Tiia Olkkonen’s race ended with lung pain.
Kuusamo
Finnish skier Tiia Olkkonen had to stop the 20 kilometer (v) joint start race in Ruka’s freezing cold. The conditions were harsh.
The situation looked bad for a while. After taking off his number plate, Olkkonen was crouched for a long time and passed out. Soon he was taken to the athletes’ service tent to take a token. There he was for several minutes.
Olkkonen’s lungs were hard.
“There is pain in the bronchi and breathing itself is difficult. Hard to draw in and hard to get that air out,” he said.
At the time of the race, the temperature was around -17 degrees Celsius.
“It’s rare to ski in this cold.”
If Olkkonen would have struggled until the end of the race, the result could have been significantly worse. According to him, the lung problems started quickly after the start. Spirit was not going well.
The 24-year-old talent of Haapajärvi Kiiloje has started the season perfectly. On Friday, he finished fifth in the sprint qualifying.
“There’s a long season ahead, so at this point, you don’t want to forcefully and intentionally break those lungs.”
Olkkonen suspected that his lungs would return to race condition in about a week.
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