Tremendous passion for running since age of 6. World’s TOP2 time at the age of 16. National team. Selection for the Olympic Days in Portugal. Team of a physiotherapist, masseur, federation, sponsors. The coach’s knowledge of programming is top notch. Ability to train endless.
Simultaneously.. The list of injuries: endless. List of unfinished seasons: long. It wasn’t until I was 19 that I received instructions from the Federation to visit the best professionals in Finland. Even this caused a stir around me, and without a strong mind, it would certainly have been a much more negative starting point to change the direction of the traigning program.
One regular morning at seven o’clock I ended up seeing physiotherapist Jarmo Ahonen. The others’ specialists calendars were full, but Jami stretched his day to help me. My father drove me from Tampere to the appoiuntment, which marked the beginning of 18 years of close cooperation. Over the years, I learned walking and running again.
I got to enjoy sports at times, but I had found the right direction for my career too late. Or maybe, even after four years of the process, I should have sitll believed in intact years. The collaboration with Jami continued after my sports career. We worked in coaching teams and later as an employment relationship. During my studies, I did over 500 hours of extra training under his guidance.
The most impressive thing for an athlete in Jami’s doctrine was that there was always a way to do it. My own desires and goals mattered and Jami was looking for solutions. From that time, the most important lesson I learned for my profession was that difficulties are always an opportunity and that creating faith works wonders for a person.
On the other hand, thoughts arose about how early intervention, how could some professional coaching and support affected my career? I had been a very active child, I practiced many different sports, always did the maintenance exercises and I had a team around me. Nevertheless.. the list of injuries was endless. What went wrong? That was a question I wanted to find an answer to in order to give a proper change of a professional career to more children.