Athlete of the Week: Ilkka Herola (FIN)

Even though he said in last week’s TUESDAY TALK that he is looking forward to have highlight results in future seasons, a first highlight maybe came faster than expected: after a solid season of Top Ten results, Ilkka Herola finally returned to the podium with the third place in Trondheim a little more less a year after his last individual podium result in Oslo (NOR) in March 2019.

Herola excels in the cross-country part, as wearing the red bib of the fastest skier proves but was always a tiny bit too far away in ski jumping to challenge the strong Norwegian ski jumpers. In the race on Saturday, he finally came into striking distances with a jump of 120.5 metres and one minute and 26 seconds to make up on leader Jarl Magnus Riiber but more importantly, ahead of his fast rivals Jørgen Graabak and Vinzenz Geiger.

As Herola is known as a fast skier but not the fastest sprinter, he Finn knew that his only way to the podium was to lose all other contenders on the track and so he set a blistering pace that only local hero Jørgen Graabak was able to match. Given this fact, it was clear that Herola could not prevail against one of the strongest finishers in the field but he demanded Graabak’s utmost to take his second place, which became apparent by the amount of time the exhausted Norwegian lay prone in the finish after the race.

“For the cross-country race, I had the tactic that I wanted to make everyone drop out of the pursuing group”, Herola analysed after the finish. “But of course, Jørgen was stronger here in front of his home crowd. I am still very happy with the result and compliments to Jørgen, he did a great job today.”

Herola is only the eighth athlete to make it to a Nordic Combined individual podium this year and with him, Finland is the fourth nation to take that step. For the team, Herola’s success comes right ahead of their last home World Cup at Lahti, which saw Herola and teammate Eero Hirvonen take a victory in the Team Sprint after many years without Finnish wins on the highest level.

For his tenacity, willpower and patience that he displayed this season, Ilkka Herola is our Athlete of the Week!