VISTA, CALIFORNIA. The corona pandemic closed schools and hobby places in 2020. The whole world shut down. It was a tough time, especially Heili and Miila to Sirviöwho lived in Australia.
The active, then 9- and 6-year-old girls wanted something to do. They saw their father’s skateboard in the closet, and Miila suggested going to the skate park.
The beginning was a bit shaky, as you might expect. However, the excitement related to the sport and the desire to improve made Heili get on the board again and again. He was full of enthusiasm and wanted to go back to the skate park as soon as he got home.
– I liked to learn new things and develop my skills, now 13-year-old Heili Sirviö says.
Anni’s mother and Fredu’s father were glad that both girls got out of the interior.
Through the new hobby, the children got friends with whom it was nice to do skateboard tricks. The training conditions were good, so Heili was with the board in a couple of months.
The ponnarpäinen linen head got excited about skateboarding even more than Brazilian jiu-jitsu, which he had practiced before and competed in it with good results.
The choice of sport didn’t come completely out of the blue, because the father has a snowboarding and skateboarding background. Heili inherited her father’s athletic genes. The Sirviö family hardly guessed what kind of adventures around the world one trip to the skate park would lead to.
– Ann and I agreed that this is a “once in a lifetime” opportunity. We decided to put the gear in and see what happens, says Fredu Sirviö.
Courageously throwing oneself off is certainly not new to Sirviö. They moved to Australia eight years ago, when the parents wanted to experience something new outside of Finland. The sun and beach life won over mud and darkness.
Now Sirviö are citizens of both Finland and Australia. Working in an online environment enables living anywhere and spending quality time with children. The family is together from morning to night.
– We live this project as a family, which is our strength and resource, says Anni Sirviö.
The family travels around the world
I meet Sirviö four years after Heili stepped on a skateboard for the first time. Heili and Miila are sitting next to each other on the couch. After biding their time, the girls run outside and jump on the trampoline to play tricks. The sisters are inseparable and always on the move.
For a couple of years, the temporary home of the birds has been in Vista, California near San Diego.
A door opens onto a green terrace from the house built on the slope. The family has had time to grill there only a few times. Heili developed in the sport so quickly that Sirviöt has toured skating competitions in 14 different countries from Vista.
– I noticed that this could really become something, because Heili’s tricks started to approach the top of the world after a couple of years of skating, Fredu-isä says.
Last summer, Sirviöt visited Finland for the first time in seven years, when Heili and Miila participated in the WC in Tampere. They won gold and silver in vert, where you skate on a semi-circular ramp.
Now Heili Sirviö is 25th in the world ranking list in Park, i.e. archery. In it, you skate in a concrete pool with a curved bottom, which has ledges, ramps and platforms.
He is aiming for the Paris Olympics as the youngest Finnish athlete of all time. The whole family has put in everything for three years to make the Olympic dream come true. Life is skating and skating is life.
Heili reached 24th place in the Dubai qualifiers in January and, based on her ranking points, received an invitation to the second round, i.e. to the last two qualifiers. They will be held in Shanghai (May 14–19) and Budapest (June 20–23). Based on the final ranking points, the world’s 20 best female skaters will go to Paris to compete. Sirvirö intends to be among them.
– I want to come out of there with a gold medal, he says briskly and grins.
The sport of young giddy heads
It is characteristic of skating as a sport that young athletes are very successful in it. Currently, the world’s top chefs are between 13 and 15 years old.
At the Tokyo Olympics 2020, which were postponed to 2021 due to the corona virus, skating was included for the first time. Winner of the silver medal in the women’s park competition All Hiraki was only 12 years old. Placed in bronze Sky Brown was a year older, i.e. Sirviö’s age. Living in California Lizzie Armanto, 31, represented Finland in Tokyo. He was 14 in the Park.
– Women’s park was the most watched new sport in Tokyo, and girls’ skating has become one of the fastest growing sports. It creates strength, self-confidence and a lot of friendships for the girls, says Fredu Sirviö.
