Aleksanteri Saarvala

Aleksanteri "Ale" Saarvala (born April 9, 1913 in Vyborg , † October 7, 1989 in Toronto ) was a Finnish gymnast . In 1936 he became the first Finnish gymnast to win an Olympic gold medal.

Life

Saarvala was born as Alexander Schabarin in Vyborg, Russia. When Vyborg came to independent Finland as Viipuri after the First World War , it changed its name.

Saarvala took 19th place in the individual ranking at the Olympic Games in Berlin and won bronze with the team. On the horizontal bar he won gold with 19.367 points ahead of the two Germans Konrad Frey (19.267 points) and Alfred Schwarzmann (19.233 points).

Twelve years later, Saarvala was also at the Olympic Games in London. With his 17th place in the individual ranking, he was the seventh best Finn and thus dropped out of the ranking, while his teammates won gold. On his special device, the horizontal bar, he took fourth place together with three other gymnasts.

Saarvala won 13 Finnish championship titles. The trained bricklayer emigrated to Canada in 1957.

Olympic placements

• 1936 Summer Olympics
  • 19th place in the all-around competition
  • 1st place on the horizontal bar
  • 3rd place in the team ranking

• 1948 Summer Olympics
  • 17th place in the all-around competition
  • 4th place on the horizontal bar
  • 8th place on the pommel horse

literature

• Volker Kluge : Summer Olympic Games. The Chronicle I. Athens 1896 - Berlin 1936. Sportverlag Berlin, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-328-00715-6 .
• Volker Kluge: Summer Olympic Games. The Chronicle II. London 1948 - Tokyo 1964. Sportverlag Berlin, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-328-00740-7 .

Web links

• Aleksanteri Saarvala in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )