Wexi Korhonen was confined to a wheelchair due to an accident. Juha Veli Jokinen
A year and a half ago, he received 18 championship-level medals in precision skydiving Wexi Korhonen73, slipped in a toilet on a tiled floor at night in Spain, hit his head and suffered a fractured skull and external bleeding on the brain.
The cerebellum was also damaged in that blow.
The accident took away the ability to balance and made the veteran athlete, who had jumped more than 3,500 jumps without major injuries, partially disabled.
For hours he lay helpless on the floor in a pool of blood, screaming for help in vain, knocking on the floor and waiting for help.
– Fortunately, my friend had a key to my apartment, and I finally got help. I was rushed to hospital in Fuengirola, where I lay for weeks. Then I went to Finland by plane and from the field by ambulance to different hospitals for examinations and treatments for several weeks.
– A whole year passed in hospitals. My ability to balance went and there are also memory lapses, but my faith is strong. The purpose would still be to get out of this wheelchair and walk, in my dreams to still get on the plane with a shadow on my back, says Wexi.
He rolls in his wheelchair in the middle of moving boxes in his new home at the Kotilinna Foundation’s senior house.
– One concussion has occurred in jumping, but I have also avoided dangerous situations during my jumping career.
A man who has written a dozen or so adventure books and detective stories sometimes has to think about years and dates for a moment during an interview.
– I’m getting physiotherapy and trying to rehabilitate, the last detective story was also left unfinished and I’m going to finish that too. As far as I’m concerned, I’m done with skydiving, I don’t jump anymore.
From glider pilot to skydiver
Wexi Korhonen got excited about skydiving at a young age. Wexi Korhonen’s home album
Korhonen started his aviation hobby as a 15-year-old glider pilot.
100 hours of experience were accumulated in that sport. The hobby of flying ended when the young hobbyist saw a fatal accident at close range.
– I was such a paragliding boy, but the accident shocked me. The dead pilot was covered with a parachute. Then there was an internship in Utti in 1968–69 as a paratrooper. I already had 24 jumps there. I jumped the first SC Games in 1970, even though I was not a licensed jumper.
In parachuting, the young man was fascinated by the excitement and its control. The field is entered in different conditions, and the speed can be 200 kilometers per hour.
Korhonen has jumped at the Olympic Games in Seoul, in the Swiss Alps and in clear weather in the Florida sun. In Seoul, skydiving was the opening sport.
– One of the most exciting jumps was to jump in front of the public on Tammerkoski beach, in the middle of the city, on Tampere day. I was the only one who agreed to it in the strong and challenging westerly wind for jumping. The Tampere Parachute Club received a reward for it and it was supposed to dare to do a show jump and make money for the club, says Korhonen, who was one of the founders and driving forces of the Tampere Parachute Club.
Korhonen gained his fitness and endurance from cross-country running and endurance running in Tampere’s Pyrinnö at a young age.
– Then the kilometer was completed on the terrain in 3.09.
Mind control
During rehabilitation, Wexi Korhonen continues his unfinished book. Juha Veli Jokinen
Skydiving has given Korhonen mental control, which was difficult for a lively young person. Now the ex-athlete has a new phase in his life, recovering from an injury.
A former jumper, a well-traveled and always active, he is confined to a wheelchair.
– I was such an adhd boy, lively and fast. The hobby of aviation brought mind control and thoughtfulness to my life. It’s calming and focused, when jumping performance is always about your own spirit.
– I tried to go to the Air Force School in Kauhava once, but my skills weren’t enough for that. My most amazing achievement is definitely personal and our country’s only World Cup medal in precision jumping, which I got in 1987. The sport has suction and attraction, the community is tight and we speak an international language.
The jumper, one of the most experienced in our country, is rehabilitating and intends to write the end of the story of the crime detective Kari Salo.
– I think what has fascinated me in writing and detective work is the perfect murder – is there such a thing?