Jasmin Kähärä sighs deeply before starting to tell about his summer trials.
The 26-year-old skier had to rest completely for three months: from May to the end of July.
“It was an athlete’s nightmare, which one has always feared,” he says.
Kähärä had a couple of different diseases in the spring after the competition season. The symptoms became “pretty bad”.
“I had already recovered in a way and tried to start exercising, but I was left with special symptoms. They were investigated, and they found a little extra fluid in the heart and inflammation in the pericardial area.”
After this kind of news, it was clear that there is no need for a jogging path for a long time.
“At first it seemed impossible,” he admits.
Luck the accident was that Kähärä moved from Vuokatti to Espoo shortly after the forced rest order.
Southern Finland called because his spouse, an ex-skier Verneri Poikonengot a job from Norra. Poikonen has trained as a commercial pilot.
Jasmin Kähärä and Verneri Poikonen at Linna’s party 2023.
The move gave Kähärä something else to think about and a little work to do.
“Fortunately, I was no longer in Vuokatti, where skiing would have been visible around me all the time. It would certainly have been hard to watch other people’s training next to me, when I couldn’t do anything myself.”
Of course, the three-month rest period felt like a long time, but Kähärä didn’t stay at the bottom of the bed to ruminate.
“I was able to be in my own bubble, set up a new home and enjoy the summer in the same way as normal people. The summer gave me opportunities to see friends and family and get to know new places here in Southern Finland.”
Sprint skier was allowed to start full weight training only six weeks ago.
His condition had collapsed so badly that he couldn’t even walk with a stick.
“I tried to keep my heart rate under 120, but that was also difficult.”
He ran his first roller skiing runs almost at walking pace.
“At that time I felt if anything would come of this.”
Temperance has been an asset.
“The last couple of weeks have already felt quite normal. The training has been good both quantitatively and effectively.”
Jasmin Kähärä has represented Finland in two Olympic Games and two Adult World Championships.
I curl up it was originally intended to start the current training season with a clean slate. A coaching relationship that lasted for years Jussi Simulan ended with, and was replaced by Ville Oksanen.
Although the table was cleaned more than intended, Kähärä also sees the good in his situation.
“Even though I’m still in bad shape at the moment, I have strong faith in the future. You shouldn’t set terribly high goals for the early season, but I believe that this will be a really good whole in the long run.”
He wanted Oksanen as his coach because he wanted an even more “professional and controlled” approach to his training. It was also a plus that Oksanen, like him, lives in the capital region.
“With Ville, we have been able to focus a lot on technique already in this short time. I have learned new things about it. There is now a clear pattern and repeatability in technique training. When you try to develop something”, it really shows in the training program week after week.
I sprint the under-23 World Cup gold medalist broke through at the World Cup level already five years ago.
In recent years, he has established his level as a skier who almost always advances to the World Cup sprint, but advances to the semi-finals only two or three times a season.
So the development has slowed down at least a little.
“That’s exactly why I wanted to change coaches.”
“The sprint is still my number one distance, and that’s where I have the best potential. However, in the coming years I want to be able to participate in, for example, the relay team and also ski normal distances at a good level.”