Chinese ski jumping trainees progressing fast in Kuopio

Chinese trainees in ski jumping have made amazing progress in Kuopio, Finland, national broadcaster Yle reported on Tuesday.

On arrival in Kuopio a year ago, the Chinese trainees had practically no experience from ski jumping or skiing of any kind.

Coach Mika Kojonkoski told Yle that the development of his Chinese trainees has been unexpectedly fast. Part of the Chinese contingent in Kuopio visited the Plancia ski jump stadium in Slovenia in mid October. As they tried the smaller ski jump ramp in Plancia, one of them reached an excellent 123 meters.

There are currently 29 Chinese ski jumpers in training in Kuopio, 14 of them are from the original group that arrived a year ago.

Coach Kojonkoski said that the language barrier has hampered the training somewhat. The Chinese trainees are learning English, but interpreters are still being used. "This is a challenge as we should be able to communicate about feelings and emotions, and also get some self-analysis from the trainees," Kojonkoski said.

Kojonkoski told Yle that the sports results could be better, if he could have picked up his trainees from the free style skiing that the Chinese are known for. The first arrivals in Kuopio had hardly experience from skiing at all. They had earlier been involved in summer martial arts sports.