Eveliina Piippo and Remi Lindholm Struggle This Season – Coach Explains Why

Coach Santeri Erola has had plenty to reflect on this season as his two protégés have not been performing at their usual level. Remi Lindholm was seen at Engadin last weekend showing a performance a notch better than usual, while Eveliina Piippo’s season has been more erratic.

According to Erola, the situations of the two cannot be directly compared. Lindholm’s results have been declining, and he has experienced equipment problems, whereas Piippo’s issues are linked to the overall package.

“With Remi, it’s a matter of fine-tuning; with Eveliina, the overall setup just hasn’t been working,” Erola told Yle Urheilu.

Both Lindholm and Piippo are known for their high training volume. Erola sees this as a positive sign, as he believes in the benefits of hard training.

“It goes like this – when you push hard, there’s always some splashing about, especially when you’re trying to raise your level. Both have reached a pretty high standard, and taking that final step is never easy,” he explained.

He added, “It is tougher to figure out what to do next. When we commit to something, we go all in. You just have to be careful and remember to allow time for recovery.”

Remi Lindholm has already shown small signs of recovery at the Engadin World Cup, where his training load was clearly reduced and the intensity slightly lowered to build more speed. Erola noted that although Lindholm’s adjusted training had not yielded the planned results, all test metrics were within acceptable limits. They are monitoring his recovery closely with control sessions, mat tests, and overnight heart rate monitoring, and nothing has indicated overtraining.

Erola is not worried that Lindholm won’t be capable of performing good, competitive races this season, but the concern is whether he can get back to the level of his previous years. Yle Urheilu expert Kalle Lassila commented last weekend in Urheilustudio that this season has been a bit of a letdown for Lindholm, and Erola agreed that the results have been slightly poorer than in previous years. He mentioned that equipment problems might partly explain his performances.

Lindholm finished last season several races in the twenties in free style and once reached as high as tenth place. This season, his best result so far has been a 21st place at the Ruka World Cup 20 km free race. According to Erola, the gap in men's mid-distance is extremely narrow, where good results often come down to the smallest margins.

Last weekend at Engadin, Lindholm’s 27th place finish was a step forward, and Erola is anticipating an even better performance from him tomorrow at the Cognen World Cup 10 km interim race in free style, where Lindholm is expected to finish in the top 20. He is still on track for the World Championships in Trondheim, although Erola stressed that participation is only worthwhile if a qualifying slot is earned.

In contrast, the situation with Eveliina Piippo is less optimistic. Erola explained that for Piippo, many factors beyond just training have been affecting her performance over a longer period.

In the World Cup race at Les Rousses, Piippo was taken off course in the 20 km classical mass start when she was overtaken by Sweden’s Frida Karlsson. Piippo later expressed surprise in an interview with Yle as to why Erola insisted she finish the race, even though in a 10 km free style race two days earlier she had finished among the back of the pack.

Piippo stated, "I don't know what was achieved by that," and Erola mentioned that while nothing was really gained from the decision, it wasn’t a disaster either. He recalled that at the Imatra national championships, she was far from the lead on the first day but eventually challenged for a medal on the next day.

"Those were her final chances, and I believed they might spark some improvement. While nothing major was accomplished, her performance clearly showed that the situation is quite dire," Erola commented.

When asked about setting season goals for Piippo, Erola noted that no specific targets have been set and admitted that her overall package is currently suboptimal. The aim now is to get everything back on track.

Image 7: Remi Lindholm skis in a world cup relay at Engadin. Photo: Gian Ehrenzeller / EPA

Image 8: Eveliina Piippo finished fourth in the combined race at the Imatra national championships. Photo: Lauri Heino / Str / Lehtikuva