Hockey Russia’s head coach came to the Lions’ locker room after the Olympic finals and uttered memorable words for Finns

Hockey national team management, Jukka Jalonen, Jere Lehtinen and Mika Kortelainensaid on Thursday what kind of balance the whole Beijing Olympic project was.

The end result is known and a tumultuous golden festival, but a lot happened during the tournament and behind the scenes during the Olympics.

Lehtinen said that after mid-January, quite a few players became infected with the coronavirus. This was already talked about during the race, but it wasn’t reported that as many as five team members flashed the corona flashing red just a couple of days before departure.

Four of these five were players, Lehtinen and Kortelainen said at the Lions discussion.

Lions the management consults the chief physician of the Olympic team Maarit Valtosta and the common decision was for those at risk to leave.

Another option was to stay in Finland for a while and fly later.

“It was finally decided to leave. It unified the whole group, ”Lehtinen said.

In the Games, it was widely reported that the striker Marko Anttila was immediately quarantined at the corona hotel and a little later by a goalkeeper Juho Olkinuora for a while.

Others who gave a positive test survived in fright.

“Every day was exciting.” Lehtinen said.

Anttilan case, her quarantine conditions and internships there collected column millimeters, but Anttila was tested much more.

After Anttila got out of isolation, he was put in another quarantine in the race village, which was only released shortly before the end of the tournament.

Anttila got to play and practice, but otherwise she had to stay away from the rest of the team.

“He was brought food into the room throughout the Games. It tells about his mental strength, what level he was able to play, and what the security of the team was like, ”Kortelainen said.

The coaching staff said with one voice that the Finnish player is mentally strong.

Jalonen emphasized that the character of a player has always been one of the selection criteria in his team.

“I haven’t had to think about being involved for a long time, but the head can’t stand it,” Jalonen said as a general example of the strengths of today’s players.

Lions improved his game as the Olympics progressed and, according to Jalonen, played in the final of the best match of the tournament against the team of the Russian Olympic Committee.

“Russia’s head coach Alexei Zhamnov came to our coaching booth half an hour after the final, hugged everyone and said it was damn hard to beat you, ”Jalonen said.

Zhamnov was not the first to notice it.

Russia has been barred from international hockey for the time being due to the war in Ukraine.