Ice hockey | The young star of the Women’s Lions, Nelli Laitinen, received a generous scholarship and got into a top American sports university: “Those are big sums, what you get there”

When the women’s national ice hockey team goes to Denmark for the World Cup, the team’s defenseman starts Nelli Laitinen gap year from the school bench to be over.

Laitinen, 20, decided after the matriculation papers to invest the Olympic year only in ice hockey. Postgraduate studies had to wait, and throughout last season Laitinen trained mainly twice a day on weekdays, often only once on Fridays before the weekend games.

Laitinen says that there would have been other options. However, the limitation was that the idea was to go to North America to play for university after the Olympic season. The doors to the university league close if you have been paid for playing earlier in your career. Laitinen says that the athlete grant was an important help so that it was possible to focus on the puck.

The defender chose to continue in Espoo. Looking back on the year, focusing on the sport paid off.

“It was pretty great to be able to focus fully on hockey. It helped to develop a lot last season. For example, I was able to take enough meal breaks,” Laitinen said during the World Cup.

On the club side, the season was a success. Kiekko-Espoo won the championship, which was Laitinen’s third career. For the third season in a row, Laitinen was chosen as the best defender in the series.

Laitinen practiced on the second day of training with Kiekko-Espoo’s B-age boys’ juniors. According to him, it was also visible in February at the Beijing Olympics, and Laitinen hopes that all the players of the women’s national team will be able to train with the boys.

“At the Olympics, you were immediately ready for speed and tempo.”

Laitinen got a lot of responsibility in the Olympic arena. He was the third most responsible defender of the Women’s Lions in Beijing. The average number of minutes per match was 18.06. First pair only Jenni Hiirikoski (27,37) and Ronja Savolainen (23.05) contracted more.

In power points, Laitinen was number one among defenders. Seven power points (2+5) more than the balance were collected only by the attacker of the first chain Petra Nieminen and Susanna Tapani with his eight points. The third link in the chain Michelle Karvinen reached seven points like Laitinen.

In the WC bowl, the responsibility can increase even more when you have been part of the Naisleijonien’s core defenders for a long time Minnamari “Mint” Importing was left out of the national team this time.

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“It’s nice to be able to play.”

Laitinen at the age of 20, is already going to his fourth prestigious competition. Laitinen, who came to the awareness of the puck public at a young age, made his adult competition debut at the 2019 home competition. After that, he played in the World Championships last year and in the Olympics in February this year.

“We have quite a lot of youth in the gang, but we also have experience. Good mix. We’ve been to a couple of camps together, and the group is starting to bond together,” says Laitinen.

The World Cup tournament will now be played for the second time in a row at the turning point of summer and autumn. Last year, the reason was the corona pandemic, which caused the tournament to be canceled in the spring. This time, it was decided to fall, because the tournament wanted to be played in the Olympic year for the first time.

The usual time for the World Cup tournament is in April, but this year there would have been only two months before the Olympic tournament played in February.

“After all, it’s a bit more difficult time. I have to keep fit. A little more special system, but it’s nice to be able to play,” says Laitinen.

Finland the team traveled to Denmark the weekend before the Games. The hardest games are the first ones in the initial block. Canada will play on Wednesday and the United States on Saturday. The other two teams in the group are Japan and Switzerland.

Japan’s Finland won twice in practice matches played at Vierumäki. As far as Switzerland is concerned, the Olympic tournament is fresh in memory, where Switzerland won the first group match between the countries but lost in the bronze medal match.

As usual, the groups are formed so that the toughest countries play in the same group, which is Finland’s group. All countries continue to the quarterfinals, which will also include three countries from the second group.

When the World Cup end, Laitinen will not return to Finland. He leaves directly from the World Cup for the United States. Minnesota, which plays in the NCAA, was chosen as the university location, where he visited the future team in May. Laitinen has a four-year scholarship, so the next time you need to look elsewhere for a place to play is only after the 2026 Olympics.

Joined the coaching of the women’s national team for this season Saara Niemi evaluate in the spring for HS, that the NCAA is currently the best series for women. Niemi described the league as having 40 teams with good resources and players.

“The NCAA is a place worth aiming for. A lot of players from Europe also go there with a full scholarship. Those are big sums, which you get in four years,” said Niemi.

Laitinen admits that the expectations for the level of the games are high. There are also skilled teammates: the United States team at the World Cup tournament has two of Laitinen’s future teammates, while the forwards Taylor Heise and Grace Zumwinkle was selected for the team. Heise won the points exchange of the series last season.

In the university series The rhythm of Laitinen’s day changes from the previously used style, which has had morning and evening exercises.

“We have a four-hour training set once a day, during which there is ice and weights. School is held in the mornings and evenings. There are games on Friday and Saturday,” says Laitinen.

Laitinen says that a different schedule is a nice change, especially considering the long winter.

“I’ve always been used to practice starting at eight in Finland. In winter, there is Uni sand in the eyes. It’s nice that it starts a little later, so you get a little different rhythm. In the summer I like to wake up, but in the winter it’s harder to get up in the dark.”

Laitinen still doesn’t get to enjoy waking up very late after the World Cup tournament. School starts rolling even before the stress of the time difference disappears.

“I’m probably studying economics and business. At first there are general courses, the major must be chosen later. School starts the very next day when I get to the village. Immediate action.”