The new top jacket men are in trouble with Finnish ski women

Santtu Silvennoinen

Coach Ville Maunuksela and maintenance manager Heikki Tonteri have had a nightmare start, writes Santtu Silvennoinen.

Today at 12:31

The start of the 2023–24 season for Finnish women’s skiing has been bad. In the archive photo, Anne Kyllönen (left) and Krista Pärmäkoski in the foreground. Jussi Saarinen

Ville Maunuksela, the rookie responsible coach of the women’s A national team, and Heikki Tonteri, the rookie maintenance manager of the Finnish Ski Federation, have had a nightmare start.

The level of Finnish female skiers in free progression has been poor last Sunday in the 20 kilometers of the Ruka World Cup and on Saturday in the ten kilometers of the Jällivaara mc.

Last week, the only Finn who made it into the top 30 was Vilma Ryytty (28th). On Saturday, Kerttu Niskanen (22nd place), Krista Pärmäkoski (25th) and Ryytty (30th) reached the old points.

Did Finland’s service fail on Saturday in Sweden in the same way as last Sunday in the Northeast?

Is practicing collectively wrong?

Were enough ski tests done before the start of the season?

These are the questions on the lips of the skiing people after Saturday’s stomach crash.

Maunuskela’s influence on the training season of Finland’s number one women has been marginal. Pärmäkoski and Niskanen spent the summer on their own.

Tonteri got sick after Ruka, and didn’t travel to Jällivaara. Petri Koivisto ran the fat war in Sweden.

In the previous two seasons, the November-December competitions have been sticky for the first duo Niskanen–Pärmäkoski, until closer to Christmas they have risen to the top.

Two weeks from now, Trondheim will sweat 20 kilometers of combined skiing and ten traditional ones, that is, fairly suitable mittelots for Finns. If even the preliminaries of the World Cup slip away from the Finns collectively under the bench, the northern wind progresses through the warm top coats of the newcomers to the bones and cores.

Of course, sometimes it has been even worse than now. In January 1994, the best Finn in Oslo World Cup freestyle 15 kilometers was Mari Hietala, who finished 34th. The difference to the hemoglobin monster Ljubov Yegorova who won the race was 4.25. The other Finns were Hanne Lahtinen (ranked 44), Milla Jauho (49), Marke Rautiala (51) and Mareena Brännare (63).