Kaisa Mäkäräinen: “Pretty happy with my season, but I really don't see myself as a big star!"

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How do you judge your 2013-’14 season? Which are your feelings when you look back to the winter?
“After the first two weeks of the winter (Östersund and Hochfilzen), where I still had some difficulties due to my sickness just before the season, when I missed many important trainings, world cup was pretty good for me. Of course winning the total score gave me a really good feeling, and it was much more than I expected after the Olympics, but it doesn't replace the big disappointment which I had in Sochi. However I can say I'm pretty happy with my season”. 

We have to touch this sore point. What about Sochi? What didn’t work for you during the Olympics?
“I think not so many foreign journalists and people know that I was really sick through all the Games. It started two days before the sprint and lasted one more week at home after the end of Sochi. First I thought that it was allergy, which I have often and that doesn't affect too much my results, but soon we understood that it was some kind of virus. Many people in our and other teams got the same in Sochi. So I think my races were over before they even started! I don't want to remember too much anymore. That's life and shit happens”. 

After Sochi things changed. My impression is that Pokljuka has been a turning point. You won a race after more than 2 years and moreover you were able to shoot very well in standing position. Of course you also were in wonderful shape, but in Kontiolahti and Oslo you seemed really more confident. Is this right, did something change in your mind during the finals stages of the season?
“Not really. I got healthy after Sochi just before Lahti FIS cross country skiing World Cup. There I saw that my shape was back and that I was able to ski fast again. It gave me a good flow to Pokljuka, where actually I didn't felt that good on the skis because there were really hard conditions with slow wet snow and some wind on shooting range. However I focused step by step on the course and on the shooting range, and everything started to work out well. Maybe I was little bit more relaxed after Sochi, but I had big goals, especially for home world cup and it was awesome to win three times there!”

Let’s talk about the fact that 23 world cup races have been held in Kontiolahti during the world cup history, and you won 4 of them, while no one else was able to exceed 2 victories. This year you were simply overwhelming. Does your excellence in North Karelia come also from a better know-how of the environment/tracks, or there’s something else?
“I just like Kontiolahti track. I think I would be good in that kind of track no matter where it is. Actually I don't train so much there, because I'm usually away. I think the big uphill and the following flat area before the shooting range are the key of the track and the reason why it suits me. There you simply have to go, you cannot rest at all before shooting range because if you do, you lose a lot in ski time. So this means also that you need good physical shape to race for the victory in Kontiolahti”. 
 

You are only the fourth athlete in history able to win at least 2 overall world cups. In the past only Anfisa Reztsova, Magdalena Forsberg and Magdalena Neuner managed to repeat a success in the overall standing. From a certain point of view you entered in biathlon history. Is this an issue for you or you don’t think too much about this aspect of the sport?
“I know this fact and it shows how difficult biathlon is. So I'm proud to belong to that small group. But I think I'm the one with less medals from Olympics and World Champs in that quartet (actually Reztsova has less medals than Kaisa, editor's note), so I still feel that I'm pretty far from those great athletes and many others. I really don't see myself as a big star!”


Now let’s talk about next winter. This season you looked as fast as never before on the skis. Martin Fourcade already declared he’s going to race also in cross country World Champs. You already did it in Fiemme 2013. So is Falun 2015 a goal for you, or are you going to stay focused only on biathlon?
“I think I didn't ski that fast last winter. Many girls were much closer to me than earlier. My ski coach thinks I skied much faster in season 2011-‘12, so there is work to do. I will not focus to cross country at all, but if biathlon’s schedule let me to do a race or two in CC before Falun and if I’ll see that I could be able to fight among the best cc-skiers, I could imagine to go there. But we'll see that later in winter. Right now my full focus is in biathlon”. 

In early April you were in Moscow and Tjumen. Of course they were exhibitions/promotional events, but nevertheless they were races. Do you think in future it would be possible to extend the World Cup season to 11 events (10 WC stages plus Olympics/World Championships)?
“Why not? Many athletes do some more races after world cup end. I see free weekends are needed for national championships and some show-races too. But here in North there are always better conditions in March than early November. Maybe we could start world cup one week later and continue it one more week in spring”.

 
IBU is planning to introduce in WCH and maybe OWG schedule a new race format, the so called “Single-Mixed” with a man and a woman forming a team. Do you think this is a good development for biathlon, or is it better to use this format only in exhibitions?
“I think that the mixed relay that we have now isn’t such a popular event. Only few teams put the best four athletes when we have mixed relay in world cup and I think that's a shame also because some get rest for individual races and some others (like me) need always to go to relays. I think 1+1, a relay like in Schalke and Moscow, would be more popular. The best countries should have the opportunity to put two teams in order to get to 30 starting couples and the procedure should be like in Schalke, one round-exchange-one round-exchange. I think this would be more exciting and that could replace the mixed relay. Generally I think there shouldn't be that much relays. Next winter it's almost every week and for countries like Finland (and other small nations) it's not good, because we never can fight for top 6”.

 
You won a lot in your career, but is there a major goal that you still strongly want to accomplish?
“Of course! I wish to do well next year in Kontiolahti home world champs next year!”

 

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