The Finnish sportsreporters voted the athlete of the year again and the big prizegiving event was held last Monday. As I wrote before (and I wrote even more in Finnish) I was quite sure that my golds in the middle and in the relay wouldn’t be enough for the titel. I even criticized the nature of the title in public before the event as I really think that it’s not possible to compare for instance figure skating with orienteering.
Anyway, when they announced my name in the gala, I couldn’t believe it. My head was just empty and I didn’t know what to say or do. Well, afterwards I even got a little bit crazy when the reporters were taking photos of me with the cup.
My wildish behaviour and my criticism towards the prize I won, got me in the middle of big media chaos. I got so much bullshit from many places that I couldn’t see the fact that most of the messages were, in fact, positive. I was even a bit scared.
However, after many busy days of interviews, it was a relief to get back on track again. And track it was already on Friday when the new sprint national team’s training camp started in Vantaa. I was very motivated and the discussions were interesting and trainings hard.
Next week, I’ll be starting with some new “methods” in running on track and in strength trainings as well. In between, I’ll also continue my teacher studies. The one thing that I wont do is answering my phone or taking some interviews. I want to take some nice and quiet time for a while and leave the yellow press without any attention. I got sick of them in two days.
Still, I hope that all the publicity I got is good publicity for orienteering as we’re dependent on visibility as well. Not everyone has to look as crazy and behave as spontaneously as I tend to do but we all should be proud of what we’re doing and we should show other people how great our sports is.
Only one of the athletes of the year,
Minna