“The most important thing was to climb the tower with skis!

Finland’s Eero Hirvonen really did not have an easy summer. After a strong season with multiple podiums and a Top Ten finish, Hirvonen’s knee acted up and needed treatment that cost the Finn most of his summer training. After a quick visit to the World Cup in Ruka, TUESDAY TALK caught up with the 22-year-old.

First of all, good to have you back competing after you had to take care of your knee problems over the summer. How is the status of the knee now and how much training are you still missing due to the injury?

Eero Hirvonen: Thank you! It's really great to be back to competing! The knee is getting better all the time but it's not at 100% yet. I can do some jumping training and power training for legs now but it will take more time before I am back in normal training. However, it's sure that we will need to make some compromises in training during this season.

The weekend in Ruka was not the best for the Finnish team this year. How satisfied were you with your 30th position, especially in light of your recovery process?

Hirvonen: It’s true, the start for this season has been quite difficult for our team and we have to think about what the reasons are for that because (once again) most of our problems are in the jumping part. But the other guys had a good summer so I believe that results will get better sooner or later.

For me, Ruka was more like a training, but still I think that I could have done better in my favourite hill, even though I only had a grand total of three jumps in the five months before Ruka. But it was nice to see that my skiing is on good level and even after that bad jump, I was able to get that one World Cup point. But of course the most important thing for me was to be there and be able to climb to the tower with skis!

You chose to not compete in Lillehammer the following weekend. What were the main reasons for the break?

Hirvonen: I knew only a couple days before Ruka that I would be competing. It was possible because we were in Finland but it wasn't the original plan to start my season there. So, the weekend in Lillehammer was just too soon after Ruka for me.

We knew that three competitions in a row would have been quite heavy for the knee. I also wanted to stay home for training and get more jumps before competing more so I could perform better later this season.

How will your programme for the next few weeks look like? Will we see you in Ramsau am Dachstein?

Hirvonen: My plan for next weeks is to find my good jumping again! (laughs) But yes, my plan also includes competing in Ramsau. Before that I would like to get few more jumping trainings in Finland in and then we are travelling to Ramsau on Monday before the competitions.

Due to operational reasons, the Nordic Combined World Cup has two off-weekends now. Does this break actually play into your cards right now with recovery and training as a top priority?

Hirvonen: With Ramsau being scheduled one week later in December, it gives me one more week for jumping training before coming back to competitions. And obviously it should help me to perform little better in Ramsau because right now every training and every jump is important. I think that even if there would have been competitions soon after Lillehammer I would have focused on training.

You had a good season with a Top Ten finish in the overall World Cup and 5 podium positions. Have you picked out a specific goal for this winter?

Hirvonen: Right now my goals are just to stay healthy and get in better shape step by step. On first competition weekends, I really don't have big expectations for results but I hope that I will get in better shape every week and then be in top shape in Seefeld for the World Championships.