In June 2022 Vilma Nissinen new winds were blowing in life. The place of residence had recently changed to Vantaa from Vuokatti, where Nissinen had lived and trained for years.
More fundamental changes were to come. Piloted from Nissi for 12 years Mikko Virtanen stayed in Vuokatti, so Nissinen was without a personal trainer in his new environment. In their deliberations, Virtanen and Nissinen came to the conclusion that distance coaching would not be an issue in the case of a skier.
– I understood that if I wanted to make changes during my career in terms of coaching, the last moments would be at hand, Nissinen, 25, recalls a good year later in Espoo’s Solvalla.
In Solvalla, pole vault training has just ended, which has been supervised by one of the most experienced names in the trainer market Jarmo Riski. He has been Nissinen’s personal coach since January. After 12 years of coaching, starting a new one was the result of long consideration.
– Last year, I got a hint that “Jamppaa” might be interested in working as my coach. I dared to call him, but I postponed that call for half a year.
– Finally, my boyfriend said one day that when he comes home from work in the evening, I should have called Jampa. When I hadn’t managed to do it even then, I promised to send Jampa a message and ask when I can call, Nissinen says with a smile.
The call was arranged for the next day. The collaboration between Nissinen and Riski started quickly after that.
– There has been no need to regret the call.
Riski supervises not only Nissinen but also many other skiers known from the national team Markus Vuorelan, Verneri Suhonen and Juuso Haaralan practice. Nissinen and nine other skiers belong to the private Team Electrofit team, whose head coach is Riski.
– A new kind of rhythm has come into my training. We train hard, but we also recover properly. It has been a big change from before that we don’t do the same weeks all the time. With Jampa, we have focused on speed, refined my free technique quite a lot and focused on muscular endurance. That is, to my biggest weaknesses, Nissinen says.
Difficult years
Skating technique has been the crowning glory for Nissi, as she has not yet scored a single point in the World Cup in freestyle skiing.
However, the last few seasons have been full of difficulties to such an extent that Nissinen’s previous top 30 ranking in the Cup is from January 2020. Since then, he has suffered from various diseases, including three coronas. Last season was largely cut short due to a broken hand in August.
– Last year I think I was sick every month or one and a half. I just want a full season and get to show what my fitness is. I was fine last winter as well.
– I got in surprisingly good shape last spring, considering how little I had been able to train. I was even a little shocked that I was able to finish sixth in the WC. Of course, in Christmas, January and February I did the training that others had done in the fall. It certainly played a role in the spring results, Nissinen says.
He says that he has been able to train since spring without being healthy for three months straight.
A new training environment
Although Nissinen’s last few seasons have been successful passes, he is satisfied with his current situation. Amidst the difficulties, the national team was not a suitable growth environment for the young skier.
– When I was 23 years old and the seventh best female skier in Finland, but at the tail end of every training session, I felt like I was miserable. That was probably the hardest thing. Although it’s quite normal to take a beating from Olympic medalists in every training session, at some point it starts to feel like crap, Nissinen says, referring to the time before the Beijing Olympic season.
Two years later, Nissinen feels that his attitude towards the team’s internal competition has changed.
– Yes, age does its job. The next time I wrestle myself back into the A national team, I’m not going to leave there completely. I’m quite a different Vilma than I was two years ago.
– Right now, however, I’m enjoying the fact that I have the peace to do my own thing. There is no insecurity or stress.
The upcoming winter is important for Nissi, despite the fact that the season does not include any prestigious competitions.
– The goal is to ski hard in Ruka in November. It is currently the number one goal for next season. If I ski hard in Ruka, the goals change. The big goal is the 2026 Olympics, and the 2030 Olympics are not too far away for me either. That and the World Cup, there are quite a lot of opportunities here. I’m not the end of the age yet.