Finnish Pro Team, Team Mäenpää, suffered from illnesses in mid-winter, which still affected their performances in the spring. The problems started during Marcialonga and forced the skiers who were supposed to ski the most races during the winter and collect points for the team, to step aside.

“The season would have gone well if covid had not gripped the team. Viktor Mäenpää fell ill at Marcialonga, even if he was not positive on the tests. Instead, Hannes Mäenpää and Christoffer Lindvall were diagnosed with covid. There were also absences in Vasaloppet. Hannes was still not back in shape at Årefjällsloppet,” Pro Team Director Kim Mäenpää recalls this winter’s events.

Despite the challenging winter, Kim Mäenpää promises that the team’s operation will continue.

“We have promised to support our own skiers as long as they want to ski.”

“During the next month, we will start planning for the next season. The basic structure remains the same. Then, we will look at the women’s side and also if we can recruit more men. It will require some work during the weekends as we have regular jobs to take care of on weekdays.”

Olympian Anne Kyllönen did training camps with Team Mäenpää last summer. Kyllönen will probably be back in the Finnish national team next winter, but there is always room for her in Team Mäenpää.

“My guess is that she will be on the national team. She might ski a couple of long races during the season if any. In any case, she is always welcome to the team.”

The best performances of the season for Team Mäenpää came in the season’s final Ylläs-Levi, where Anne Kyllönen was 13th, and on the men’s side Markus Vuorela, a Finnish national team member, who was recruited for the last race, finished 23rd and Viktor Mäenpää 34th. In Ylläs-Levi, young Robin Mäenpää’s performance also caught the eye, as he finished 64th.

“Robin is 19 years old. He is still interested in traditional distances too. He skied a couple of good long-distance races during this winter.”

Kim Mäenpää points out that Ski Classics currently has many races and that just taking part in all the races requires a lot of resources.

“It is a big challenge in many ways. Waxing and service are also very demanding, and the same person cannot travel with the team every weekend.”

What would it take to improve Finnish long-distance skiing to catch up with the Swedes and Norwegians?

“More money is needed. That is the biggest challenge. We have more teams from Finland than before, but we should try to ensure that those teams have funding in place and that they can take part 100% in all races, and that they have sufficient service and support team. We should strive for professionalism and be able to pay salaries,” says Mäenpää, referring to the top teams in Ski Classics.

“At this point, there is no money at long-distance skiing in Finland. That’s just the way it is.”

However, Mäenpää sees that, overall, long-distance skiing in Finland has taken steps forward and the sport is attracting more and more people.

“The prize money for the Ski Classics is higher than in the World Cup, so that should be an attractive point too.”