Athlete profile: Sami Repo

Posted: Tue February 3, 1998 at 5:00 PM ET

Athlete notes

Fourteen years ago, Sami's father, Sulo Repo, guided six-time Olympian Marja-Liisa Hämälainen (now Kirvesniemi) to three gold medals at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo...Sulo's newest protégé, his son, will probably not have such fortune in Nagano...despite solid improvement over the past four years, Repo just cracked the top 15 of the overall World Cup standings for 1996-97...his father, a retired director of a sports club, won three Finnish national championship medals in middle-distance running and was known more for his exploits in sneakers than on skis...his mother is a high school physical education teacher...Sami continues to live with his parents and says, "I talk to him (his father) every day about my training. We are very close"...Repo began cross-country skiing at a young age and entered his first competition when he was three...he also ran distance events...his best race was the 3,000m in which he had a time in the nine-minute range...at 18, he decided to focus on skiing..."It wasn't much of a decision," Repo recalls. "I was not a very good runner. I could never make it to the national championships. I had more skiing talent and I liked it more"...in 1992, after an 11-month stint with the Finnish army, Repo briefly enrolled in a university to study geography...but, unable to balance academics and athletics, Repo dropped out of school -- "I trained very hard and could not do both," Repo notes. "It was impossible"...after the 1993 World Cup season, Repo was selected for Finland's national "B" team...remarkably, the next season, he competed at Lillehammer...says Repo: "I skied well in December and January and was chosen for the Olympics"...however, he competed at his worst Events -- the 50 km race -- and finished 37th...still, other than a 1995 World Cup 10 km classical race in Finland, in which he placed third, Lillehammer remains "my best experience. It was a very good Games. I hope Nagano is as good as Lillehammer"...Repo was elevated to the "A" team after the 1994 Olympics and immediately reaped its rewards..."It helped economically to join the (A) team," states Repo. "Also, you get better skis and supplies"...his greatest disappointment came at the 1997 World Championships where a viral infection hampered his performance..."I was in very good shape (before the championships) but I became very sick five days before the 10K classic," says Repo. "I felt tired during the races and was very disappointed"...Repo who counts teammate, five-time Olympian and winner of five Olympic bronze medals, Harri Kirvesniemi and Moroccan distance runner Saïd Aouita, gold medalist in the 5000m at Los Angeles in 1984, as his role models, is aiming to finish in the top six to 10 of the World Cup standings this year...he still runs and also enjoys canoeing, playing soccer, and fishing...Repo speaks English...