Arvo Viitanen

Arvo Viitanen
Full name	Arvo Albert Viitanen
nation	Finland
birthday	April 12, 1924
place of birth	Uurainen , Finland
date of death	April 28, 1999
Place of death	Anjalankoski , Finland
Career
Medal table
Olympic medals 0 × 1 × 0 × World Cup medals 1 × 2 × 3 ×
winter Olympics silver 1956 Cortina d'Ampezzo 4 × 10 km  Nordic World Ski Championships gold 1954 Falun 4 × 10 km silver 1954 Falun 15 km bronze 1954 Falun 50 km silver 1956 Cortina d'Ampezzo 4 × 10 km bronze 1958 Lahti 50 km bronze 1958 Lahti 4 × 10 km

Arvo Albert Viitanen (born April 12, 1924 in Uurainen , † April 28, 1999 in Anjalankoski ) was a Finnish cross-country skier . Between 1954 and 1958 Viitanen won seven medals at world championships and Olympic Games .

Career

Viitanen won the 18-kilometer run three times in a row at the Lahti Ski Games between 1952 and 1954 and the 50-kilometer run in 1955. At the end of February 1953 he achieved third place over 50 kilometers at the Holmenkollen Ski Festival . At the age of 30 he first started at the world championships, the Nordic World Ski Championships in 1954 in Falun . In the three-time success of the Finnish team over the 15-kilometer distance, he won the silver medal behind Veikko Hakulinen . Over the 50 kilometer distance he only had to admit defeat to Vladimir Kusin and again his compatriot Hakulinen and won the bronze medal. With an outstanding Finnish relay, which won two minutes ahead of the Soviet team, he secured his first world title. Two years later, at the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo , he and the Finnish team were beaten by the Soviet team and won his only Olympic medal with the silver medal in the relay competition. In the 15 kilometer competition, the only individual competition in which he participated, he was ninth. This year he was able to enter himself into the list of winners of the 50 kilometer competition on Holmenkollen . In March 1956 he ran at the Lahti Ski Games in second place over 50 kilometers. The following year he came second at the Svenska Skidspelen over 30 kilometers. At the Nordic World Ski Championships in 1958 in Lahti , Viitanen again managed to win an individual medal. Behind the Swede Sixten Jernberg and his compatriot Veikko Hakulinen, he secured his second bronze medal at world championships. With the Finnish relay he was able to increase his medal yield by another bronze medal. In early March 1959, he finished second at the Lahti Ski Games over 50 kilometers. He won the Finnish championships in 1954 with the relay, in 1955 over 15 kilometers and 50 kilometers and in 1959 over 30 kilometers.

Web links

• Arvo Viitanen in the database of the International Ski Federation (English)
• Arvo Viitanen in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• List of winners in Holmenkollen competitions on snl.no

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Results Lahti Ski Games
2. ↑ Profile of Arvo Viitanen on skisport365.com
3. ↑ Results Svenska Skidspelen