Olympic Games In the Seppälä family, biathlon lasts from father to son – “There must be bold ways to move forward”

Timo Seppälä excited on Saturday at his home in Haapajärvi at the same time as his son Tero Seppälä In Beijing.

“Tero doesn’t give medals easily,” the biathlete’s father says on the phone about his previews of the biathlon race that will be competing in the Olympics on Saturday.

On Tuesday, Tero Seppälä went on a normal trip with the last number 92 in the entire men’s group, when most of the hot group started at the beginning.

With his exceptional tactics on the left, Seppälä wanted to stop him from shooting.

During the Seppälä race, however, the ski season slowed down and the chances of top placement waned. Seppälä was 23rd in two fine minutes.

The starting group had to be decided already after the women’s normal trip on Monday.

“The race was the best for Tero. Two fines are good, when three to four have usually come on a normal trip, ”says Timo Seppälä.

Although it was already midnight after the normal trip at Zhangjiakou, the center of skiing, Tero kept calling his father home.

“We were still going through the race. We both agreed that nothing would have been done differently. The tactics would not have changed, although the weather surprised and slowed down. Tero recovered well, although the mucous membranes became irritated, ”says Timo Seppälä.

Otherwise, the Olympic venue has had more than enough adjustment. The bus ride from Beijing took hours. In Zhangji, there are corona tests every day, as well as gun tests by race organizers.

“Even Terok thought before he got to his own roommate,‘ huh huh, was it worth going all the way here when it’s so awkward ’. Now he is starting to get used to and adapt. There are still many races left, ”Timo Seppälä tells HS before going to the children’s Hippo skis as an announcer for the evening.

In Beijing the third normal distance race of the season was held. For Seppälä, however, it was only the second 20-kilometer race.

He missed the opening race of the World Cup in November in Östersund. In Antholz-Anterselva, he was in the same place as the Olympics in January with four penalty minutes: 23rd.

In Timo Seppälä’s best racing years in the early 1990s, the normal trip was the royal trip of biathlon.

Nowadays, the focus of travel has shifted due to television to electric high-speed trips and chases, when the race lasts less than an hour.

“For me, twenty is still that royal journey. There are a lot more races, and they are stricter than in my time, when racing was different anyway, ”says 53-year-old Timo Seppälä.

At the Olympics, Timo Seppälä represented Finland in 1994 in Lillehammer, where the program included only two personal trips and a message.

In Beijing, the program features four personal trips – a sprint, a chase, a regular trip and a joint start – and two messages, one of which is a mixed message. Finland was eleventh in it a week ago.

In Lillehammer, Timo Seppälä was 41st on a normal trip and fifth in the message. In addition to Seppälä, the message included Harri Eloranta, Erkki Latvala and Vesa Hietalahti.

“We had pre-arranged quota places for those who get to ski. Finland had only three places for a quick trip. Lillehammer still has good memories and a great audience. ”

When Timo Seppälä turned 50 in the summer of 2018, the family made a combined birthday and holiday trip to Lillehammer.

“It was nice to jog in the same race landscape, see the 1994 Olympics logos and visit the sports museum.”

TerO SEPPÄLÄ has practiced a lot outside the national team. According to the father, it has been partly dictated by coercion.

“The national team has 60-70 training days a year. It leaves a lot of days for home training, ”says Timo Seppälä, who was responsible for Tero’s coaching for a long time.

The Russian took over the coaching responsibility for the Olympic season Anatoli Hovantsev, which trains Seppälä and a few other biathletes in the area in Kontiolahti.

Hovantsev is a respected biathlon coach in the sport. He coached the Russian national team in 2018–2022.

He was at the helm of the Finnish team from 1998 to 2002 and then coached for years at the Kontiolahti Athletes.

It is much thanks to Hovantsev that Seppälä has risen to a new level this season. Seppälä has been a good skier, but the accuracy and speed of the shooting have been guaranteed.

“There has to be bold and new ways to move forward. Now the coaching has been done according to Anatol. Tero has made his own variations on the coaching program, and high-ranking training in Central Europe has been extended. A certain policy has been in place, ”says Timo Seppälä.

Last season, Seppälä, 26, reached the top 20 in the World Cup twice. This season, he has been in the top 20 for eight times. He has been in the top ten.

TerO SEPPÄLÄN the hope has been to win his father’s standings at the Olympics. It was immediately successful in the first Olympics in 2018 in Pyeongchang, when he was 20th at his best in the 10-kilometer sprint.

Tero has not yet beaten Timo Seppälä’s Olympic message. In Pyeongchang, Finland was sixth in the mixed message.

“Let’s hope my message placement doesn’t stay in the best interest of the family. The whole winter has been at a good level. Tero’s best trips are just coming, ”says Timo Seppälä.

In addition to biathlon, father and son are united by love in the woods. Tero Seppälä graduated as a forest engineer from the University of Joensuu. Father Timo is the director of education at Haapavesi Vocational College in Jedu, where he can study, among other things, agriculture and forestry.

For his dissertation, Tero Seppälä toured the forest seedling areas and assessed their management needs. The same work is ahead when the Olympic season is over.

“In the spring, Teroa will be waiting for the site again,” Father Seppälä promises.

The 10-kilometer sprint race will be held in Beijing on Saturday at 11 a.m. Finnish time.

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