#41 - Hanna Lehikoinen

Hanna Lehikoinen didn't stumble into competitive speed puzzling. She sprinted straight at it. Growing up in Finland, Hanna was surrounded by puzzles and competition in equal measure, and it turned out that was exactly the right training ground. When she discovered speed puzzling, the switch flipped almost instantly: within days she had an Instagram account, a timer, and her sights set on Worlds. In this episode, we trace Hanna's journey from casual Finnish puzzler to one of the breakout stars of the EJJ circuit, where she found herself finishing among the best puzzlers on the planet. We dig into what it was like to time herself from day one, how she thought about improving her skills, and what it actually feels like to be in panic mode during a competition when you're one of the fastest people in the world. We also talk about the competitive gene that seems to run in the family, the challenge of balancing a sudden career in elite puzzling with the organized chaos of family life, and what her prolific Instagram archive reveals about the honest, unfiltered arc of someone becoming great at something. Not just the sunshine, but the work.