That day Mint Waste will never forget. After years of setbacks, he finally won his first SM title.
But not in running, but in his new sport of triathlon.
On Saturday, July 30, 2023, almost a decade had passed since Hukka broke the ten-minute mark in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. As well as his two WC bronze medals as an all-around athlete.
The 2023 season was the 28-year-old exercise physiologist’s first as a triathlon professional. If he manages to raise his level in swimming, the Olympic dream can come true in Los Angeles in 2028. A dream that was so close to being realized already in 2016.
At the age of 19, runner-Minttu was the fastest in Europe in his age group in the 3000 meter hurdles. Two years later, the road to the Rio Olympics seemed open.
However, Rio remained a dream, and in the following years there were few reasons to be happy. In 2019, he reached a turning point.
– At that time, at the age of 24, I was like, for a moment, I don’t have periods. I get sick and hurt often, and mentally I’m not well. There were many signs that something was wrong, says Minttu Hukka.
At the time, he was finishing his master’s studies in exercise physiology in the United States.
– Suddenly I realized that I am a model example of RED-S (relative energy deficiency in sport).
Watch Sportliv’s episode about Minttu Huka:
When Minttu Hukka was 15 years old, he had already tasted success as an endurance runner, but the World Championships – they were something completely different.
– I practiced ventilation in front of the mirror in the bathroom all summer. If I won, I would do it on the podium.
He remembers it like it was yesterday. How Eveliina Määttänen was right on his heels with one hundred meters left in the 2000m race. Hukka didn’t dare to look back, but managed to keep his lead until the finish line, won his first WC gold and breezed on the podium – just like he had practiced.
– That’s when my running career began in earnest.
The year was 2010. Three years later, he won his first medal in the 3000-meter steeplechase at the Kaleva Games. The following year, he was the fastest hurdler in his age group in Europe.
The long-term goal was the Olympics. It had been his big dream ever since he started track and field. In the spring of 2016, Minttu Hukka turned 21. The Rio Olympics were just around the corner.
– I thought it would be a piece of cake to join.
That’s when the problems started. He contracted a severe mycoplasma infection, which also resulted in lung damage.
– It was really crushing, because the goal was the Rio Olympics. Instead, I spent the whole summer lying on the couch. It was a really tough place.
And that was just the beginning of four difficult years.
In 2019, when he realized that RED-S was behind his difficulties, he decided to take time off from the sport.
– Suddenly I realized that it’s a joke, I haven’t had fun in a really long time. Why am I even doing this?
May lead to infertility
In his work as the doctor in charge of the Olympic training center Urhea and as the doctor for the national teams of orienteering and biathlon Katja Mjösund encounter RED-S more often than you’d like.
Lack of energy affects the body’s hormone system and can cause various problems.
– The most common is that you are often sick, get a lot of injuries or feel depressed. It can also lead to not getting the same training response. Practices and practices, but does not improve.
If development stagnates for two years, alarm bells should ring.
– The most serious consequences are rarer, but in addition to osteoporosis and bone fractures, it can mean that you cannot have children later in life.
When Minttu Hukka was younger, she was often told that it’s good if an athlete doesn’t have periods. It was said that it shows that an athlete is dedicated, trains hard and is in top shape.
According to sports doctor Katja Mjösund, it is possible that some coaches of the old school still think this way, but she believes that the younger generation of coaches knows the topic well.
– They know that missing periods is not okay, but on the contrary, a sign that something is wrong.
Research shows that female athletes who do not have normal hormone function are four times more likely to develop stress fractures.
The reason why an athlete suffers from a lack of energy can vary depending on the sport. In aesthetic sports, you may eat too little because you want to stay slim. In endurance sports, the reason may be that you are not able to eat enough in relation to your own energy consumption.
Minttu Huka’s salvation was that she met her current husband Robert Srokanwho is a racing cyclist.
– Cyclists eat a lot of everything. It was strange to me because I had only been around runners who were very particular about what they ate. I started eating a lot more.
It can take years to recover from RED-S, but Huka’s hormone function recovered surprisingly quickly.
– My body became more feminine and my periods started to normalize. It didn’t require any miracles. I started really taking good care of myself, eating better and sleeping more. I calmed that sport down a bit. It really helped a lot.
Hukka didn’t need hormone therapy to bring her body into balance, but some people do. If you have tried to increase your energy intake and lighten your exercise, and your periods still do not return, you can try to start them with progesterone and hormone preparations.
Already in 2017, Minttu Hukka had toyed with the idea of trying triathlon after her running career. When he took time off from purposeful training, he just did what he felt like doing.
– When I woke up in the morning, I thought, what would I like to do today? There was freedom to choose and just enjoy moving. And it’s not like there’s a specific interval workout in the morning that you should do, even if it just doesn’t feel like it.
Her husband suggested she get a road bike. When Hukka hit the Tennessee mountain bike trails, he was sold. He also discovered that he was a pretty good cyclist.
He had already tried swimming a couple of years before, but the starting level was not very high.
– I started watching YouTube videos on how to swim freestyle. I didn’t really have any basis for it.
At first, he couldn’t even swim the length of the pool without sometimes having to hang from the track rope.
In May 2020, Hukka decided to leave running and focus entirely on triathlon instead.
– It is typical for me to set big goals. There was no idea what it would take to get to the top, but that’s where I was going. And since the Olympics have always guided me, I thought that one day I would compete in an Olympic triathlon when that didn’t work out as a runner.
The year 2022 was Minttu Huka’s first official triathlon season. He won his first WC medals – silver in the sprint distance and bronze in the middle distance – and qualified for the World Championships in the half distance. There he finished ninth in his age group.
In the second season, he already competed in the pro series and in the summer of 2023 he won his first general series Finnish championship.
– It felt really good after all the adversity.
After competing in triathlon for a couple of years, Minttu Hukka has realized that her strengths come out better in longer competition distances, and not in the Olympic distance, where she swims one and a half kilometers, cycles forty and runs ten.
– It’s a bit depressing in a way, but maybe I’ve started to accept that the Olympics aren’t everything. I haven’t failed as an athlete if I haven’t been to the Olympics. Although they have been my goals throughout my sports career.
– There is so much more to achieve in triathlon.
Menstruation is difficult to talk about
Minttu Hukka has written several posts on Instagram about menstruation and RED-S. After them, she often receives contacts from other female athletes.
She would have wished that some female athlete would have spoken openly about it when she herself was younger. Then he might have been able to avoid many difficulties later.
It saddens her that menstruation still seems to be a very difficult topic to talk about.
– No one dares to talk about it, even though it is such a normal part of female athletes’ physiology.
Katja Mjösund, a sports doctor who always asks athletes about their periods during health checkups, agrees that missing periods in particular can be a sensitive topic.
– Young athletes don’t really know who to tell. They may not dare to talk to their coach. Others think it’s nice not to have periods and don’t want to think about the consequences. And then there is the group that knows there are consequences but still chooses to remain silent.
According to Mjösund, it is important that the athlete does not have to suffer from her periods. Many athletes have painful periods. There is swelling, irritability, difficulty concentrating.
– You shouldn’t suffer from that nowadays. The solution can be birth control pills, which often reduce menstruation. We can also influence the fact that there is no pain on the day of the World Cup final, says Mjösund.
– But remember, if you haven’t had your period for three months, you should talk to your doctor. It doesn’t have to be serious, but you have to bring it up.
At the same time, Minttu Hukka does his part to make the discussion on the topic more open.