Beijing Olympics Finland’s medal balance makes Olympic boss rumble – Mika Lehtimäki reminds of Iivo’s reflections

Sport|Beijing Olympics

Zhangjiakou.

Finland Director of the Olympic Committee’s Excellence Unit Mika Lehtimäki rumbles with cautious satisfaction. With a week left for the Beijing Olympics, the balance of Finnish athletes is already four medals and eight points.

All medals are for cross-country skiing: Iivo Niskasella is already gold and bronze, Kerttu Niskasella silver and Krista in Pärmäkoski bronze.

“The races have gone quite well, especially when it comes to cross-country skiing. It is our flagship, ”says Lehtimäki.

According to Lehtimäki, the Finnish Olympic team is ahead of the medal goal calculated for it.

The goal for Beijing is the same catch as the Finnish team received from the 2018 Pyeongchang Games: six medals.

“Peyongchang’s medal count was good. A certain path has been counted towards the goal and we are currently ahead of it. ”

Finland’s success so far is a good example of the difficulty of calculating and predicting.

Lehtimäki reminds that every medal must be achieved in competitions by playing sports, and to that extent it is useless to set goals on paper.

“But we’ve got medals for a species that couldn’t be considered certain in advance. That’s a good situation. “

For example, quite a few people waited for two medals in the women’s ten-kilometer skiing, even though the hard condition of Kerttu Niskanen and Krista Pärmäkoski was known.

Nor was Iivo Niskanen’s bronze in the Olympic Committee’s papers drawn with a strong remnant, if at all.

“The women’s ten was a jackpot, as getting two medals from the same race has been rare in Finland. The last time this happened was in 2002 in Salt Lake City. ”

Then Samppa Lajunen won gold and Jaakko Tallus silver in the normal race of the association.

The Hutus have also come. Rene Rinnekangasan was believed to be fighting for a medal, and qualifying from the finals was a big disappointment for him too.

The women’s message was supposed to become a so-called “sure medal” especially as the team’s skiers had performed wildly in previous races. The result was fourth place.

“We had strong credit for the medal. But a long tournament also means that a medal is won unexpectedly and an expected medal slips. ”

In the last week of the Olympics, Finnish athletes will have numerous medal seams in addition to men’s and women’s hockey.

Finland gets strong teams for men’s and women’s sprint posts, Rene Rinnekangas aims for a medal in Big Air and Ilkka Herola in the combined.

In addition, there will be 30 km of women and 50 km of men at the weekend, although these have not been counted as strong medal trips by the Olympic Committee.

“We will follow them with interest when we have seen how well Finns ski here.”

Read more: Finnish skiing is now grabbing medals, but the future looks bad

The combined goal of the Beijing and Paris 2024 Summer Olympics is ten medals and 20 points in the Olympic Committee’s calculations. If the successes in Beijing continue, the goal of the Olympics may even be met.

“The pace for the goal is now good.”

Finland scratched eight medals at the Pyeongchang and Tokyo Games.

But What will happen to the future success of winter sports flagship, cross-country skiing?

In Beijing, Finnish skiers have already grabbed four medals and more are expected.

However, under the leadership of the Niskaste siblings and Krista Pärmäkoski, the team’s incisors are not old enough for their participation in the 2026 Olympics in northern Italy.

Do you have to worry about Finnish skiing?

According to Lehtimäki, no. He believes that Finland will become new top skiers.

“We have a reasonably good youth World Cup bet from last year,” he explains.

Lehtimäki hopes for restraint, because according to him, success in cross-country skiing will mainly come closer to 30 years, and Finland is no exception.

“Of course, endurance successes like Krista and Iivo also come through reasonably early in skiing, and we don’t have one now. On the other hand, the Kertu Medal is an indication of perseverance and a different kind of income formula. There is no one right way. ”

Lehtimäki believes that Iivo Niskanen can continue his career for years to come. After the gold medal ceremony Niskanen stated that he was in good condition and would continue, but did not say how long.

Norwegian Marit Bjørgen stated before the Olympics Sports magazine in an interview that today top skiers should continue to compete for parenting already for financial reasons.

Bjørgen himself quit Pyeongchang after the Olympics at the age of 38 after giving birth to his firstborn.

Iivo Niskanen will certainly take financial considerations into account in his own equation, if only the demanding lifestyle of a top skier tastes good and fits into personal plans.

“Iivo has talked about Cortina out loud, but he has not hit the end of his career at the moment. It is good that the sport can be taken far as an athlete today. “

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