Skiing The fate of a small village sums up the dull picture of the depopulation of the countryside – it is almost bad to get help from the cemetery: “And it cannot be fixed by digitalisation”

Jämin Jänte, who grabbed ski championships and medals, has a dull picture of the situation in the Finnish countryside. Assistants for social activities should soon be sought from the cemetery. “I’ve looked at those lists of helpers, and unfortunately many of them have already slept into eternity.”

Jämijärvi

Norwegian superstar Johannes Høsflot Klæbo crosses the finish line and ventilates the world championship freely, but in Jämin Jänne Ristomatti Hakola and the Finnish bench sports people are looking elsewhere.

Joni Mäki runs to his finish line – a Russian skier Gleb Retivyh back.

“And Ristomatti Hakola! What Risto did! What did you do last with the previous leg! ” Yle’s narrator glows when Finnish skiers celebrate.

Hakola and Mäki have won the World Championship silver in pair printing in Oberstdorf, Germany, and in Finland the chairman of Jämin Jänteen Asko Uurasjärvi calls Ristomat’s father To Tuomo Hakola congratulatory call.

“Maybe some cognac was also taken in honor of the party in the evening, but I’m so flat in nature that I didn’t go to the marketplace to celebrate,” says Uurasjärvi in ​​the café of the Jämikeskus ski tunnel.

“Of course, this will be a little heavy at some point.”

Asko Uurasjärvi would already be ready to relinquish his chairmanship in Jämin Jänte. “I’d love to give room to someone else, but there aren’t those challengers terribly. And I don’t even really need a challenger, but someone who would just take the booth, ”he says.

Such celebrations are rare. Hakola’s World Championship silver was the first medal of all time that Jämin Jänne has ever achieved.

Of course, Jänne has had success in the Finnish Championships, most recently in Imatra at the beginning of January. That’s when the men’s traditional 15-kilometer skiing ended in Jänte’s triple victory when Hakola, Markus Vuorela and Lauri Lepistö came to the finish line in a row.

Imatra also had a party Josefiina Böök, who skied the first adult Finnish Championship medal in his life. The silver medal came off the sprint, and now the 23-year-old skier’s gaze is on the youth World Cup tracks.

“It was also a nice trip,” says Uurasjärvi, referring to the Finnish Championships in Imatra.

However, these moments are like fireworks – beautiful, but only last a moment.

After the Games, the usual club work will resume, which may have lasted too long.

“Of course, this is a bit heavy at some point. There should be more assistants, ”admits Uurasjärvi, who started as chairman of Jänne twenty years ago and has been the secretary of the club for a year and a half.

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Helping hands however, it is difficult to obtain, as the holding force of Jämijärvi does not flourish.

Uurasjärvi says that, for example, youth work in sports clubs often passes from one generation to the next, so that the children of club members later start coaching their own children. A convenient cycle is created that blows new oxygen into the action of the club and keeps its wheels spinning.

“But here we go elsewhere to study and work, and not just stay here to live,” Uurasjärvi thinks.

It can be seen concretely that Jämin Jänte does not currently have an actual children’s ski school. There may be some individual groups, but a general ski school is not available with current resources.

“And that wouldn’t be easy for us 50-60 year olds. When we can’t work there with the children anymore, ”says Uurasjärvi, 59.

Tendon aging is also reflected in the minutes. Uurasjärvi has looked at old and recent lists and made sad observations.

“The first big races were held here 20 years ago. I have looked at those lists of helpers, and unfortunately many of them have already slept into eternity. ”

“And that new crowd hasn’t really come in, because quite a few of the helpers on the newer lists were born in the 1940s.”

The same topic emerged in an article published in Ilta-Sanomat in the story January 13.

The text began with a sly question: “Is Finnish sport dying with its helpers?” The subject was also skiing, as the article dealt with what was held in Vantaa Finnish Cup competition.

The title of the article read that a group of eighties is racing in Vantaa for the common good and that the competition would be ringing without them.

“It’s quite a challenge,” says Uurasjärvi.

“And it can’t be fixed with digitalisation – even though robot cameras were already in use here,” he laughs.

“Competition is being curtailed.”

There is still plenty of snow in Jämijärvi this winter as well. However, there will be no big competitions coming at least in the near future, says Asko Uurasjärvi.

Perhaps however, young people have a future?

Right now we are talking about a ski boom by a sporting legend Harri Kirvesniemi matured to make Ilta-Sanomat even more unique in an interview During the Finnish Championships in Imatra.

“I don’t remember that there has ever been such an insanely hard ski boom in Finland as it is now,” Kirvesniemi told Ilta-Sanomat a week and a half ago.