The father believes that the investment will pay off. Up until now, living on the terms of children’s hobbies has been paid out of one’s own pocket. The Finnish Olympic Committee does not support athletes under the age of 16, and it is difficult to get sponsors before the tough class shows.
However, they have a few sponsors from America, such as skateboard manufacturer H Street.
– You could imagine that skating is a cheap sport. A piece of board, trucks and tires underneath and nothing but the skate park. But it really isn’t. Hall fees here in America are astronomical. On top of that is traveling and time, which the sport requires, Fredu Sirviö lists.
Sponsors are attracted by posting trick videos on Facebook. It serves as the resume of a young and still relatively unknown athlete. The parents maintain Heili’s Instagram account, because he does not have a smartphone and is not allowed to spend time on social media.
– I want to protect my children’s mind and health as much as possible. It also means that we keep reasonable limits when it comes to technology, says Anni Sirviö.
Heili trains twice a day, at least five days a week. We go skating at nine o’clock, after breakfast. A few hours pass there, after which the family returns home and the children open their school books.
They are homeschooled fairly independently according to the Australian curriculum. Geometry, history and calligraphy have been studied in the spring. Heili also likes to read and draw and also plays the electric piano and guitar.
The home school started during the corona. Before that, Heili was at an Australian skate school, where they studied three hours a day and skated the rest of the time. When the family returns to Australia after the Olympics, the girls go to a regular brick-and-mortar school.
While I’m talking to the parents, Heili and Miila are playing in the stairwell, giggling audibly from time to time. Childhood is strongly involved in a skateboarder’s everyday life.
The best skaters in California
The California Skateparks hall is crowded when Heili is about to start his afternoon training. The Australian national team has come here to train before the final Olympic qualifiers.
One of the boys cooling off in the pool is Heil’s former classmate. Fredu Sirviö points to another boy doing crazy tricks. He is a local Olympic candidate. Heili knows everyone in the hall and exchanges a few words with her friends.
– This is the place to be if you want to become good at skating. All the good skaters are here, and when you skate with them, you immediately get better, says Heili Sirviö before his first ride.
Skateboarding was born in California in the 1950s, when surfers developed a “surfboard with wheels” so that they could also do tricks on dry land. The most famous pioneers of the sport are Tony Hawkwhich has a series of games bearing its name.
After each performance, Fredu’s father, who acts as a coach, gives advice so that the next trick will reach almost Hawk’s heights. That requires speed and strength.
– Now we focus on such tricks that get good points in the competitions. They are technically, speedily and stylistically higher than what others are doing, says Fredu Sirviö.
The goal is to be the best in the world
Heili leaves for each performance with a focused expression on her face. Sirviö, who does somersaults in the upper air, has a strong desire to compete. He has said he wants to be the best in the world.
– I like competing and I want to get to the top. When friends encourage you to learn something new, it inspires you even more.
– They have all the sufficient volts and spins, i.e. spinning tricks, which are required for medal positions at the Olympics, Fredu’s father guesses.
She admits that the slightly older girls have a slight advantage when it comes to creating speed because they have more mass and strength. In order to improve these qualities, Heili goes to a gym with a personal trainer once a week Wes Collins has been coaching girls for a couple of years.
– The lower body is hard when skating, although it may not look like it during a few minutes of performance, Collins says.
Collins orders the girls to squat with a kettlebell on their chest. Heili’s kettlebell weighs 12 kilograms.
– Heili is positive, looks ahead and always wants to do the exercises carefully. It is very rare to see children with as high a work ethic as Heil. He is always ready to do more and strive for the next level, analyzes Collins.
If time permits, Sirviöt will come to Finland in the summer. Renewing the Finnish championship is on Heili’s mind.
– Grandma and all other relatives live there, so it would be nice to see them more.
At the same time, you would get Finnish salmon soup, meatballs and mashed potatoes, which Heili Sirviö misses in the world.
Paris Olympics on channels 26.7.–11.8.