MIKAELA INGBERG INTERVIEW 23/08/98 (copyright C.J. Turner 1998) Begins - "My mother tongue is Swedish but my parents and grand parents are all from Finland. Around 6% of the Finnish population speak Swedish. I've went to a Swedish speaking school and at home I speak Swedish. Yet at heart I'm a Finn, definitely! The Finnish javelin tradition has always been an important inspiration for Finnish athletes...well atleast for me it means a great deal! Although my parents have not been athletes they have always been sports freaks and as a family we have always been watching many sports competitions on TV. I particularly still remember as a young girl watching Tiina Lillak win at the 1983 world championships in Helsinki. As an example of how I was inspired, I one day remember seeing Lillak throwing with a red & white coloured Apollo javelin. I was ten years old when I did my first competition and won it, and so I asked my dad to buy me a javelin. He bought me a red training javelin which was good. However, I so wanted it to look like Tiina's that I took a knife and scrapped the red paint off the tail, so that it would be red & white. That's how much I was inspired by Finland's throwing tradition!! For me it's just wonderful to be a part of the sport I have followed throughout my life. I'm a track & field nut and a bit of a statistics freak following the history of the sport. I remember how good I felt when after taking my first major medal (world championship Bronze in 1995), I suddenly realised that I was now part of those statistics. Because there have been so many past champions, Finnish throwers believe that they can become champions. This belief is natural to a Finnish thrower because of the tradition. It's a great advantage particularly if you have the competitors head to go with it. How can you fail to be inspired when you go to the now famous javelin carnival meet, as I did as a 12 year old thrower and see names like Jorma Kinnunen, Hannu Siitonen, Tiina Lillak, Seppo Raty, Tapio Korjus. All I could think at the time was, " this is what I want to do!" At 12 years old, I did many different sports but javelin was always number one. However, the greatest impetus came when I was 14 years old and Tapio Korjus was the coach of my group at the javelin school (which forms part of the carnival meet). I remember so well when Tapio won the Olympic title later on in that year thinking with great excitement - "oh my god he was our coach at the javelin school!" The first time I took part in a javelin competition, I was only 10 years old. My club had arranged a competition against another club and after one training session I showed some promise and they asked me if I would throw for the club. I of course said " yes I'll try it" and went won it with 16.30 metres. I had two more competitions that year and threw 21 metres and then I got my own javelin, that red one which we have already spoken about. After that I started pretty regular training at home in the yard and at my local track and the following year I threw 34.66 metres. I recall a guy from the club telephoned my house to say I was now the best eleven year old in Finland. Yes, my transition from junior to senior ranks has been unusually smooth. In 1993 I won the European Juniors and the next summer I stepped straight into my first major senior competition, the European Championships in Helsinki and then of course in 1995, I won the bronze medal at the World Championships in Gothenburg. In 1994, I had had a few elbow problems and didn't even throw 60 metres. It was in the fall (autumn) of that year that Tapio Korjus became my coach. He was very straight forward from the beginning and said if I wanted him to be my coach I had to go for it 100%. Tapio also predicted that in three years I would be over 65 metres. So my success came a little bit earlier than he expected. In 1995 I was in good form. At the two competitions prior to the 1995 Worlds in Gothenburg I did well. At the Finnish championships I threw 64.28 metres, a new personal best by nearly four metres and then at the last competition, I again threw 64 metres (64.24m). So I was in very good heart going to Gothenburg. Tapio was not even there at the championships and I remember on the telephone he said "just go out and enjoy yourself, its what you have been working towards all season". I really enjoyed the experience at the championships and though I wanted to throw well, I never imagined I would come away with a medal or throw over 65 metres (65.16m) as I did. I have had a number of injuries throughout my career but that is not unusual for a javelin thrower. Last December (1998) I had an operation on my ankle and missed three months of normal training which effected my build up to the European Championships in Budapest (where Ingberg won the bronze medal. Throughout the year in the back of my head there was the feeling that I've had an operation and so I should be careful and this effected how I planted my leg for the throw. Anyway, I believe that I should continue to develop as a thrower. With the new javelin next year (1999) it's difficult to predict distances. However, if I think that I threw 65 metres when I was 21 years old, that I also have one of the best coaches in the world and places in which to train, then as long as I can stay even slightly injury free I should some day throw over 70 metres, even with the new spear." Ends. 1999 POSTSCRIPT - After a season full of injuries, Mikaela only qualified for the Finnish team at the Finnish championships (last qualification opportunity) when she went over 60 metres for the first time with the new javelin. So Mikaela travelled to Sevilla for the world championships heavily strapped suffering from what was later to be diagnosed as a serious knee injury. In Spain she showed typical Finnish "sisu" (guts/pride) throwing a new personal best with the new javelin (61.50m) to qualify for the final. She then threw another 60 metre throw for a brave 9th place finish in the final. With a knee operation now behind her Mikaela is now set to begin full training once more in the build up to the Olympics and will travel as part of a 16 strong Finnish squad to Sydney at the end of November for a site visit of the Olympic facilities and to do some warm weather training. C.J. Turner - copyright 1999.