From gymnast to fitness athlete
I’m Sarianna Virtanen, 23-years-old young woman. At the moment I live in Pori, but I come from a small village in Kanta-Häme. I am studying physioterapy for the second year at Satakunta University of Applied Sciences in Pori. Right now, I’m doing a practice at the Soteekki service centre for a total of seven weeks.
When I was younger, I practiced aesthetic group gymnastics for a total of 14 years, both at the Finnish championship level and the competitive level in Forssan voimistelijat and Turun Pyrkivä. From a young age, sport has been a great passion of mine and this is reflected in my hobbies, my choice of studies and in my future job dreams.
After I stopped competing in gymnastics in spring 2017, I continued my hobby with my team for my own pleasure in a more relaxed way. Due to the low number of team gymnasts, it was no longer possible to keep the team together. After gymnastics, I continued my sport by doing home workouts and going to the gym. And that’s how it happened, I fell in love with gym training. After a couple of years of regular training I wanted to have a goal for my training and my dream was to one day combine gym training and competition. So nowadays my sport has changed from gymnastics to fitness. Currently training towards the bikini fitness Finnish championships. Now I will see what fitness can offer me and whether I can succeed and achieve my dreams in the sport. Or will my sport change in the future?
My interest in physiotherapy is born out of my background in competitive sports. The coach of my gymnastics team was a physiotherapist by profession and through her I have gained a good understanding of physiotherapy as a profession. I am also interested in working with people and helping them in a variety of ways. I would like to specialise in sports in the future and work with top gymnasts, for example.
I applied to study physiotherapy twice and the third time I got into school through an open route. I would like to do my part to raise awareness of the pathway to school. SAMK treats open pathway students in the same way as degree students. Only the support provided by KELA distinguished me from degree students, although there may of course be differences between schools.
Fun fact: My first competition prep started last Monday!
This is the start of a small blog series written by three physiotherapy students. The topics of the blog series revolve around fitness, gym training and studying physiotherapy.
Ideation and planning: Sarianna Virtanen, Suvi Rantala ja Heini Lehtiranta
Interview: Heini Lehtiranta ja Suvi Rantala
Subject matter: Sarianna Virtanen
Writing: Heini Lehtiranta