Volleyball | Milja Henriksson, 19, Represented Finland in Two Sports, Then Faced a Difficult Choice

At 19, Milja Henriksson has already represented Finland in two volleyball disciplines. Now she is preparing for a different kind of test: her first season in the country’s top indoor league.

The setting is PuMa Helsinki, where women’s league volleyball returns to the capital after a four-year break. The new team is preparing for its first season in the Mestaruusliiga, and Henriksson, a libero developed by the club, will make her league debut.

Until last year, her sporting life was divided between two courts. Winters centered on indoor volleyball, while summers took her to the sand for beach volleyball. She played for Finland’s youth teams in beach volleyball at European and world championships, and appeared in indoor volleyball’s European Championship qualifiers. Her competitions and training took her to countries including Mexico, Georgia and Spain.

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At some point I realized myself that this was too much, even though I had been used to scheduling my everyday life since primary school.

At upper secondary school, Henriksson chose a beach-volleyball track but did not want to give up indoor volleyball. Her days filled with morning and evening beach training, plus weekend indoor matches and tournaments. Eventually, combining two sports with school became too much. “At some point I realized myself that this was too much, even though I had been used to scheduling my everyday life since primary school,” she said.

Last autumn, she decided to concentrate on indoor volleyball. What began as a planned break from beach volleyball lasting a few weeks stretched into months and became a more permanent choice. “The decision to focus on volleyball was extremely difficult, because I still like beach volleyball a lot and I intend to play it in the summers,” Henriksson said.

She believes beach volleyball could also have offered a path for her career. For now, however, her dream is to play for PuMa Helsinki in the league. She has played volleyball since the age of four, when she joined a volleyball school run by her father and grandfather with her older brother. The sport has run through her family for three generations.

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The decision to focus on volleyball was extremely difficult, because I still like beach volleyball a lot and I intend to play it in the summers.