.
The fourth Olympics of the Finn’s career in Tokyo in 2021 were the last Olympics in the RS:X category. So Petäjä-Sirén set her sights on the Paris Olympics in a year and a half in the new iQFoil class.
– This Olympics has been really different, because the equipment changed and in practice I changed sports after the Tokyo Olympics. We didn’t fully know where we were going when we set out to tame the new board. However, it has been exciting to learn a lot of new things and get a new challenge.
The demands of success in the new class soon came.
– As a practical matter, I should be ten kilos heavier in order to be fast on that new board. The development of the past year was quite good for me and getting to Paris is possible. However, we have to admit that the medals have already been awarded to others, says Petäjä-Sirén.
Sailing gave people around
Petäjä-Sirén went to camps and competitions abroad for twenty years. He participated in the World Championships 17 years in a row. Along the way, he made friends not only with his national team colleagues but also with many foreign racing partners.
– The main thing is great gratitude. Sailing gave people around. The national team and the background team will be missed. This has been a wonderful journey of getting to know myself. I have been able to practice my self-management skills in a wide variety of challenges, says Petäjä-Sirén.
In addition to the brightest highlight of her career, the Olympic medal, Petäjä-Sirén knows how to enjoy smaller successes as well.
– The Olympic medal is definitely the sharpest peak, but these developmental steps at the end of the career have been really rewarding. They have not been awarded with prestigious medals, but I have been able to show myself that I have developed skills and, for example, set records in fitness tests. They have been remembered as great successes.
Petäjä-Sirén is happy to share lessons with the next generation, but does not see himself as a coach in the future. Sailing and other sports will continue to be a strong part of life.
– Nothing keeps me out of the water. You will see me on the sea again next summer with a sailboat and a board and certainly with other equipment as well. Next time I’ll be at the starting line in Finlandia skiing, Petäjä-Sirén laughs.