Jon Sallinen returned from a two-year break from the competition and landed on the podium.
Jon Sallinen returned from the competition break successfully. Stock photo. EPA / AOP
Finland Jon Sallinen landed on the podium in the freestyle world cup on Sunday. Sallinen was third in the halfpipe in Silvaplana, Switzerland.
Sallinen returned from a break of more than two years. He had last competed on February 17, 2024.
– I had to settle for third place, but I am satisfied with my performance. I’ve only counted three weeks of pipe before this race due to an injury in December. I hope I showed everyone that our man is back in the circles, Sallinen said in Ski Sport Finland’s press release.
The freestyle star was one of Finland’s Olympic hopefuls, but he was injured in December after practicing jumping from snow to a jumping mat. After landing on the mattress, the ski caught the mattress and Sallinen fell. He missed the Olympics due to an upper body injury.
The race break did not slow down the pace in Silvaplana. Sallinen was the best scorer in the qualifiers and got the last starting turn in the final.
In the race organized in windy weather, each calculator had two calculations, of which the better result remained valid. Sallinen collected 85.25 points for his performances.
– The goal was to have such a reliable performance for the first race, and I managed to do it. The wind affected me a bit when I went west [laskeuduin] all the tricks a little at the bottom of the gutter. I wasn’t completely satisfied with it, but the scores were quite good. After the fake double on the second count of the final, it felt like the speed wasn’t enough. I wanted to improve on the first landing, but this time it didn’t work out.
The competition was won by New Zealand Luke Harrold with a score of 93.25. Estonian Henry Sildaru was second (88.00).
