From opposite ends of the world.

Chapter 2 - Early morning walk

Johanna POV

Johanna got to the small gym of the hotel where everyone else was already gathered. In his case everyone else was the Finnish national ski jumping and nordic combined team .

Women only recently became allowed to participate in the Olympics and Finland didn't yet have so many who jumped on a competitive level. That resulted in Johanna frequently being the only one travelling with a bunch of guys. She was pretty used to it though, since she started competing on an international level already during her time at the sport school in Kuopio and most of the guys she now saw around her in the gym, she had known more or less half her life.

Originally Johanna was from the very north of Finland and quite proud of her sápmi [indigenous people of Finland, Norway, Sweden] heritage but in order to pursue her ski jumping career she had moved away from home when she was 10 years old to attend the sport school in Kuopio.

Johanna looked around the room and saw the guys all looking at her expectantly.

What now she wondered, when Matti one of the older jumpers spoke up: 'Who was the guy you were talking to on the terrace?'

Great, busted, Johanna thought to herself because she knew very well that her team mates where hugely into gossip and wouldn't leave her alone. It was basically like having older siblings but instead of one or two she had a good 15 of them. And if the Finnish team knew, then the other teams would know as well because all the time waiting at the hill to get ready to jump was prime time for some 'knowledge sharing'.

Also the Norwegian and American team where due to arrive later that day anyway at the hotel because they too had planned a training camp in Austria before the season would kick off in Ruka, Finland.

Know what anyway, Johanna thought to herself. I talked to some guy on a terrace, it's not like it's a reason to stop the press. Johanna thought of the short morning encounter again and smiled to herself a bit.

'Oh look, she is blushing', Lauri started to tease.

Kimmo, the head coach turned to her 'Just remember the rule about competitions, you can't jump far with weak legs'.

If Johanna hadn't been already embarrassed before, now was definitely the time she wanted to dig a really deep hole and just disappear in it. That was a clear downside of being only with guys, and being the youngest one. You were always at the receiving end of the joke.

Johanna was still waiting for the ground to open up, but when this didn't happen and no other distraction was in sight, she settled on answering and hoped that would calm the guys down: 'Just some random guy who was also awake already. Can you all just get over yourself. Maybe you all wouldn't jump like shit if you'd concentrate a bit more on training and a bit less on who I talk to'.

Johanna was annoyed. She was one of the best jumpers in Finland and had had a highly successful season and she even had beaten her male colleagues in a few of the mixed competitions. Time to remind them about it.

Why did the guys always make such a big deal. She knew they were pretty protective of her as well. Whenever there were parties during the season they always made sure she was ok, and once in a while even scared some guys who tried to talk to her away. But still, the guys had a lot of parties during (or rather after) competitions and talked to plenty of girls. If Johanna had gotten a dime every time she saw some girls leave the hotel in the morning she'd be almost a millionaire now.

Johanna often went along for the parties and she maybe even sneaked in some drinks past her coach Kimmo but she always had a duty first approach and worked with immense determination. And this determination hadn't really left any room fo guys be it for boyfriends or random hook ups.