Training for snowmobilers starts in autumn at Santasport

The Santasport-based Lapland Sports Academy will launch a snowmobiling training course for youths this autumn, the head of media services at Santa Sport, Harri Nykänen told the Daily Finland.

Santasport is an official Olympic Training Centre which organises training camps and events, and courses for trainers and sport instructors in collaboration with different sports federations and clubs.

“Our main mission is to optimize the training of top athletes and those who want to go for the top. Supporting athletes’ studies is a very important mission as well. We are working with upper comprehensive schools, secondary education, higher education and Finnish Defence Forces,” said Nykänen.

As the academy is located in Lapland, winter sports are prioritised. “Finnish Olympic Committee has set a special task for us concerning winter sports. Our main sports are volleyball, football, ice hockey, track and field, and swimming. Outright we have athletes in over 30 different sports,” said Nykänen.

The planned training course for young snowmobilers will start at the beginning of October at Santasport. “The snowmobilers are going to be of the age of upper comprehensive school [14-16 years old],” said Nykänen, adding, “The course is going to last a school year, from August to May. The programme will consist of five camp weeks during the school year.” The camps will be organised in October, December, January, February, and April. The course will emphasise the importance of versatile sports education, touching upon different aspects of athletes’ training. Nykänen said, “At the camps we are teaching things concerning psychological coaching, nutrition coaching and life management skills. In addition we have two training sessions per day and 2.5-hours normal studying with a teacher. A normal camp day starts at 8 o’clock in the morning and lasts to 8:00 pm.”

The training course also aims to prove that snowmobiling is a valid sport and not just a wintertime activity. In Nykänen’s words, “With snowmobilers our mission is to make this type of activity sportier, because some people in Finland don’t understand that it is real sport and snowmobilers have to be real athletes. We are glad to help our new snowmobilers.”

The course is being organised in collaboration with the Rovaniemi-based snowmobile manufacturer BRP Finland. According to Nykänen, “The plan is that the first part of this collaboration is going to last three years, but we are trying to get this project to last for a longer time. We believe we can improve the activity together over these years.”