Book | Hard revelations behind the scenes of the Finnish ski team – Pärmäkoski was excluded from training

Women’s the storms behind the scenes of the national team are an open secret in the skiing world, where information leaks out to the public every now and then.

Supplier by Laura Arffman written by Krista Pärmäkoski biographical book Open (Gummerus) offers a glimpse into this topic as well.

The women’s cross country team has been known to have storms throughout history, and conflicts have not been avoided in recent years either.

Pärmäkoski’s book says that, for example, the women’s relay for the Beijing 2022 Olympics flared up. A situation had arisen in the team during the competition, which eventually led to a loud crisis meeting.

It is said that Pärmäkoski was in trouble as a follower, because the very verbal abuse started while he was still on the track.

The other three members of the Finnish Olympic relay team were Kerttu Niskanen, Anne Kyllönen and Johanna Matintalo. Pärmäkoski does not reveal in the book which two of them clashed. After the race, the behind-the-scenes game accelerated, and “both parties to the dispute tried to gather troops for their support” before the crisis meeting, the book says.

“The crisis meeting didn’t really come to any conclusion. The situation was left open, and it did affect the atmosphere,” says Pärmäkoski in the book.

Especially the relay selections of the prize competitions have caused a ruckus behind the scenes. Former head coach of the national ski team Reijo Jylhä caused quite a stir at the World Championships in Falun in 2015, when she exceptionally decided to let the women themselves propose putting a piece of paper into the relay team by voting.

The skis were crossed again, and the humping began.

“The most important task of a women’s coach is to understand when entering the room that even though things are being reviewed, the matter is not clear, but a process always starts that is in progress for an indefinite period of time or may never end. You have to put up with it,” Jylhä said in Pärmäkoski’s book.

In the fall of 2016, the national team drifted into civil war again Aino-Kaisa Saarinen after the publication of the biography. In the piece, Saarinen also distributed barbs in the direction of national team colleagues and coaching.

In Pärmäkoski’s recent book, it is told how they had to organize a competition chaplain at the Olos camp at that time Leena Huovinen led by a crisis meeting in which an attempt was made to clear the air of the national team.

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I have worked in the national teams of Finland, Sweden and Norway, and the situation has been very similar in all of them. That mood in Finland is by no means unusual.

of Seefeld after the 2019 World Championships, Pärmäkoski left the national team. At the time, he said he wanted to try a new kind of summer training, but in his book, the star skier says that the departure was a setback for the team.

At least some of the other skiers had felt that Pärmäkoski had received special exemptions because his long-time personal coach Matti Haavisto had been promoted to head coach of the entire national team.

According to Pärmäkoski, Haavisto was “smoked” out, and he also decided to leave because of that.

When Pärmäkoski returned to the national team circles on the eve of the next competition season, the reception was cold. “The atmosphere seemed to eat him alive,” the book describes.

The other women of the national team even denied Pärmäkoski’s participation in the team’s joint strength training at the 2019 finalization camp in Olos.

Why exactly the women’s cross country team’s atmosphere problems are on display from decade to decade?

Legendary head coach of the Finnish national skiing team (2006–14) Magnar Dale laughs on the phone when he hears some excerpts from Pärmäkoski’s recent book.

“Ring a bell. But I have worked in the national teams of Finland, Sweden and Norway, and the situation has been very similar in all of them. That mood in Finland is by no means unusual,” says Dalen, who worked as a team manager in the Ski Classic series in recent years.

“Skiers are strongly individual athletes. A fire rages inside them. Skiing is above all an individual sport,” the Norwegian continues.

Finland current female stars Pärmäkoski and Niskanen were already in the national team during Dalen’s time. However, the biggest names of his period were the greats of the previous generation, Saarinen and Virpi Kuitunen (now Sarasvuo).

Pärmäkoski says in his book that over the years he has distanced himself from Niskas, with whom he was a very close friend when he was younger.

Nor are Saari and Kuitus remembered as a particularly close couple.

“I don’t want to find a more complex human relationship in my life, but no matter how hard I try, I wouldn’t find it,” Saarinen characterized his relationship with his worst rival Kuitusen in his biography.

“I think the biggest stars often show each other professional respect. It’s not very common that the big stars of the team are also good friends on the civilian side, but that doesn’t mean they don’t get along with each other. The dynamics are just like that,” says Dalen.

Dalen does not find it surprising that Pärmäkoski and Niskanen have grown apart from each other.

“People change and are different, for example, in their 20s and 30s. Life takes different directions.”

“Marriages are a good example. About every other one of them ends in divorce because people just change. This isn’t even more strange than that.”

Pärmäkoski the book describes how, especially as the competition season approaches, manners have been forgotten in the national team.

“When the mornings went unwelcomed and the thanks were unsaid, the atmosphere tightened almost imperceptibly.”

Dalen recognizes the phenomenon.

“The teams travel and live together a lot. Weeks and months a year. Of course, there are contradictions. For example, different people want to do things in slightly different rhythms. In the camps, you just have to find a compromise that works well enough for everyone.”

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A good example is marriages. About every other one of them ends in divorce because people just change.

Aino-Kaisa Saarinen commented on the national team’s atmosphere problems on Wednesday To Yle.

“When you work closely together, when you are tired and under a lot of pressure, conflicts sometimes arise,” said Saarinen.

“I don’t really understand why there should be some terribly warm relationships or particularly good relationships compared to some other workplace,” Saarinen continued.

Men’s Throughout history, there has not been nearly as much turmoil around the cross country team as there has been for women.

“The women’s team is doing well until someone starts doing well,” former head coach Jylhä told IS in 2010.

Dalen remembers from his own time in Finland that more time had to be spent on the affairs of the women’s national team than the men.

“Women need more discussion. For the men’s team, it was often enough to put the facts on the table. Of course, someone could sometimes get angry about it, but the women’s team needed more time to digest things.”

“Of course there were differences in working with men and women, but I think the same about legality also applies in other work communities than just sports teams.”

Dalen gives an example of meetings within teams.

“If there was a team meeting with the women and there were, say, four things on the table, it took maybe 45 minutes. The same meeting with the men took half of that.”

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Women need more discussion. For the men’s team, it was often enough to put the facts on the table

Pärmäkoski says in his book that during the 2023-24 season the spirit of the women’s cross country team improved and is now “perhaps better than ever”.

In the summer, Pärmäkoski founded together Johanna Matintalo, Katri Lylynperän and Jasmin Kähärän with the “G-team”, which has been training and also spending free time together.

“It is not obvious that the women of the national team not only want to train but also want to party and spend their free time together. I don’t remember that we have ever done anything similar among female skiers,” Pärmäkoski enthuses in her book.

In addition to the “G-team”, the current cross-country team includes Kerttu Niskanen, Anne Kyllönen, Jasmi Joensuu, Eveliina Piippo and Hilla Niemelä.