Airi Mikkela: My week in numbers

Maak kennis met Gino Monopoli!

6,5 - hours spent in a train on my birthday. I had a team match in Aalborg. We lost 6-7 and I lost to Anna Thea Madsen in two sets. She played well and I'm not surprised at all that she won the Finnish Open today.

22 and 16 - points that I got against Thi Trang Vu from Vietnam (wr. 46)

7 - my own evaluation on a scale from 1 to 10 about the match. I played quite okay and there were many positive things about the match but I didn't play my best game. I did well against a strong girl, though.

3 - the number of nights I got to sleep at home in Finland before heading back to Denmark

2 - the number of nights I will sleep at home in Odense before leaving for the last team match of the season and then to Peru

7 - the number of trainings I did this week. How did I even have time for all those?

3 - weeks left of Olympic qualification

72 - my world ranking right now

35 - my placement in the Race to Rio ranking where there are 38 spots to the Olympics

601 - ranking points between me and Nanna

3 - tournaments left

6430867 - the number of interviews and questions I was asked about the Olympic qualification during this week. For me it's very nice to see that people are so interested and I'm happy to answer the questions as much as I possibly can. Of course I don't always have energy for that but then I just take some time for myself and that's totally fine.

10 - how I feel right now on a scale from 1 to 10

It's Sunday, I slept in this morning, I'm chilling on a sofa and I feel good. I'm in Denmark although yesterday I was still in Finland. The day after tomorrow I will already be in Peru but before that I have the last and very important team match. Today I have to pack for three weeks again because after Peru I'm going straight to Chile and France. The Olympic qualification is soon over but right now it's closer than I can even understand. Three weeks and three tournaments that will decide a lot. How can I be so calm and happy here?

I had to read the previous chapter three times and it made me laugh. My life and this whole thing sounds so crazy when you write it like that. Or I guess it sounds crazy no matter how you write it. I have three tough weeks ahead of me full of extreme pressure and excitement but I don't even understand that I should be stressed. All I know is that soon I can go to the hall for practice and I also need to travel again soon but that's normal to me already. And then I get to play again and it's fun. I just take one practice at a time, travel one flight at a time, play one match at a time, do everything as good as I can and enjoy every moment of it. It's quite simple after all.

But it was still a little bit strange when I had to give so many interviews in Finland and everyone was asking a lot of questions. I can already tell by heart that this Olympic qualification has been tough but fun, that we are still friends with Nanna, that I can do this thanks to sponsors+the support from the federation+the salary from the team matches and that this qualification will end in three weeks. I wasn't expecting so many people to be interested in this and that for example Mikko-Petteri (or something like that...) from a small city in northern Finland wanted to contact me on Facebook after seeing my interviews. I don't always reply all the messages but in general I'm happy to talk to people and every single positive comment gives me a lot of energy.

So right now my head is in a good place and my body feels also great. My game is on the right track and I'm positive that I can make some good results during these last three weeks. I guess I'm pretty deep in my badminton bubble again and it's hard to see or hear anything else but that's how it should also be. This will be over very soon and no matter how this ends, my bubble will break. But now it's time to give it all I have. And I will do that for sure!

xxx
Airi

ps. I will try my best to update my blog and other social medias as well but I hope you understand if I just don't have time and energy for everything right now. Or I know you understand but wanted to say this anyway.

Best regards, a girl who just spent 4,5 hours on this post and didn't have time to pack. Oops!