Myllylä

Mika Myllylä – national icon, six-time Olympic medalist and father of three – did everything to the extreme. His merciless dedication to training became a symbol of the Finnish man and Sisu. But in 2001, everything changed: a doping scandal involving six of Finland’s top skiers changed the whole nation and shattered its trust. Mika and his family were left to face the shame and rage of an entire country alone.

Throughout these years, Mika kept filming his family with a handheld camcorder, like so many proud fathers did in the 1990s. Through this intimate footage, the tragic story of one man unfolds into the story of an entire family, desperately trying to navigate in the harsh realities of elite sports.

More than a sports story, Myllylä is a story of love, passion, shame, the yearning for grace, and the intergenerational struggle for survival. It forces us to ask, what do we truly demand of our sports heroes – and who ultimately pays the price when they fall?

Until his death at the age of 41 Mika was searching for forgiveness – from others, but even more so from himself.