Kalevi Kotkas

Kalevi Kotkas (born August 10, 1913 in Tallinn , † August 24, 1983 in Vantaa , Finland ) was a Finnish athlete.

Kotkas, who with a height of 1.94 m had a competition weight of 100 kg, was world class in two disciplines, high jump and discus throw , which is a rather unusual combination.

Olympic games

At the Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 1932 , he finished 7th in the discus throw with 45.87 m. Four years later at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin , he failed to qualify with the discus. Cornelius Johnson USA won gold in the high jump with an Olympic record of 2.03 m. Kotkas jumped 2.00 m like the two Americans Dave Albritton and Delos Thurber . In the jump-off, Albritton jumped 1.97 m and Thurber 1.95 m, while Kotkas failed at both heights. Thus he finished 4th.

European championships

At the first European Athletics Championships in 1934 , Kotkas was 10th in the discus throw. In the high jump he became European champion with a 2.00 m. At the European Championships in 1938 , Kotkas was fourth in the discus throw with 48.63 m and nine centimeters behind bronze. In the high jump competition held shortly thereafter, Kotkas won silver with 1.94 m behind the Swede Kurt Lundqvist with 1.97 m.

Top performances

• High jump 2.04 m
• Discus throw 51.27 m

Web links

• Kalevi Kotkas in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )