Eino Aukusti Leino

Eino Leino

Eino Aukusti Leino [ ˈɛinɔ ˈaukusti ˈlɛinɔ ], (born April 7, 1891 in Kuopio , † November 30, 1986 in Tampere ) was a Finnish wrestler.

Career

Eino Leino grew up in Kuopio and started wrestling there as a youngster before the First World War. He achieved good results at regional events as a member of the sports club "Kuopion Voimailijat" in the Greco-Roman style customary at the time. During the First World War he went to the USA and there also learned about freestyle wrestling. In 1920 he became USA middleweight champion. He was then nominated by Finland for the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp , where he became Olympic middleweight champion (up to 75 kg body weight at that time). Eino Leino also wrestled free style for Finland at the 1924, 1928 and 1932 Olympics, winning a medal at each of those events. He achieved what no athlete in the world had achieved before, namely winning a medal in four consecutive Olympic Games. World championships in freestyle wrestling did not take place at that time, European championships only from 1930.

In the 1930s, Eino Leino returned to Finland and held a leading position in the Finnish Workers' Sports Association (TUL) from 1949 to 1952 .

International success

(OS = Olympic Games, F = freestyle, Le = lightweight, We = welterweight, Mi = middleweight, back then up to 66, 72 and 75 kg body weight)

• 1920, gold medal , OS in Antwerp , F, Wed, with victories over Bron, Switzerland , Frits Janssens, Belgium , Charles Johnson, USA and Väinö Penttala, Finland;
• 1924, silver medal , OS in Paris , F, We, with victories over Frits Janssens, Hyacinthe Roosen, Belgium , Guy Lookabaugh, USA, William Johnson, USA and one defeat against Hermann Gehri, Switzerland ;
• 1928, bronze medal , OS in Amsterdam , F, Le, with victories over George Mackenzie, United Kingdom , Birger Nilsen, Norway , Tresdorf Jörgensen, Denmark and one defeat against Charles Pacome, France ;
• 1932, bronze medal , OS in Los Angeles , F, We, with victories over Yoshio Kono, Japan , Ludvig Lindblom, Sweden , Gyula Zombory, Hungary and defeats against Daniel MacDonald, Canada and Jack van Bebber , USA

National successes

Eino Leino became American free style, middleweight champions in 1920 and 1923, and in 1936 at the age of 45, he finished 2nd in the welterweight division at the Finnish Freestyle Wrestling Championships.

swell

• DOCUMENTATION of FILA's International Wrestling Championships, 1976
• International Wrestling Database of the University of Leipzig
• Website www.painiliitto.net with the results of the Finnish championships
• various issues of the specialist magazine "Athletik" from 1929 to 1936

Web links

• Eino Aukusti Leino in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )