Sylvi Saimo
| Sylvi Saimo medal table |
||
|---|---|---|
| Finland | ||
| Olympic games | ||
| gold | 1952 Helsinki | Single kayak 500 m |
| World Championship | ||
| gold | 1950 Copenhagen | One kayak |
| gold | 1950 Copenhagen | Two-person kayak |
Sylvi Riitta Saimo (born November 12, 1914 in Jaakkima-Reuskula , Viipuri Province , (today Russia); † March 12, 2004 in Laukaa ; born Sylvi Riitta Sikiö ) was a Finnish canoeist . She was the first Finnish woman to win the Summer Olympics.
Sylvi Saimo was born in 1914 as the daughter of the farmer Johannes Sikiö and the landlady Hilda Hannonen. She started sporting activities at an early age, but initially mainly in cross-country skiing. She only started canoeing at the age of 31.
In 1948 she took part in the Olympic Games for the first time and was sixth. In the same year she was named Sportswoman of the Year in Finland . In 1950 she became world champion in both single kayak and two-man kayak (with Greta Grönholm ) and again Sportswoman of the Year. At the Olympic Summer Games in Helsinki in 1952, at the age of 37, she finally won a gold medal in a single kayak over 500 m , the first ever to be won by a Finnish woman at the Summer Games (followed by Heli Rantanen in Athens in 1996 and Satu Mäkelä-Nummela in 2008 in Beijing), whereupon she was named Sportswoman of the Year for the third time.
After finishing her sporting career, she went into politics and was elected to the Finnish Parliament four times as a member of the Finnish Center Party . Then she retired to her farm in Laukaa, where she lived until her death in 2004.
Individual evidence
Web links
- Sylvi Saimo in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )
- Obituary for Sylvi Saimo at noc.fi
- Profile at eduskunta.fi
1948 Karen Hoff | 1952 Sylvi Saimo | 1956 Jelisaveta Dementjewa | 1960 Antonina Seredina | 1964 Lyudmila Hvedosyuk | 1968 Lyudmila Pinajewa | 1972 Julija Ryabtschinskaya | 1976 Carola Zirzow | 1980 Birgit Fischer | 1984 Agneta Andersson | 1988 Wanja Geschewa | 1992 Birgit Schmidt | 1996 Rita Kőbán | 2000 Josefa Idem | 2004 Natasa Janics | 2008 Inna Ossypenko | 2012 Danuta Kozák | 2016 Danuta Kozák
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Saimo, Sylvi |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Saimo, Sylvi Riitta (full name); Sikiö, Sylvi Riitta (maiden name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Finnish canoeist and politician, member of the Reichstag |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 12, 1914 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Jaakkima-Reuskula , Viipuri Province |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 12, 2004 |
| Place of death | Laukaa |