Ari Palolahti, 53, made a comeback

– The taste was hard. I had to keep myself tight, and I got rid of myself. Pikkanen snapped at the end. The ski was great, the best of the race.

This is how Finland’s all-time sprint skier bundled Ari Palolahti, 53, on Saturday in Ounasvaara. Palolahti made a comeback for the Finnish Championship tracks after years, when the man participated in the Finnish Championships in the Rovaniemi Marathon Skiers team.

– Marathon skiers searched for a group of messages. I agreed after a little deliberation. On Friday night, a little began to frighten if it was the wrong place to raise his hand. Now I am in a good mood again, even though it was a hard and grueling track.

He skied the third leg of the 4×10 mile post in free-range. The man was ranked 29/33. The difference between the one with the fastest time Iivo Niskaseen accumulated 5.24.3.

– Getting around is a way of life for me. Last year I skied exactly 2,000 kilometers and this season is already 2,000 kilometers full. Going on rollers during the summer makes it easier to start skiing in the fall.

The condition is ironic, but the pace is gone.

– It’s completely gone. There is no sensitivity, no speed and no strength, so there is no momentary momentum. More is going at a steady deadly pace.

The only one in Finland

Palolahti can be called Finland’s all-time male sprint skier, as he is still the only Finnish man to have won the World Cup. The sport has been in the World Cup since the mid-1990s.

– The competition has grown tremendously since my time, when there are many more hard-working “sliders”. In previous years, Finland had potential men in Finland, but did not succeed. Now On the hill with Jon is an excellent season below. He could be named the next winner.

The star of Palolahti occurred on December 10, 1997, when he was ventilating the pole on a cycling velodrome in Milan. At that time, 16 skiers advanced to the time trial and two athletes skied in the batches. In the final, the Finn defeated Tobias Fredriksson from Sweden.

– Victory is a thing of the past, but it was great to take it. The following year, the mat head was not in place and there were too few laps in the semi-finals of the ski.

MM-Nelonen

Palolahti was third in the World Cup in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in December 1998 and in Nove Mesto in February 2001.

– The sprint took shape at the time, with occasional batches of two, four or six skiers. Sometimes they went so narrowly that even the two men were cramped.

At Lahti’s infamous World Championships in Skiing in 2001, Lapland was fourth in the sprint.

– It ‘s annoying, among other things, when Pirjo (Muranen) and Kati (Russian) took a double win in the sprint, but it paid so little attention to it all.

Palolahti was not involved in doping carts.

– Of the old friends, I like to contact the most Isometsän Jarin with. Ax of Harrin we sometimes communicate with.

Domination

The Rovaniemi Marathon Skiers was the third to last in Saturday’s Finnish Championship announcement, but Palolahti’s ex-club Alatornia Pirkat dominated domestic announcements in the late 1990s.

Gold came in 1995 and 1997–99. Palolahti and Isometsä were included every time.

In 2003, Palolahti and Sami Jauhojärvi aired the SM gold of the pair.

– Pirko had a tough team. At the 2004 Finnish Championships in Rovaniemi, we had a tough fight who would ski in a double. The best two from the normal trip to the pair were inspected, and Sami and Jari got into the number one team. They won gold. I was fourth on the second team.

Since then, the legendary club has withered away.

– The team left: the drivers and the skiers. They are one and the same people in every company that cares that there are athletes, helpers and everything. When we could raise the helpers and companion locomotives for a while, the job would continue.

As an arbitrator

The man who built the house in Rovaniemi in 1996 has worked for the Border Guard for 30 years. The positions have been in Ylitornio, Rovaniemi and in recent years in Salla.

The family includes a wife and three children, the eldest of whom has moved to his own.

The host whistles dozens of matches every year as a football referee.

Next weekend, the number tag will be on his chest again, but this time he will be wearing running shoes and a bear message from Rauma to Pori.