Last week Tanja Poutiainen pulled off a sporting stunt the like of which has been seen all too infrequently among Finns in recent years.
What she did was to succeed almost 100% at the very moment, or moments, when success was most expected of her.
This is not a feat that Finnish sportsmen and -women have been able to perform very often. By contrast, there is generally a veritable wealth of underachievers at the major sporting gatherings in any given year. One only has to look back to what happened to fancied competitors at the Athens Olympics.
Poutiainen had humungous expectations loaded on her shoulders, and she managed to respond to them with the most admirable grit and aplomb. This takes some pretty serious mental toughness, regardless of how much she might have said she "felt no pressure" going into the Championships.
Over the course of this winter it has become clear that only now has Poutiainen matured into a real winner-type, capable of making maximum use of her undoubted abilities.
One of the hallmarks of a winner is that he or she does not fall into the trap of trying too hard. Alpine skiing is very much one of those disciplines where gripping the sticks until your knuckles turn white leads nowhere at all. Sure, risks have to be taken, but only in moderation.
Poutiainen is such a gifted and confident skier that she did only as much as she knows how to.
She didn't need anything more.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 12.2.2005
