Finnish skier Heikki Korpela, who has lived in Norway for many years, wants to bring Norwegian skiing culture to Finland, where, according to him, the mindset still needs to change.

Korpela describes the Norwegian skiing culture as open and limitless. According to him, getting involved in high-level common training and camps is easy.

Last Saturday, Korpela organized the “We are the Ski Family Syöte” event, a new roller skiing competition part of the Ski Classics Challengers series, after which a training camp open to everyone began.

“The idea came from my experience with things that work well in Norway. I wanted to make a common camp without borders and set an example of working together,” says Korpela to Maastohiihto.com.

In Korpela’s opinion, one big reason for Norway’s skiing success is the culture of working together.

“If you want to be a better athlete, you must join other athletes. When other people are involved, it boosts you to train even harder. Of course, you must know your limits because the load can get quite heavy if you always do hard training.”

Usually, Finns are more successful in individual starts than mass start events. Active training in a group develops skiing with others, even in competitive situations.

“Even if there is a big group and top skiers next to you, you should keep relaxed and, above all, take advantage of the group and find that relaxation in the group’s pace. It usually requires big group training sessions or even roller skiing competitions, which are many in Norway. There is an insane level, and we go at high speeds. They are good athletes.”

Norway can be a model for Finland

Korpela says joining the national team’s training in Norway is easier than in Finland. In his opinion, even in Finland, the national team could organize individual training sessions open to all athletes.

“In Finland, the international level is only in the A national team. Different clubs could also cooperate and get skiers together so that other clubs could also participate in the camps.”

Korpela suggests sharing responsibility more broadly at the club and local level.

“Many club officials have said that it is difficult when you have to lead the team alone. Coordination at the local level, for example, has not always been successful, so everyone would commit to it. Surely it could be improved on every level.”

According to Korpela, individual athletes should also strive to be more and more open and, for example, gather a group for training.

“I know that there are open-minded athletes who involve the group well and put hard work into training.”

“The culture is improving, and I think Finnish skiing has gotten better and is in the right direction,” says Korpela.

Read More: Challengers’ We are the Ski Family Syöte’ in Finland 

Also Read: Karppanen and Ryytty winners of ‘We are the Ski Family Syöte’ 2023