Jesper West started skiing before he was school age, competed in it, but his enthusiasm tailed off in high school. Back then, he played basketball, volleyball, and floorball with his friends. When West was 22, his friends managed to lure him into participating at Vasaloppet.

” My goal was to get to the finish line. I came in around 2400th at the time. When I traveled from Österbotten in the same bus with several top 500 finishers, I thought I wanted to do it too. I started training a bit more for Vasaloppet the following year, and I was around 1400th. I knew I had made huge progress in just one year thanks to not-so-much training,” recalls Jesper West.

On the way home, he found Nordenskiöldsloppet, and that 220km race became his goal for 2018. Before that, West had stepped up his training again, doing several long trainings. He was 43rd out of around 300 starters in the race. It motivated West to put even more effort into his skiing. The winter of 2019 was successful: in Marcialonga, West finished 420th with a starting number of 2638. In Vasaloppet, he was 362nd, the 16th best Finn. Since then, he has put a lot of effort into skiing, but two years without competitions was not easy.

“Finally, in 2022, I got the chance to compete for the Czech team Slavia Pojišťovna Sport Team. I trained hard before the winter.”

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In December, he was at a training camp in Ylläs but fell ill. He rested for 2-3 weeks, after which it was not easy to restart training.

“I struggled through the winter without getting better results. I had a goal to finish in the top 200 in Vasaloppet, but I made a bad choice of skis and ended up in 390th place. But after the race, I felt a bit better and could train normally.”

He then registered for the Nordenskiöldsloppet three days before the event, finished in just under 12 hours, and was 42nd out of 500 starters.

Last season was challenging:

“Last season was nothing like I had hoped for. I would like to be able to train more, but when I work full-time, it isn’t easy. I also have a physical job in the construction industry, and that can be hard on the body.”

“Sports and skiing are my everyday life. I do almost everything based on that. I plan my weekends so that I can do longer workouts. My goal for the coming season is to be healthy and do my best in the races I participate in. I also hope to find sponsors so that I can participate in as many races abroad as possible. I also hope to prove that a top recreational athlete can compete at a high level,” concludes West.