FIS News
Athlete of the Week: Ilkka Herola (FIN)
Technically speaking, his might not have been the best results of the weekend as Germany’s Fabian Rießle proved hard to beat in that category with a first and a second rank but true to the spirit of the Nordic Combined „Athlete of the Week“ which honours special performances on all levels of the sport, this week’s chosen athlete’s achievement is nothing short of outstanding.
What 20-year-old Ilkka Herola has achieved for himself personally and, maybe even more importantly, for the sport of Nordic Combined in his native country of Finnland cannot be valued highly enough. Starting out on the highest level of the World Cup in the winter of 2012/13 when the great Nordic Combined nation of Finnland was at its lowest, Herola quickly developed into a beacon of hope at just 17 years of age. At this point all other legendary Finnish athletes like Hannu Manninen, Samppa Lajunen or Anssi Koivuranta had either ended their careers or switched disciplines and the remaining athletes like Janne Ryynänen, who had at least three podium positions to his name, were not in shape. Coupled with financial problems for the Finnish Ski Association, the once proud Nordic Combined nation was facing a heap of rubble.
It took four years of careful coaching by the coaching staff around head coach Petter Kukkonen to get a Finnish athlete back to the point where he can contend for the podium. On the past Saturday, the grand moment had arrived: after closely missing the podium at the World Cup finals in Oslo last winter, Herola finally took the leap and grabbed rank three, beating out Austrian World Champion Bernhard Gruber for the coveted position. Suddenly, Nordic Combined was the only discipline on that particular weekend that featured a Finn on the podium, a situation noticed in the Northern European country with astonishment. The sensation was perfect: Finnland had returned on the radar of Nordic Combined countries.
When an athlete as young as Herola suddenly finds himself in the spotlight of attention and is required to take over the position of a team leader for the Olympics in Sochi and two World Championships at a point when he is still also competing at the Junior World Championships and should be able to grow slowly in the shadow of stronger, older and more mature teammates, it takes a very strong character and excellent support from the coaching staff to not shatter under the pressure.
As for many, Herola’s way to this triumph was not always straight. Two fourth places at the Junior World Championships in Liberec in 2013, a point in time when he was used to Top 15 results in the World Cup already, were a bitter personal defeat and did not give him and his team any personal start right for the World Cup in this winter. A fact he rectified one year later by taking the silver in Val di Fiemme 2014 right before travelling to his first Olympics in Sochi.
Since then, Herola has matured into an athlete to be reckoned with, who understands that the Finnish sponsors and media need a face to tie Nordic Combined to and that in this role, he has to help his whole team out with good results. After he has now shown that success is possible, he will be even more important to his team than before, to keep the morale and the attention by sponsors and media up. But in the light of his great development, we are quite certain we haven’t seen the last of Ilkka Herola yet. Welcome back, Finland.
What 20-year-old Ilkka Herola has achieved for himself personally and, maybe even more importantly, for the sport of Nordic Combined in his native country of Finnland cannot be valued highly enough. Starting out on the highest level of the World Cup in the winter of 2012/13 when the great Nordic Combined nation of Finnland was at its lowest, Herola quickly developed into a beacon of hope at just 17 years of age. At this point all other legendary Finnish athletes like Hannu Manninen, Samppa Lajunen or Anssi Koivuranta had either ended their careers or switched disciplines and the remaining athletes like Janne Ryynänen, who had at least three podium positions to his name, were not in shape. Coupled with financial problems for the Finnish Ski Association, the once proud Nordic Combined nation was facing a heap of rubble.
It took four years of careful coaching by the coaching staff around head coach Petter Kukkonen to get a Finnish athlete back to the point where he can contend for the podium. On the past Saturday, the grand moment had arrived: after closely missing the podium at the World Cup finals in Oslo last winter, Herola finally took the leap and grabbed rank three, beating out Austrian World Champion Bernhard Gruber for the coveted position. Suddenly, Nordic Combined was the only discipline on that particular weekend that featured a Finn on the podium, a situation noticed in the Northern European country with astonishment. The sensation was perfect: Finnland had returned on the radar of Nordic Combined countries.
When an athlete as young as Herola suddenly finds himself in the spotlight of attention and is required to take over the position of a team leader for the Olympics in Sochi and two World Championships at a point when he is still also competing at the Junior World Championships and should be able to grow slowly in the shadow of stronger, older and more mature teammates, it takes a very strong character and excellent support from the coaching staff to not shatter under the pressure.
As for many, Herola’s way to this triumph was not always straight. Two fourth places at the Junior World Championships in Liberec in 2013, a point in time when he was used to Top 15 results in the World Cup already, were a bitter personal defeat and did not give him and his team any personal start right for the World Cup in this winter. A fact he rectified one year later by taking the silver in Val di Fiemme 2014 right before travelling to his first Olympics in Sochi.
Since then, Herola has matured into an athlete to be reckoned with, who understands that the Finnish sponsors and media need a face to tie Nordic Combined to and that in this role, he has to help his whole team out with good results. After he has now shown that success is possible, he will be even more important to his team than before, to keep the morale and the attention by sponsors and media up. But in the light of his great development, we are quite certain we haven’t seen the last of Ilkka Herola yet. Welcome back, Finland.
Source: fis-ski.com
