A Finnish squad of 10 athletes have spent the last 18 days training in San Luis Potosi and will be in Mexico for four more days before returning home.
The team consists of many of the country’s top athletes who are seen to be potential medal winners on the international stage:
- Mimosa Jallow
- Veera Kivirinta
- Moona Koski
- Jenna Laukkanen
- Aino Otava
- Eetu Piiroinen
- Thomas Pokkinen
- Hanna-Maria Seppälä
- Fanny Salo Teijo
- Lotta Upanne
The coaches at the camp include:
Mika Piiroinen, Mirjami Seppälä and Bo Jacobsen
San Luis Potosi is located 1945 meters above sea level. The main focus of this altitude camp has been to improve the athletes aerobic capacity and skill development. The camp has consisted of a great deal of video work along with the team working closely with Ari Nummela the Director of Research at the Institute for Olympic Sports in Finland.
Along with monitoring the swimmers Nummela has also played a very important role in educating both the coaches and the athletes on the importance of rest, nutrition and simply what it means to live the lifestyle of a high level athlete.
The athletes have also had the opportunity to train with Serbian athletes Ivan Lendjer and Velimir Stepanovic.
Coach Mika Piiroinen has been keeping an extremely detailed blog of the camp which can be found here.