Jorma Kinnunen

Jorma Vilho Paavali Kinnunen (born December 15, 1941 in Pihtipudas , † July 26, 2019 in Äänekoski ) was a Finnish javelin thrower who was successful in the 1960s. He set a world record and won an Olympic silver medal.

Since he was very small with 1.74 m, he was nicknamed "Pikkujättiläinen" (Eng. "Little giant")

He won five state championships:

year	1964	1965	1966	1968	1969
Width (m)	77.73	82.48	84.10	85.80	89.72

Jorma Kinnunen took part in three Olympic Games and three European championships. At the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 1964 and at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, he was sixth. At the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, he delivered an exciting duel against Jānis Lūsis . Kinnunen was four centimeters behind after Lusis had thrown 86.34 m in the second attempt. Only in the last round was the Latvian able to create clear conditions and with a 90 m throw he clearly prevailed against Kinnunen, who also achieved his best distance in the last attempt.

The following comparison of the litters by Kinnunen and Lusis (the number of the attempt in brackets) shows that the Finn only had the better third-best attempt:

Kinnunen	88.58 (6)	86.30 (1)	85.82 (5)	79.00 (4)	invalid (2)
Lusis	90.10 (6)	86.34 (2)	84.40 (4)	82.66 (3)	81.74 (1)

His best result at the European Championships was Jorma Kinnunen at the European Championships in Helsinki in 1971 , where he placed fifth. However, the European Championships in Athens in 1969 ended disappointingly for him . After he had set a world record with 92.70 m shortly before, he went into the competition as the favorite, but only came in 10th.

His son Kimmo Kinnunen was also successful as a javelin thrower.

Performance development

year	1960	1961	1962	1963	1964	1965	1966	1967	1968	1969	1970	1971	1972	1973	1974	1975	1976	1977	1978
Width (m)	62.88	77.07	73.90	75.33	84.63	88.14	84.10	81.84	88.58	92.70	90.00	87.78	85.50	86.64	80.56	85.68	83.84	80.58	84.04

Successes and placements

• Olympic Games 1964 in Tokyo: Sixth with 76.94 m (victory distance of his compatriot Pauli Nevala : 82.66 m)
• European Championships 1966 in Budapest: twelfth with 70.48 m (victory distance of Latvian Jānis Lūsis : 84.84 m)
• Olympic Games 1968 in Mexico City: SILVER with 88.58 m (behind Latvian Jānis Lūsis with 90.10 m and in front of Hungarian Gergely Kulcsár with 87.06 m)
• World record with 92.70 m on July 18, 1969 in Tampere
• European Championships 1969 in Athens: tenth with 74.82 m (victory distance of Latvian Jānis Lūsis : 91.52 m)
• European Championships 1971 in Helsinki: fifth with 80.96 m (victory distance of Latvian Jānis Lūsis : 90.68 m)
• 1972 Olympic Games in Munich: sixth with 82.08 m (victory distance of German Klaus Wolfermann : 90.48 m)

Web links

• Jorma Kinnunen in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )