Perälä first appeared at the Nordic Junior World Ski Championships 2001 in Karpacz . There she won the bronze medal in the sprint. At the Junior World Championships in 2002 in Schonach in the Black Forest , she was sixth and 25th in the spring over five kilometers. She ran her first World Cup race in Stockholm in March 2002 , which she finished in 37th place in the sprint. In January 2003 she won gold in the sprint and 18th over five kilometers at the 2003 Winter Universiade in Tarvisio . Two months later she won her first World Cup points at the World Cup in Borlänge with 11th place in the sprint. In the 2003/04 season she achieved her first top ten placements in the World Cup in the sprint with tenth place at the World Cup in Nové Město and seventh place in Lahti . At the beginning of the following season in Düsseldorf, with seventh place in the sprint, she again placed in the top ten. In the further course of the season she reached the points five times in seven individual World Cup participations and thus took 36th place in the overall World Cup and 17th place in the Sprint World Cup. These are her best placements in the overall and sprint world cup. At the Nordic World Ski Championships 2009 in Liberec , she achieved 23rd place in the sprint. In January 2010 she achieved her best individual result in the World Cup with fifth place in the sprint in Otepää . At the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver , she finished 19th in the sprint. In the 2010/11 season she won two sprint races at the Scandinavian Cup and thus reached eighth place in the overall cup standings. She ran her last World Cup race in January 2011 in Otepää, which she finished in 26th place.
She took part in 47 individual World Cup races and came 34 times in the points and five times in the top ten. She has been named Helen since her wedding. Since then, she has only appeared again in an FIS race over ten kilometers on February 12, 2017 in Hakunila, where she finished eleventh.
Finland
Kristiansund
Madona