After missing two seasons with various injuries, Lepistö announced on March 25, 2012, that she would not return to competitive skating.
Personal life
Lepistö was born in Espoo, Finland. In September 2010, she started her higher education studies at the Aalto University School of Economics in Helsinki, Finland.[1] In 2016, she received her master's degree in marketing.[2] She married her longtime boyfriend, Tommi Huovinen, on July 11, 2015.[3] In August 2018, she began working as brand manager for Riedell skates [4]
Career
Lepistö started skating at the age of four, following her older sister's lead.[5] She trained in Espoo and Vierumäki in Finland, Boston in the United States, and Tallinn and Tartu in Estonia.[5][6]
Lepistö competed at one event on the Junior Grand Prix series, finishing 5th at the event in Slovakia. She then missed much of the season due to injury, having developed a stress fracture in her right hip as a result of practicing too many triple loops.[5] She came back to compete at the senior 2007 Finnish Championships, where she won the silver medal. She won the senior silver medal at the 2007 Nordic Championships. She competed at the 2007 Junior Worlds, where she placed 7th.
For the 2010–11 Grand Prix season, Lepistö was assigned to Skate Canada and Skate America, but had to withdraw from both events due to an Achilles tendon injury.[9] She also missed the European Championships but recovered in time to train for the 2011 World Championships. However, she suffered a back injury in early March, causing her to withdraw from the event.[10] She said, "I fell on my lower back at full speed when the blades of my skates caught together. The heavy bump has led to a situation where my back has kept locking up."[9] Lepistö was back in full training in June 2011 and landed a new sponsor, KPMG.[11] She was assigned to 2011 Skate America and 2011 Trophee Eric Bompard for the Grand Prix season. However, by July when she was training in Toronto with Brian Orser, pain in her foot grew so severe she could not put on her skates.[12] She said, "There is repeated stress to the same landing foot and this time one of the nerves in my foot was provoked and it became very painful."[12] She was able to return to training in mid-August with a pair of custom-made skates,[12] but her injury problems continued.[13] Lepistö withdrew from both Grand Prix events. In November, she said she was unable to wear skates for more than 15 minutes due to the nerve problem and would miss the entire season to allow her leg to heal fully.[14]
Lepistö was invited by Champions on Ice to skate in the 21st annual Paektusan Festival in North Korea in February 2012 which was used to honor the memory of Kim Jong-il.[15][16][17] After receiving permission from Finland's Ministry of Education and Culture, she performed in the event, along with other elite skaters, but later issued an apology.[15]
On 25 March 2012, Lepistö announced her decision to retire from competitive skating, stating that she no longer felt the same passion for skating as she had in the past.[18][19][20] She has worked for the Finnish Olympic Committee, co-founded a sports marketing and athlete management company (Snou Creative), and became an ambassador and TV commentator for the 2017 World Championships in Helsinki, Finland.[2]
^木下グループpresents メダル・ウィナーズ・オープン2015 [Kinoshita Group presents Medal Winners Open 2015] (Television production, BS-TBS) (in Japanese). Japan: TBS. January 17, 2015.