Some good news from the Finnish Alpine Ski Team for a change: The injured racers Marcus Sandell and Jukka Leino are on the mend. Thanks to hard work, both expect to be able to return to the race courses after the Holidays.
Marcus Sandell has been recovering in Rovaniemi and at his home in Helsinki. His focus has been on conditioning rather than skiing. And the progress is significant: following major loss of blood, his blood values are just about back to normal, and his weight has almost reached the previous level.
"I can see visible progress. My side and hip continue to be a bit stiff and I cannot really do everything. The biggest question mark remains how well I will be able stretch the side to reach the best skiing position."
For Sandell, being at home at this time of the year is a rare treat. It has even allowed him to go fishing.
"I am just getting back from fishing, actually. Not a bad catch. The only thing that I have noticed after not having been in Finland in the last five years at this time of the year is that it is quite dark here. We need some snow on the ground, and soon," Sandell commented.
Jukka Leino's knee, too, is healing well. With some luck and more therapy he hopes to return to the slopes after the Holidays. "We've clearly made some progress, but not quite enough yet. In some positions the knee still hurts. At the end of this week I intend to try out skiing just to see how it feels,"said Leino.
On the ladies' side, Tanja Poutiainen who pulled her back training in the US before the races in Aspen has decided to skip the weekend's races in Are (SWE). This although her back is feeling much better.
"I could train normally this week. Had this been the last race of the season I would undoubtedly race. But we have a full schedule after Christmas so I decided to go train at Suomu and Levi. I haven't been able to ski normally for almost three weeks so it will be good to train on snow," Poutiainen commented.
"I now need some GS training and basic conditioning so that I can keep up the pace until and during the Games," she added
