lördag 28 april 2007

Inte lätt alla gånger

Kopierat från Jump You! Kan inte undanhålla er denna underbara historia:

Which hill?

World Cup season 1998-99. My beginning was, mildly put, slightly fucked up, just as for the whole Finnish team except Janne Ahonen. I dropped down to Continental Cup. There, I won a competition in Asiago, Italy, and bought off my place back on the higher level. Among us, there was a merciless fight for the places in the team to the World Championships in Ramsau. I got the chance to demonstrate my skills right the following weekend, at the competition in Willingen. Our head coach back then, Kari "Pätsky" Pätäri, said that the internal qualification would start right with the first training jump and not finish until the last race was over.

The first official training dawned. We drove to the hill, where we carried out those usual routines, warming up and preparing the skis. The training started. I felt a few more butterflies than usually down in my stomach, so I was excited like hell! Already putting on the equipment was problematic. I can tell you that tying the boots is a quite difficult task if your hands shake like Jeanne d'Arc on the stake. Anyway, it was time to leave for the first training round.

Skis on the shoulder, and determinedly towards the tower. When I came to the door, I immediately noticed that something wasn't quite okay. The room downstairs was full of the strangest junk ever, from ad banners to snow shovels. "Feng Shui doesn't seem the strong point of the organizers", I smiled to myself, and went up the stairs to the top. Some time in the middle I started to wonder why I didn't see any of my colleagues, although about 20 jumpers should start before me.

At the top of the tower, I was shocked. "What the fuck! The hill isn't even ready to jump. I mean, we're in Willingen, the Mecca of ski jumping!" I had barely finished that thought when I heard a hissing sound from the left, just like jumping skis accelerating in the icy inrun track. I turned towards the sound and my surprise was big! In front of me appeared the gallant profile of the K120 hill's tower. The tower I should be on this very moment. Oh holiest of all shits.

I ran down the stairs as fast as I could and didn't stop until the ground hall. "How can you, Ville Valtteri Kantee, be so stupid that you go up the wrong tower", I cursed and tried to sneak outside attracting as little attention as possible so that I wouldn't have to answer the question where I was coming from. All's well that ends well, I was 10th in the individual competition and got a place in the team for the World Championships.

Ville Kantee

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