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However, Uurasjärvi points out that the enthusiasm for fitness is not necessarily reflected in competitive sports at all.

“Competition is being curtailed. After all, individual sports are raw, and there is a little too much skiing alone if there is no good group and team spirit in the club. ”

Uurasjärvi frames Tampere’s Pyrintö, which has got a lot of female skiers in its ranks. The location is undoubtedly also affected, as Jämijärvi, with a population of about 1,700, will inevitably turn pale alongside Tampere, with more than 241,000 inhabitants – as well as Satakunta, with a population of about 215,000, and Pirkanmaa, with more than 522,000 inhabitants.

Maybe Jämikeskus could also benefit from it if it was located a few kilometers east and could enjoy the marketing shoulders of Pirkanmaa, as the road to Satakunta’s “Lapland” is shorter from Tampere than from Pori?

Uurasjärvi does not comment on this, but the chairman is annoyed by how poorly known the Jämikeskus and the ski tunnel are in Tampere.

“It’s a bit of a wonderful thing, but even if there is a story about Jämijärvi on the front page of Aamulehti, nothing is known about this place in Tampere,” Uurasjärvi commented.

“Jämijärvi had another thousand competitors in the final competition of Hopeasomma 20 years ago.”

Ristomatti Hakola is back on track. “He’s going to go hard,” says Asko Uurasjärvi, referring to the Beijing Olympics.

Kick No come from it, even if peaks like Hakola reap success for Jänte on the world’s trails. According to Uurasjärvi, the impact is “unacceptably bad” in Jämijärvi.

“It may be that we ourselves are incompetent to take advantage of it, but this economic area is only so small. We should catch up with national companies. ”

Jänte would have room for improvement on its website and social media channels, for example, but that would also require resources.

“Sometimes someone promises to take them into account, but that’s where it stays. Young people would find that competence again, but the first question is what would we pay for it – and when we do it financially tight, ”says Uurasjärvi.

The kind of downward spiral in the number of racing licenses in the Finnish Ski Association adds to the predicament.

In Satakunta, for example, the number of cross-country skiing licenses has fallen from 556 to 231, according to the data requested from the Satakunta People’s Ski Association, if we compare the readings for the winters of 2010-11 and 2019-20, ie before the pandemic.

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“Here in Jämijärvi there were over a thousand competitors in the final competition of Hopeasomma 20 years ago. Now I don’t know if we can get even 600 participants, ”Uurasjärvi ponders, although Jänte has no plans to hold big skiing competitions, at least in the near future.

“No skiing on the world map anywhere disappears.”

According to Asko Uurasjärvi’s invoices, Jämikeskus has a network of more than 30 kilometers of trails. Jämin Jänne has acquired the track machine himself.

Thereto However, Uurasjärvi does not believe that skiing is losing its status as a beloved winter sport.

“Skiing doesn’t get lost anywhere on the world map, even though it’s a little harder here at the grassroots level,” he says.

According to Uurasjärvi, for example, Italy is able to produce top skiers from a much smaller mass than Finland, but Finland needs mass in any case, and it is no longer expected to decrease much.

However, the next generation of ski stars is maturing all the time and was last seen, when the youth championships were held in Keuruu.

The bomb was set in a message from girls under the age of 18, in which the fifth-year-old Kankaanpää Athletes were even caught in a 15-year-old promise in gold. Anna Stenroosin thanks to.

Jänteen Böök, on the other hand, won the under-23 championship gold in the traditional style sprint.

“Böök should be at its best during the Italian Winter Olympics. If these athletes stay in the company, then the next Olympics there is already waiting, ”Uurasjärvi reflects, referring to Hakola, Vuorela and Lepistö.

Jämin Jänne

  • Jämijärvi Sports Association, founded in 1958.

  • In addition to skiing, the range of sports included athletics, football, weightlifting and volleyball.

  • The chairman is Asko Uurasjärvi, who took up his position twenty years ago and has also served as chairman of the Satakunnan Hiihto ry and the Finnish Ski Association’s federal council.

  • The most famous athlete is Ristomatti Hakola, who represents Finland at the Beijing Winter Olympics in February and also competed in the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in 2018.

Satakunta, cross-country skiing

2004-05: 495

2005-06: 492

2006-07: 530

2007-08: 525

2008-09: 473

2009-10: 563

2010-11: 556

2011-12: 503

2012-13: 494

2013-14: 397

2014-15: 365

2015-16: 376

2016-17: 313

2017-18: 289

2018-19: 273

2019-20: 231

2020-21: 150

2021-22: 63 (in season)

Source: Finnish Ski Association

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