Leo Honkala

Leo "Lelle" Ilmo Honkala (born January 8, 1933 in Oulu , † May 17, 2015 in Oxelösund , Sweden ) was a Finnish wrestler and bronze medalist at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki .

Career

Honkala started for the clubs Oulun Pyrintö , Oulun Poliisi-Urheilijat and Tampereen Poliisi-Urheilijat (from around 1954).

At the Summer Olympics in Helsinki in 1952, the 19-year-old Honkala took third place behind Boris Gurewitsch from the Soviet Union and Ignazio Fabra from Italy and thus won bronze in the Greco-Roman class up to 52 kg. On the way to this medal he defeated Werner Zimmer from Saarland , Mahmoud Fawzi from Egypt and Heinrich Weber from Germany . In the fight against Weber, he was lucky when the jury, following a protest by the Finnish team management, converted the verdict, which had initially been point winner Weber, into point winner Honkola. Many wrestling experts saw it as a "gift" from the international wrestling federation to the Finnish host at Heinrich Weber's expense. In the fight for silver and bronze medals, Honkola lost to Ignazio Fabra from Italy and Boris Gurevich from the Soviet Union. He was not at the start at other international championships.

In 1954 Leo Honkala was in a Finnish national relay that wrestled against Sweden . He lost it against Edvin Vesterby on points and won with the same result over the 1950 world champion Bengt Johansson .

Leo Honkola won the Finnish championship only once, in 1956.

After his active career as a wrestler, Leo Honkala was one of the most successful coaches in Finland, leading many Finnish wrestlers to the top of the world in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1974 he went to Sweden as a trainer , where he also worked extremely successfully as a wrestler trainer. His master student was the multiple Swedish world champion Frank Andersson .

In Sweden, Leo Honkala began powerlifting at an advanced age. He started for AK Borlänge and from 1980 onwards he set a number of Swedish records in the various age groups. In November 2006 the 73-year-old Honkala was tested positive for anabolic steroids at the Senior European Championships in weightlifting in the Czech Republic and was banned for two years. Honkala admitted that he obtained the funds from the Internet and had used such methods before.

International success

year	space	competition	style	Weight class
1952	bronze	OS in Helsinki	GR	To fly	with victories over Werner Zimmer, Saarland , Mohmoud Fawzi, Egypt and Heinrich Weber , Germany and defeats against Ignazio Fabra , Italy a . Boris Gurevich , USSR

Finnish championships

year	space	style	Weight class
1953	3.	F.	Bantam	behind Tauno Jaskari and Arvo Kyllönen
1954	2.	GR	Bantam	behind Matti Rantala and in front of Onni Hakarainen
1954	2.	F.	Bantam	behind Tauno Jaskari and in front of Tenho Haapala
1956	1.	GR	Bantam	before Reijo Nykänen and Aaro Paski

Note: OS = Olympic Games, F = free style, GR = Greco-Roman style, flyweight, up to 52 kg, bantam weight, up to 57 kg body weight

swell

• Database of the Institute for Applied Training Sciences at the University of Leipzig
• Athletics magazine
• Website "tulpaini.fi"

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://www.aftonbladet.se/sportbladet/brottning/article20809643.ab
2. ↑ blick.ch: Age does not protect against doping , November 7, 2006

Web links

• Profile of Leo Honkala at the Institute for Applied Training Science
• Leo Honkala in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )