Historic appointment for Iivo Niskanen’s gold‑medal coach Olli Ohtonen

Olli Ohtonen, who ended his tenure last season as coach of triple Olympic champion Iivo Niskanen, is poised to make national history by becoming Finland’s first working life professor dedicated to the ski sports. The position is planned at the University of Jyväskylä’s Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, Vuokatti unit, with a focus on snow sports. Final confirmation still requires external reviews, a faculty board proposal, and the rector’s decision, likely in January.

A former Olympic‑level skier, Ohtonen earned a PhD in 2019 in sport technology from Jyväskylä University’s Vuokatti unit, researching the biomechanics of skating technique. Alongside his academic work, he serves in development and project leadership roles both at the Vuokatti unit and at the Vuokatti–Ruka Olympic Training Center, turning sport science into practical performance gains for elite athletes.

One flagship example is the long‑running collaboration between Ohtonen and conditions expert Teemu Lemmettylä. Their detailed reconnaissance of snow and weather at major championship venues has provided Finnish teams in cross‑country, biathlon, and Nordic combined with robust, pre‑event data on ski choices, waxes, and grinds. Their equipment intelligence was credited as a significant factor behind Finland’s strong Olympic outcomes in Beijing 2022.

According to professor Vesa Linnamo, who becomes dean of the faculty at the turn of the year, the process toward appointing Ohtonen as a working life professor is underway but not yet complete. The Finnish Olympic Committee has also strongly supported the move. High‑performance expert Toni Roponen (who is not part of the formal process) emphasized that a strong academic foundation is vital in modern elite sport and called the prospective appointment a major leap for Finland’s snow sports both symbolically and on the ground.

Related coverage highlighted the pair’s public funding for ski‑research projects and the recent shift in Niskanen’s coaching set‑up, with Ohtonen stepping back while Niskanen self‑coaches and Ohtonen remains in the background.