Pekka Niemelä

Pekka Niemelä ( born 1974 in Helsinki ) is a former Finnish ski jumper and the current coach of the Finnish World Cup team.

Career

As Springer

Niemelä debuted on March 3, 1991 in Lahti in the World Cup. He achieved his best result on 28 February 1996 in Kuopio, when he finished 40th place. He also won at the Junior World Championship in 1991 in Reit im Winkl silver with the team comprising, among other things, the previous Finnish head coach Janne Väätäinen belonged.

As a coach

The Finn began his work as a coach in 1997. He worked first as a base coach for the Puijon Hiihtoseura in Kuopio, where he and his assistant Ari -Pekka Nikkola trained together, among others, Matti Hautamäki, Janne Happonen and Toni Nieminen. In 2001 he became coach of the Finnish B- team, area Northern Finland.

Even about his commitment in Finland also, namely to 2003, he was home trainer by Matti Hautamäki. Led him to Niemelä Olympic silver with the team and bronze in singles at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City as well as in 2003 and at that ski flying world record. His protege Janne Happonen he led in 2002 to win the Junior World Championships in singles and team.

After the end of the 2001/2002 season Niemelä left the Finnish Ski Association toward Japan, where he signed a four-year contract as coach of Team Tsuchiya. There he worked with Topi Sarparanta among other athletes like Daiki Ito, Kazuya Yoshioka and Noriaki Kasai and the combiner Daito Takahashi. His commitment was initially characterized by its own account of language problems.

In May 2006, Niemelä then signed a contract as coach of the French national ski jumping. He was there at the same time responsible for the A - and the B-team and for the junior team, together with his assistant coach Remy Trachsel. For working with his athletes he commuted between his home town of Kuopio and the French bases. Then his move to Finland was announced in March 2010. He has worked as a head coach. Especially during the 2012/2013 World Cup season was considerable criticism of Niemelä, as the Finnish team could not get out of a deep hole performance.

Private

Niemelä is married to Minna. The pair have two sons, Nicolas and Robert.