Finnish paralympic snowboarder excited to be 'back in hometown'
Before Matti Sairanen left for the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games, he wrote in a Facebook post on February 19 that he would "go to visit the 老家 (hometown)."
He was excited to go back to China and in an interview told the Global Times – in fluent Chinese – that he feels like "a tour guide here."
A European speaking Mandarin so fluently surprised volunteers at the Zhangjiakou Paralympic Village. He told them he was a "老北京 (a native Beijing resident)."
Matti Sairanen, a 37-year-old Finnish snowboarder.
Sairanen has lived in China three times, for more than twenty years in all, because his father used to work here.
He came to China when he was two years old and studied at Beijing primary and middle schools. Then he went back to Finland and studied in a college there. After his graduation, he chose to come to China again and completed a bachelor's degree at the Beijing Language and Culture University (BLCU).
After his graduation from BLCU, he worked in Beijing for several years and met a French woman he would later marry.
His father remarried a Chinese woman, whose surname is Liu, in China.
Sairanen's Chinese name, Liu Di , was given by his Chinese step-grandfather.
Sairanen also named his daughter Liu Xuan in Chinese.
When he was living in Beijing, he would take his friends from abroad to KTV to enjoy themselves in the local manner.
Sairanen is happy to come back to China. He feels like returning home when talking with Chinese.
He also missed Chinese cuisine so he really enjoys meals in the Paralympic Village.
He remembered his favorite dish when he lived in Beijing, which is lamb kebab. The famous Beijing roast duck is less attractive to him than spicy hot pots or baked buns in roadside stands.
Matti Sairanen and his Chinese cousin Liu Jing in Beijing in 1994.
Sairanen's left arm was amputated in Beijing in 2013 after a motorcycle accident 11 years ago, when his brachial plexus was injured.
The physical impairment does not diminish Sairanen's enthusiasm for sports.
He has been keen on skateboarding and taekwondo since his childhood. He is also good at Chinese kungfu, such as tai chi and nunchaku, and has attended relevant competitions many times.
Sairanen is also a two-time world champion silver medalist in Para Taekwondo.
He went to the Netherlands to take part in a snowboarding competition for people with disabilities for the first time in 2016.
"I have found the sports is much more difficult than I thought after the competition," he told The Beijing News in an interview.
Since then Sairanen has been practising snowboarding, but he has to balance the time between work and training. He works as a coach for skiing, taekwondo and parkour at two clubs.
He finished in 18th place in the qualification of the men's snowboard cross SB-UL and failed to qualify for the final on March 6.
Sairanen thinks that if he spent more time on training, the result would have been better. But he is optimistic about it.
"It's not important to gain any achievement," he said. "Sports bring confidence and happiness to me, which is enough."
Before Sairanen came to China, he was really hesitating because his wife was expected to give birth to a baby on March 7 and he wanted to keep her company.
But she persuaded him to attend the Games because she knows how much it meant to him.
Now, Sairanen hopes that his new baby on the way can "wait" for him. After the closing ceremony, he will immediately fly back to Finland.
