Wie ist eure Meinung dazu? Und was denkt ihr wird sich im Team der Spezis verÀndern?
I'm little worried this may cause same kind of problems Rane's comeback did. And I'm also worried that there will be too much pressure for Anssi from the media and public.
Finnish media, or parts of it (mainly MTV3), have received the news like they expect Anssi to be some kind of saviour of Finnish ski jumping (again same thing as it was with Rane last year.) They expect lot from him (and by lot I mean being top ten or better in World Cup, being Finland's second best jumper after Rane etc.) And same with people who write to message boards etc. The line of thought seems to be that now Finland will have good chances for medal at the Oslo because we have Ahonen and Koivuranta.
No one seems to remember, that last year Anssi wasn't even the best ski jumper in combi. And that though he has once won a Finnish Championship, Harri Olli was the only A team level jumper present at that competition. And for him it was a bad competition. And while Anssi was fifth in Lahti and not much behind Rane two weeks ago, it should be remembered that Rane has not jumped that impressively this summer and also Harri, who was third, has lately been very bad and even Kalle, who won, haven't been as good lately than in August. And that you can never take a national competition and use it as a comparison to WC level (gates etc. are so different.)
Anssi did very well at Wisla and I'm sure he has realistic goals (being in Ruka's national group etc.) but some reporters and other people have gone wild. For example Porttila basically suggests that Anssi should be chosen to World Cup competitions after Ruka instead of for example Matti, Kalle or Harri (I'm not sure about the Finnish quote but according to Porttila it is four jumpers, and he implies that Rane and Anssi should be the sure choices, so it would leave Matti, Kalle or Harri out.) What will this kind of pressure do to Anssi?
Anssi is very popular athlete in Finland and he has the most perfect image and is a media favourite. This may well be same kind of situation they had last year. Or even worst. Rane at least was very established jumper even though coming from the one year off, but Anssi is what? Good jumper, yes, could do well in ski jumping, yes, but still. How will for example Kalle feel about this? I mean, he has really been the best Finn this summer and improved a lot and now it's common belief in finnish media that he should be kicked out of the competing team because of some combi jumper who is too ill to do combi. Auch!
I sincerely hope this will be handled better than Rane's comeback but I'm afraid it may be difficult.
Aber was anderes hat man von ihm auch nicht erwartet...:up: 