Skiing | “The lamp went out” – Matti Heikkinen knows from his own experience what happened to Frida Karlsson

In spring and winter In 2005, the 21-year-old promising skier was taken away from the finish area of ​​the 50-kilometer SC race in Vuokat, Sotkamo, on the borderlands of consciousness and assisted by medical personnel.

“I still remember that race. At 42 kilometers, so to speak, the light went out. I ran from there to the finish line. I ran out of energy completely. Through the medical staff, I was then able to travel home. When you get energy into the machine, it suddenly starts to work”, Matti Heikkinen recalled on Tuesday to HS.

Since then, Heikkinen, who has achieved, among other things, World Championship gold and two World Championship bronzes, fell to 13th place with the speed that heralded a medal in his fifties, which was one of the first in his career.

Heikkinen, the current director of the Finnish Olympic Committee’s elite sports unit, laughed at the view but did not deny that he can even be considered a leading Finnish expert on how to get the most out of yourself in a top-level skiing competition and reach the finish line on the borderlands of consciousness.

This is it it was largely about the case that caused a lot of attention and confusion in many quarters, when the winner of the Tour de Ski tour Frida Karlsson was reportedly even unconscious for a while after reaching the finish line completely exhausted.

“I was able to justify those events to my children, and in fact yesterday during the work day I was able to shed light on these experiences,” Heikkinen said.

How did you explain this to your children?

“I said that when a person really gets out of himself, it takes a while before he recovers. There is nothing dangerous about them in themselves. However, a person has his own limits, that if only the head gives in, then a person is able to take a lot out of himself and go into a very tired state.”

Heikkinen stated that from Karlsson’s quickly accumulated losing seconds, you could tell even before the goal that he was really tight.

“I looked at that situation with quite a calm mind. Of course, something like that always involves the fact that different things can happen to a person during sports performance. When a person falls to the ground, the medical staff should check to make sure everything is okay.”

Weak was known as a skier who even tolerated the accumulation of lactate in his body exceptionally well and who was able to get the most out of himself. His nickname Happo originated from this characteristic.

“I often threw up after scoring a goal or during hard training. It was one of the body’s ways of responding to extreme stress, and it is not dangerous in itself. It may seem dangerous or unpleasant to an outsider if you haven’t been in such situations. However, elite sports are a fairly safe milieu to test the limits of your own performance.”

The most significant and inspiring achievements of Heikkinen’s career were the 50 kilometer (year) World Championship bronze at the home games in Lahti in 2017.

There were also many people in their fifties, whose goal Heikkinen was just like his coach Toni Roponen gladly expressed it.

“Several times after the race I went to the medical staff to check that everything was fine. The ground attracted that much at the finish or things were that confused. After all, it was usually a matter of energy shortage.”

Tour the final climb on the Alpe Cermis ski slope was suitable for Heikkinen, who has a light frame and a strong oxygen absorption capacity, and it was also reflected in the results.

Twice Heikkinen was among the three fastest on the final stage. This happened during the best seasons of his career, when in 2016 he was the third fastest in the closing stages and a year later the second fastest.

In 2016, he was number one in the unofficial times of the actual ascent.

“We were in the strength area there, so the basic level was pretty far enough,” said Heikkinen, who climbed the final climb five times.

Last time in 2017, Heikkinen struggled for third place in the overall competition in Switzerland Dario Cologna and France by Maurice Manificat with but had to settle for fifth.

“It was a really fierce race. Usually, on the final climb, I had already emptied my jacket the day before at the latest. The energy was so low that it was impossible to leave the plane. I’ve been pretty exhausted on the hill, but my body was so worn out so many times before that, that the best blade was left on the way.”