600 kilometres from home - Riina Hautala, 18, moves from Oulu to Helsinki to pursue her hobby of synchronized skating

Riina Hautala

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By Johannes Laitila
     
      If one wants to reach the top in Finnish synchronized skating, one has to move to the capital area.
      Riina Hautala, 18, did just that.
      Last summer she left her northern home city of Oulu behind - and for no other reason than to pursue her passion, synchronized skating.
      “The main reason was that I wanted to advance in my career”, Hautala says.
      “Since I was a very little girl I have admired the teams in the capital area, hoping that one day I would make it there.”
      Hautala transferred to complete the third and last year of her upper secondary education at a Helsinki school, Pohjois-Haagan Yhteiskoulu.
      She also made it onto the Helsingfors Skridskoklubb's Team Mystique Finnish Junior Championship squad.
     
In synchronized skating, the best senior teams in the country have concentrated in the Greater Helsinki area.
      And when one is on top in synchronized skating in Finland, one is also invariably on top of the sport in the world, as the linked articles should indicate.
      “It would be fantastic to advance to the seniors. In Oulu there were no such teams”, Hautala says.
      According to Hautala, the biggest difference between Team Mystique and her previous synchronized skating team in Oulu is that in Helsinki the “tempo of training is so much harder”.
      On Saturday, Team Mystique took part in the Helsinki area championships and came in fourth in the Finnish Junior Championship series.
      The competition was won by Helsingin Taitoluisteluklubi’s Team Fintastic.
      In the Finnish Senior Championship series, victory went to HSK’s Team Unique.
      Helsingin Luistelijat's Marigold Ice Unity finished second.
      The Rockettes of Helsingin Taitoluisteluklubi did not take part in this competition, but as the three-time World Champions (2008, 2010, and 2011), it was not because they were not considered good enough.
      Marigold Ice Unity, by the way, are also three-time world Champions and were runners-up to the Rockettes last year and in 2010.
     
Riina Hautala began the concrete transition towards her dream in mid-July, when she moved into a studio flat in the Helsinki district of Pohjois-Haaga, near her new school.
      “Naturally Helsinki is completely different compared with Oulu, but actually everything has worked out really well”, Hautala says.
      “The biggest change has been that I now have to take care of everything by myself at home”, Hautala continues. “But my desire to invest so much in skating has helped me to manage with everything else as well.”
      And the discipline does require a lot - at least in terms of money and time.
      There are practices and competitions, one has to move from one place to the next, and there are expensive outfits to purchase.
      ”The high costs are a necessary evil with this sport”, Hautala explains.
     
Apart from skating, Hautala does not really have any other hobbies.
      “I don’t really have time for anything else. In the morning I go to school and from there to skating practice. I will usually be back home at eight o’clock in the evening”, Hautala describes her day.
      She has two practice-free days per week, but on the days she trains the sessions often last for up to four hours.
      In addition to skating Hautala wants to concentrate on school, with final exams for university entrance looming on the horizon.
      Does she have any future plans that do not include skating?
      “Yes, quite a few”, is her reply. “I would like to study to become an architect.”
     
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 15.1.2012


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Finnish teams take historic 1-2 at Synchronized Skating World Championships (11.4.2011)

See also:
  Rockettes receive surprise invitation to Turkmenistan (13.9.2011)

Links:
  Synchronized Skating (Wikipedia)
  ISU - Synchronized Skating
  2012 World Synchronized Skating Championships, Gothenburg

JOHANNES LAITILA / Helsingin Sanomat
johannes.laitila@hs.fi