Minja Korhonen got on the podium in the World Cup at Christmas in Ramsau. The Siilinjärväinen says that the success in renewing the equipment was one of the reasons for the good start to the season.
Kuopio
It there was love for the sport from the first moment.
Preschool age Minja Korhonen noticed about a decade ago Siilinjärvi Ponnistus' announcement about the possibility to try the sport.
You had to get there.
The parents were sympathetic to the idea, even though they had no background in hill jumping. So the Siilinjärvi snow jump became the scene of Minja Korhonen's first jump.
“I remember saying to my mother, 'I want to jump a hundred more'. It was really nice. From the first times, I've thought that this is nice to do,” says Korhonen.
Last fall, Korhonen started his first year as a sports high school student. Skiing entered the competitive spirit soon after the first ski jumping trials, and this season Korhonen made history in the women's combined.
Korhose became the first Finnish woman to reach the podium in the World Cup, when she was third in the Ramsau World Cup just before Christmas.
Minja Korhonen new ski jumping equipment for this season. The successful exchange has brought self-confidence and success in the World Cup.
Puijon at the foot of the hills there is bitterly cold weather. Jumpers warm up before the ski lift takes them up.
Korhonen's training moved to these landscapes after Siilinjärvi's jumping hills became too small.
Christmas has passed and the New Year is still ahead. Korhonen has also been able to return to his homeland to spend the holidays with his family and to camp in his homeland before continuing his journey to Central Europe again to compete.
“It was nice to see relatives after a long time. I got a moment to catch my breath in my home country and got a little break from the games,” says Korhonen.
Korhonen started high school last fall. For an athlete traveling to international competitions, part of his everyday life is spent outside his home country.
Before the World Cup in Ramsau, Korhonen competed on two weekends in Lillehammer: first in the World Cup, then in the Continental Cup. At the turn of summer and autumn, the summer gp tour was contested.
After the turn of the year, the season conti
nues and the pace gets tighter. Korhonen cannot leave school depending on whether he can make it to the lessons on time.
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“If you have the right attitude, you can find time for school even during competition and training trips.”
Korhonen praises the fact that sports high school has a good understanding of the daily life of an athlete. For example, video recording of lessons supports distance learning on your own schedule. Balance is required when race trips have their own schedules to coordinate.
“If you have the right attitude, you can find time for school even during competition and training trips. I myself wish I could be there more. It would be easier to learn and ask questions when I was there. But even this method has worked.”
Korhonen estimates that behind the strong early season there are changes in both coaching and equipment. Especially on the hill side, the renewal of the equipment was successful, and it was easy to trust them right from the start of the season.
“The boots came new. They were worked on in the summer to get a suitable profile for my own use. The overalls also came new, and of course the suits, which change many times during the season. Pretty much the whole deck was renewed.”
Minja Korhonen started jumping in Siilinjärvi as a preschooler. Since then, he has practiced a lot at Puijo in Kuopio.
In skiing, the changes were smaller, and the new skis left fresh with a service truck for Central Europe. Their testing was mostly left over the course of the season.
Coach Terttu Lapland with Korhonen has focused even more on monitoring recovery while training volumes have been increased.
Korhonen communicates actively with Lapland. Data is collected from the exercises in order to gather information about what works and what doesn't. Korhonen says that Lappi, who started as a coach before this season, brought control to the work.
Korhonen says that he takes it upon himself that he did not have to record all the training data in the system in use from previous seasons.
“We trust the data quite a bit, but not too much. We also go a lot in terms of feeling. If it feels bad, we dare to lighten the plan”, says Korhonen.
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“There hasn't been a feeling that I haven't been able to try something.”
The training program varies depending on what part of the season you are living in. When you have to do well in two sports, many things affect. For example, before the games, you have to lighten the l
oad and it is not necessarily worth doing hill training when you are tired in the middle of a hard training load, in order to produce the required power in the training.
Basically, there are one or two exercises per day and one rest day per week.
Korhonen's species background is diverse. Parents have taken me to different sports even after trying ski jumping.
“Gymnastics for a long time, athletics, baseball, soccer and karate,” Korhonen lists.
“There hasn't been a feeling that I haven't been able to try something.”
In athletics, Korhonen's best event was the 1,000 meters, in which he achieved district competition level success in his age group. Cooper's test, a constant topic of discussion at Finnish coffee tables, has also become familiar.
“The last time I ran was many years ago, but three tons have been broken.”
Minja Korhonen warmed up on Puijo before the start of hill training.
In rehearsals the goals behind the drilling. As far as the Olympic Games are concerned, the realization of dreams would require that the women's combined team be included in the competition program.
Combined is the only sport in which women cannot compete in Milano-Cortina 2026. Men's status as an Olympic sport has also been at stake, because there are few participating countries.
The next adult competition will be in Trondheim in 2025. Before then, Korhonen will compete against the best in his age group at the competition levels. At the beginning of the year, they compete both in the Youth Olympics in South Korea and in the Under-20 World Championships in Planica.
Both overlap with the World Cup. In the overall cup, it means that the ranking comes down somewhat from the current top spot.
World Cup success bodes well for the junior championships, but Korhonen puts his words in moderation.
“The beginning of the season has been a really positive surprise. It's great that the level is enough for the prize places. Let's still be merciful. Combined can be quite a variable species. No two days are the same,” says Korhonen.
The Combined World Cup continues in Oberstdorf from the 12th to the 14th. January.
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