Who to vote? That is the big question right now in Finland. 99% of Finns think about the upcoming presidential election but some sport fanatics are right now more concerned about who will be elected for the athlete of the year 2011. This is about to be announced tonight at the Finnish Sport Awards Gala. Last year our own Minna Kauppi won this title, which was a big step for the whole orienteering society. An orienteer stepping highest to the podium and people's minds in front of all other sportsmen. I think we all felt proud of Minna for putting our sport on the map a year ago. This time the trophy will probably go to some other sport, most likely to biathlete Kaisa Mäkäräinen, a world cup winner and a world champion, or a cross-country skier Matti Heikkinen, a world champion as well. Or it might also go to some team players as they did pretty well too. I guess my own vote would go to endurance sports. Knowing roughly what they have done to achieve their goals makes me to respect them.
Presidential election is hard too. It's not only about your performance on some special occasion or at a handful of events scattered through the competition season, it's about your daily performance and actions under continuous control by the public and the media and under high pressure. Of course the last weeks have been of highest value when evaluating their excellence as the candidates have been competing in their superiority over each other in polls, debates, and panel discussions. They've been inquired to show their maximum capacity, understanding and brightness but also their stamina. Their backgrounds have been thoroughly studied and they have been thrown to public with nasty little details of their lives and characters. It's brave to put yourself into that. So I kind of respect all the candidates for that matter. Wouldn't do it myself. While living outside of Finland I have missed all the hilarious discussions going on right now but on the other hand I've been happy to avoid all the unnecessary show around the whole thing. I've given my vote now and hope we'll get a decent president. The sooner, the better.
Last weeks' training has been good but I'm too exhausted to report about it. Training is at its highest right now and I'm enjoying it. Made my thus far best result at Midland's cross country league on Saturday and ran a great orienteering event in Shining Cliff on Sunday. Today I'm having a well-deserved rest day and going to follow the sports awards gala in one way or another.
