Eero Tapio

Eero Tapio medal table
Eero Tapio
Wrestler
Finland
World Championship
bronze	1965 Tampere	Easily Greco
bronze	1966 Toledo	Easily Greco
gold	1967 Bucharest	Easily Greco
silver	1969 Mar del Plata	Welter Greco
European Championship
silver	1967 Minsk	Easily Greco
gold	1969 Modena	Welter Greco

Eero Tapio (born March 3, 1941 in Muhos ) is a former Finnish wrestler . He was world champion in 1967 and European champion in 1969 in the Greco-Roman style in light and welterweight.

Career

Eero Tapio began in 1950 as a teenager when Ringer Club Haukiputaan Heitto , the Finnish Workers' Sports Federation TUL was a member, with the rings . He remained loyal to this club until 1973. In 1974 he moved to Club Pateniemen Vesa . Eero Tapio specialized fully in the Greco-Roman style and achieved his first major success in 1960 when he was junior champion of the sports association TUL in the lightweight.

On the basis of an agreement with the National Olympic Committee of Finland, TUL wrestlers were also eligible to compete in the FILA international championships and the Olympic Games. Eero Tapio was therefore able to compete in the Finnish championships of the official Finnish wrestling association. In 1964 he won the Finnish lightweight championship and qualification for the Olympic Games in Tokyo for the first time . In Tokyo, Eero Tapio showed good fights in the lightweight, won twice and fought against the Romanian top wrestler Valeriu Bularca and achieved a good 6th place after defeats against Tokuaki Fujita from Japan and Dawit Gwanzeladze from the USSR .

He fared even better at the 1965 World Championships in Tampere . He won four fights there and defeated u. a. Muneji Munemura from Japan. But since he won three times only on points and was charged with a missing point each time, he retired after a defeat against Gennady Sapunov from the USSR, but still won the bronze medal .

After a 5th place at the European Championships in Essen in the early summer of 1966, Eero Tapio again won the bronze medal at the World Championships in Toledo / USA in the autumn of the same year . He remained undefeated in five fights at this world championship, but fought against Munemura, Kazim Ayvaz from Turkey and Stevan Horvat from Yugoslavia . If he had won against one of these three wrestlers, he would have become world champion.

In 1967 Eero Tapio made up for what he had missed in Toledo at the World Cup in Bucharest . There three victories were enough for him, including one against the Soviet starter Wladimir Novochatko and two undecided fights to win the title. In the spring of 1967, Eero Tapio had already become vice European lightweight champion in Minsk . He didn't lose a fight there either and fought against Klaus Pohl from the GDR and Gennadi Sapunow in a draw.

At the 1968 Olympic Games in Montreal , Eero Tapio was very cheap after the 4th round, but was somewhat surprisingly defeated in the 5th round against the German silver medalist from 1964 in free style Klaus Rost from Witten and had to retire.

1969 turned into another big year for Eero Tapio. He finished first at the world welterweight championship, which was taking place in Mar del Plata in March, after a defeat by the Soviet athlete Viktor Igumenow in the final, and then became European welterweight champion in Modena . After a bye in the first round, two wins and a draw against Momir Kecman from Yugoslavia were enough for him to win the title.

In the following years Eero Tapio could not achieve such great successes. Although he took part in the Olympic Games for the third time in Munich in 1972 , he did not win an Olympic medal there either. He then ended his international wrestling career.

Eero Tapio was named Finnish Sportsman of the Year by Finnish sports journalists in 1967.

International success

(OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championship, EM = European Championship, GR = Greco-Roman style, Le = lightweight, We = welterweight, Mi = middleweight, back then until 1968 up to 70 kg, 78 kg and 87 kg and from 1969 until 68 kg, 74 kg and 82 kg body weight)

