Harri Kirvesniemi

Harri Kirvesniemi
nation	Finland
birthday	10th May 1958 (age 62)
place of birth	Simpele , Finland
Career
status	resigned
End of career	2001
Medal table
Olympic medals 0 × 0 × 6 × World Cup medals 1 × 3 × 5 ×
winter Olympics bronze 1980 Lake Placid 4 × 10 km bronze 1984 Sarajevo 15 km bronze 1984 Sarajevo 4 × 10 km bronze 1992 Albertville 4 × 10 km bronze 1994 Lillehammer 4 × 10 km bronze 1998 Nagano 4 × 10 km  Nordic World Ski Championships bronze 1980 Lake Placid 4 × 10 km bronze 1982 Oslo 15 km bronze 1982 Oslo 4 × 10 km bronze 1985 Seefeld 30 km gold 1989 Lahti 15 km classic silver 1989 Lahti 4 × 10 km bronze 1991 Val di Fiemme 4 × 10 km silver 1995 Thunder Bay 4 × 10 km silver 1997 Trondheim 4 × 10 km
Placements in the cross-country skiing world cup
World Cup victories in individual 6 ( details )  Overall World Cup 3. (1981/82, 1983/84)
Podium placements 1. 2. 3.  Distance races 6th 3 7th

Harri Tapani Kirvesniemi (born May 10, 1958 in Mikkeli ) is a former Finnish cross-country skier .

In his career he won a total of six Olympic bronze medals, five of them with the Finnish relay in Lake Placid in 1980 , in Sarajevo in 1984 , in Albertville in 1992 , in Lillehammer in 1994 and in Nagano in 1998 . He also took third place in the 1984 15 km race in Sarajevo.

He was also successful at world championships. In 1989 in Lahti he became world champion over 15 kilometers in classic style. He won bronze medals in 1982 over 15 km and 1985 over 30 km. With the Finnish relay he was runner-up three times (1989, 1995, 1997) and won two bronze medals (1982 and 1991). In 1998 he was honored with the Holmenkollen Medal (his wife had received it in 1989).

The end of his career was overshadowed by the doping scandal in the Finnish team at the 2001 World Cup in Lahti . The Finnish relay team, which initially took first place, was disqualified for doping with the HES blood plasma expander . Harri Kirvesniemi was also one of those convicted of doping members of this season and he was banned for two years.

He is married to the former Finnish cross-country skier Marja-Liisa Hämäläinen . Harri Kirvesniemi is one of the few athletes who have participated in six Winter Olympics. In addition to him, his wife, Jochen Behle and Georg Hackl succeeded in doing this .

World Cup victories in individual

No.	date	place	discipline
1.	March 19, 1982	Štrbské Pleso	15 km
2.	January 10, 1987	Calgary	15 km classic
3.	February 22, 1989	Lahti	15 km classic 1
4th	March 12, 1994	Falun	30 km classic
5.	January 14, 1995	Nové Město	15 km classic
6th	March 11, 2000	Oslo	50 km classic

¹ Nordic World Ski Championships 1989.

World Cup overall placements

season	total		Long distance		sprint
	Points	space	Points	space	Points	space
1981/82	106	3.	-	-	-	-
1982/83	46	14th	-	-	-	-
1983/84	93	3.	-	-	-	-
1984/85	66	9.	-	-	-	-
1985/86	23	17th	-	-	-	-
1986/87	57	9.	-	-	-	-
1987/88	42	15th	-	-	-	-
1988/89	39	12.	-	-	-	-
1989/90	36	12.	-	-	-	-
1990/91	45	13.	-	-	-	-
1991/92	48	7th	-	-	-	-
1992/93	90	29	-	-	-	-
1993/94	229	12.	-	-	-	-
1994/95	363	7th	-	-	-	-
1995/96	149	21st	-	-	-	-
1996/97	102	29	20th	35.	50	26th
1997/98	57	38.	21st	37.	36	36.
1998/99	80	33.	34	30th	26th	61.
1999/2000	297	14th	160 137	5. 18. 2	-	-
2000/01	67	57.	-	-	-	-

² Middle distance world cup.

Web links

• Harri Kirvesniemi in the database of the International Ski Federation (English)
• Harri Kirvesniemi in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Finnish cross-country skiers blocked. on berliner-zeitung.de April 21, 2001.