Sensation on the track! Maister became Finland’s most successful skier

When it goes, it goes. Skier of marathon trips Kati Roivas29, has taken the same number of podium places in the five most recent Ski Classics series competitions.

– Incredibly good season so far. Even better than I could have expected, Roivas commented.

Marcialonga is the most famous of the prize pool races in Finland. Roivas pumped up in the Val di Fiemme valley in Italy in a 70 kilometer race to third place.

Roivas is the most successful Finnish skier of the 2023–24 season so far, if podium positions are used as a measure. Kerttu Niskanen has reached the podium three times in the World Cup.

– The team changed for this season. With that, I can only focus on sports. There is a more professional approach than before and the resources are in order.

Last season, the Finn competed for the Norwegian Team Näringsbanken until he signed a two-year deal with the Swedish Team Eksjöhus in the spring of 2023.

In the marathon skiing series, the team clearly has a greater influence on the athlete’s final result than the national teams in the normal distances World Cup: long camp, common coach and team tactics of the competitions.

To Alaska

Roivas, who was born in Kontiolahti in North Karelia and grew up in Liperi near Joensuu, won three medals in the junior championships.

In the 2010s, the woman got a place to study at the University of Eastern Finland.

After the 2015 Universiade, the University of New Mexico contacted me and offered me a place to study. The Karelian said yes.

– I was outside the youth national team in Finland, but in the USA all the frameworks were in order, starting with competent coaching.

There was a lot of roller skiing in New Mexico and snowshoeing in the mountains of Colorado.

Two years passed in a state known for deserts, until an invitation to the University of Alaska came.

– I am curious to see new things. It was a unique opportunity, so I wanted to take it, says the skier who speaks the Karelian dialect with an American accent.

In 2019, the gig behind the rapako was over and the psychology bachelor’s papers were in my pocket. The degree was completed in Finland as a master’s degree in educational sciences.

Home in France

Roivas met a French skier in the United States. They ended up in a relationship and now live in the gentleman’s hometown of Chamonix at the foot of Europe’s highest mountain, Mont Blanc.

– I wouldn’t see myself anywhere else. I am happy with the choices I have made.

Until last summer, Roivas worked as an English-Finnish-English translator, but the new stable location enables professional sports.

– My boyfriend and I speak English. In France, I can take care of everyday things and understand 90 percent of what other people say.

Toes in the headlines

Roivas tried marathon skiing for the first time in the 2019–20 season. The debut trip went so well that the Finn got a contract with the French team.

– I have always liked the traditional and especially the push-up. When I started long-distance skiing, I knew that the top is not very far. Every year I have been able to improve.

Lower back pain is an occupational disease of pushers, but the Finn says he has stayed in shape. He emphasizes strengthening the middle body in his training.

– The legs also have to be pumped, because the upper body alone does not work, Roivas reminds.

– Training is not terribly different from skiers on normal trips. When you train for 4–5 hours with rollers, power is done in the middle or at the end of the exercise. The power cycle is always done in a tired state in order to simulate competitions, this season the Finn, who has been training for more than 900 hours, continues.

In January 2021, the Finn’s toes were severely frostbitten in the La Diagonela competition in Switzerland. He was in home care for a month and the worst scenario was amputation of the big toe. The story had a happy ending.

Nowadays, Roivas always wears thermal socks when skiing in freezing weather.

Criticism

The Ski Classics series has received criticism, as some skiers consider the straight push to be a very unaesthetic and stupid way of progressing.

– If you don’t like it, you can watch something else. There’s always someone with something to say.

The last time Roivas has competed in Finland on a normal route after his frostbite accident was in March 2021 in the traditional ten of the Ristijärvi SM Games. He was ranked 59th and was the winner Krista Pärmäkoski accumulated five minutes.

– I knew I wouldn’t get a proper performance, so it’s not worth evaluating the result. I was there purely because I want to be on the line.

In the 70-kilometer Ylläs–Levis, part of the Ski Classics series, Roivas was the tenth best Finn in 2022 and defeated e.g. Anne Kyllönen (ranked 13).

How would it be for you in the 30 km traditional intermediate start of the Rovaniemi National Championship in April?

– Thirty is a short distance for me, 50 kilometers would be better, Roivas begins.

– I could at least finish in the top ten, it would probably be better, he adds.