• 1963, 1st place , Nordic Championship in Oslo , GR, Le, ahead of Kurt Madsen, Denmark and Rune Jonsson, Sweden ;
• 1964, 6th place , OS in Tokyo , GR, Le, with victories over Hossein Ebrahimian, Iran and Iwan Iwanow, Bulgaria , a draw against Valeriu Bularca , Romania and Tokuaki Fujita , Japan and a defeat against Dawit Gwanzeladze , Soviet Union ;
• 1965, 1st place , Nordic Championship in Uleaborg , GR, Le, ahead of Matti Poikkala , Sweden and Age Barlie, Norway ;
• 1965, 3rd place , World Championship in Tampere , GR, Le, with victories over Age Barlie, Jan Adamszek, Poland , Guro Gurew , Bulgaria and Muneji Munemura , Japan and one defeat against Gennadi Sapunow , USSR;
• 1966, 5th place , EM in Essen , GR, Le, with victories over Kooyman, Netherlands and Rolf Pettersson, Sweden, draw against Genrich Markow, USSR and Kazim Ayvaz , Turkey and one defeat against Klaus Pohl , GDR :
• 1966, 3rd place , World Championships in Toledo / USA , GR, Le, with victories over Benjamin Northrup, USA and Age Barlie and a draw against Muneji Munemura, Kazim Ayvaz and Stevan Horvat , Yugoslavia ;
• 1967, 2nd place , EM in Minsk , GR, Le, with victories over Matti Poikkala, Antal Steer , Hungary and Adil Güngör, Turkey and a draw against Klaus-Jürgen Pohl and Gennadi Sapunow ;
• 1967, 1st place , World Championships in Bucharest , GR, Le, with victories over Bruno Hartmann, Austria , Oka Tadekatsu, Japan and Wladimir Novochatko , USSR and a draw against Matti Poikkala and Antal Steer;
• 1967, 4th place , pre-Olympic tournament in Mexico City , GR, Le, behind Gennadi Sapunow, Klaus Pohl and Dragomir Raitschew, Bulgaria;
• 1968, 3rd place , "Dan Kolew" tournament in Sevljewa / Bulgaria, GR, Le, behind Dragomir Raitschew and Klaus Pohl;
• 1968, 5th place , OS in Montreal , GR, Le, with victories over Eliseo Salguto, Philippines and Stojan Apostolow , Bulgaria, draw against Antal Steer and Muneji Munemura and one defeat against Klaus Rost, FRG;
• 1969, 2nd place , World Championship in Mar del Plata , GR, We, with victories over Dragomir Raitschew and Seiji Yamagata, Japan and a defeat against Viktor Igumenow , USSR;
• 1969, 1st place , EM in Modena , GR, We, with victories over Jan Karlsson , Sweden and Erik Olsen, Denmark and a draw against Momir Kecman , Yugoslavia;
• 1971, 1st place , Nordic Championship, GR, We, ahead of Franzen, Sweden and Kligaard, Norway;
• 1971, 9th place , World Cup in Sofia , GR, We, with victories over Hashem Ghanbari, Iran and Khalid, Lebanon and defeats against Stanisław Krzesiński , Poland and Klaus Pohl;
• 1972, unpl. , EM in Katowice , GR, We, after a victory over Johannes van der Paverd, Netherlands and a defeat against Kasim Halilow , USSR retired due to injury;
• 1972, 9th place , OS in Munich , GR, We, with a win over Robert Blaser, Switzerland , a draw against Daniel Robin , France and defeats against Petros Galaktopoulos , Greece and Klaus Pohl

Finnish championships

• 1963, 3rd place, GR, Le, behind Kauno Määttä and Pentti Jakonen,
• 1964, 1st place, GR, Le, ahead of Alpo Koskenniemi and Jouko Lehtinen,
• 1968, 1st place, GR, We, ahead of Matti Laakso and Erkki Hämälainen,
• 1971, 1st place, GR, We, ahead of Heikki Julmala and Risto Kautto,
• 1972, 1st place, GR, We, ahead of Erkki Alajärvi and Heikki Julmala

Championships of the sports association TUL

• 1960, 3rd place, GR, Le, behind Väinö Hakkarainen and Asatto Tiusanen,
• 1961, 2nd place, GR, Le, behind Martti Peltola and in front of Risto Hannus,
• 1962, 2nd place, GR, Le, behind Martti Peltola and in front of Paavo Laukkanen,
• 1963, 3rd place, GR, Le, behind Martti Peltola and Risto Hannus,
• 1964, 1st place, GR, Le, ahead of Pentti Jakonen and Risto Hannus,
• 1966, 1st place, GR, Le in front of Risto Hannus and Pentt Jakonen,
• 1967, 1st place, GR, We, ahead of Mikko Ranta and Erkki Hämälainen,
• 1968, 1st place, GR, We, ahead of Erkki Hämälainen and Pertti Jahunen,
• 1969, 1st place, GR, Wed, in front of Olaki Kaakko and Muisto Tittonen,
• 1971, 1st place, GR, Wed, ahead of Erkki Hämälainen and Matti Posio,
• 1973, 1st place, GR, Wed, ahead of Erkki Hämälainen and Heikki Perttula,
• 1974, 1st place, GR, Wed, ahead of Markku Latvala and Pertti Kokko

swell

• Professional magazine Athletik, numbers: 23/1963, page 16, 1 = 1965, page 16, 12/1967, page 32, 7/1968, page 32, 9/1971, page 32, Olympic special editions 1972, page 39
• Documentation of International Wrestling Championships of the FILA, pages: O-74, W-64, E-49, W-71, E-53, W-75, O-84, E-66, W-81, W-103, E-86
• Website of the TUL Sports Association: www.tulpaini.fi with the results of the Finnish and TUL championships

Web links

• Profile of Eero Tapio at the Institute for Applied Training Science
• Eero Tapio in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )
• Portrait of Eero Tapio in Finnish