“This looked much easier on TV”

Three foreign-born individuals from the Helsinki area sample Winter Olympic events. One might warm up to cross-country skiing, but curling and ski-jumping were found to be rather difficult by the beginners.

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By Ina Mikkola
     
      This is not my thing. I don’t like ice”, frets 22-year-old Somali-born Ali Mohamed on the ice of the Oulunkylä curling hall in Helsinki.
      Mohamed’s friend, John Muyima from Congo, in turn, is already in full swing sliding across the ice with a curling stone in one hand.
      “There’s no way I can do this”, Mohamed hesitates.
     
After some encouragement, however, Mohamed assumes the starting position and propels himself into a slide across the playing area, or the “curling sheet”, to deliver the stone towards the target area called the “house”.
      Staying upright proves difficult, as Mohamed keeps his trailing leg too straight. It should glide lengthwise, grazing the ice.
     
Mohamed was six years old when he moved from Mogadishu to Finland.
      In Somalia one kid out of three plays football - often on a sand pitch using socks rolled together as a ball. Mohamed remembers how he started with the sport by kicking a can.
      Many Africans have never seen snow. In Mohamed’s opinion getting acquainted with snow and Finnishness would naturally happen through winter sports.
      “In school I was able to experiment with ice skating and cross-country skiing. That was a good thing.”
      When watching international sporting events, Mohamed - who is studying to become a youth and leisure instructor - supports Somali athletes, but otherwise he spends more time following Finnish sports.
      Mohamed’s favourite Finnish sportsmen are boxer Amin Asikainen and the NHL ice hockey legend Teemu Selänne. The Winter Olympics in Vancouver, however, went more or less unnoticed by Mohamed.
     
Mohamed and Muyima start clowning around on the ice.
      They try to slide simultaneously but place themselves too close to each other and Mohamed falls down.
      Next Mohamed grabs the curling broom and starts sweeping the ice in front of the stone that Muyima has set in motion. The throw is good, but Mohamed’s sweeping is not sufficiently in line with the trajectory of the stone.
      Mohamed feels curling is a sport that he would not mind trying again some time, even though it is unlikely to ever become his favourite pastime.
      “This looked much easier on TV”, he says with some dismay.
     
     
“Ouououou”, yelps Yont Papadthe, another Helsinki resident with an immigrant background, as she stands up wearing a pair of ski boots in the Paloheinä Sports Park.
      Paloheinä ski service worker Arto Hannolin instructs Papadthe on how to hold the ski poles correctly.
      “Press the sole of your foot against the ground, just like when walking”, Hannolin guides Papadthe in her first slide on skis.
      “Where are the brakes?” Papadthe asks.
      Hannolin advises Papadthe not to lean forward and to stay relaxed.
      “Aaahh, one foot forward at a time! What a great teacher”, Papadthe acknowledges.
     
The 56-year-old skiing beginner hails originally from the countryside of Eastern Thailand, where there was never time for sports as one always had to work.
      Papadthe has lived in Finland for 17 years, but has never once skied or tried any other winter sports.
      But she did follow the skiing events at the Vancouver Olympics.
      “They seemed to run out of juice”, Papadthe frets over the poor success of the Finnish athletes.
     
Papadthe, who studied and qualified as a seamstress in Finland, enjoys swimming, going to sauna, and walking in the woods.
      In her view, acquainting oneself with winter sports is a good idea from the point of view of getting acclimatised to life in Finland.
      But for an immigrant the most important thing - outrunning everything else - is to learn the language.
     
It takes Papadthe less than 15 minutes on the Paloheinä ski-track to get the hang of the basics of skiing.
      “You were born to be on skis”, Hannolin says admiringly.
      Papadthe murmurs under her breath, repeating the ski instructor’s directions.
      Lastly it is time to ski down a small hill.
      At the bottom of the hill gravity gets the better of the aspiring skier, and Papadthe lands on her behind in the soft snow.
     
But she has already become a convert.
      “On my days off I plan to come back and continue practising”, Papadthe enthuses.
      Score one for Finnish winter sports.
     
     
Yet another Helsinki resident of foreign extraction, 10-year-old Aleksandr Pevgonen, climbs purposefully towards the eight-metre hill that has been erected for an exhibition-style ski-jumping event on the Narinkkatori square in Helsinki’s Kamppi.
      The youngster does not admit to experiencing any stage fright, for he has already practiced some ski-jumping before during the school’s PE classes, albeit from a smaller hill.
      “I am the second best ski-jumper in our school”, Pevgonen boasts.
     
Pevgonen was born in Finland, but his mother is originally from Russia and his father from Estonia.
      The third-grader, who has played football for four years, does not follow Estonian athletes’ undertakings. In Russia, however, he has many idols.
     
Across Finland’s eastern border football and ice hockey are popular sports, while ski-jumping is not really on the map.
      Pevgonen’s favourite ski-jumper is the Finnish top dog, veteran Janne Ahonen.
      “It is great to see the jumpers fly like eagles.”
      Of the events at the Vancouver Olympics, Pevgonen followed Finland and Russia’s ice hockey matches, the cross-country skiing, and some ski-jumping.
     
Despite his wishes, the ten-year-old Pevgonen is ultimately not permitted to jump from the top of the Narinkkatori hill, owing to lack of experience.
      Next Pevgonen climbs half way the ramp, but even a four-metre hill looks frighteningly high when viewed from above.
      Pevgonen hesitates and rubs his skis together.
      “No. I feel scared. I do not dare to jump.”
      Through the loudspeakers the onlookers are told that Janne Ahonen has finished fourth (for the umpteenth time) in the normal hill Olympic final.
      This annoys Pevgonen.
      “I think I’ll stick with football”, states the schoolboy who dreams of a career as a professional footballer.
     
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 4.3.2010


Links:
  Curling (Wikipedia)
  Cross-country skiing (Wikipedia)
  Ski-jumping (Wikipedia)

Helsingin Sanomat