Väinö icons

Väinö Vilhelm Johannes Ikonen (born October 5, 1895 in Tuusniemi , † February 10, 1954 in Helsinki ) was a Finnish wrestler and bronze medalist at the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris .

Career

Väinö Ikonen began wrestling in Kuopio and became a member of the Kuopion Riento Wrestling Club , an association belonging to the Finnish Workers' Sports Association (TUL). He later moved to the Helsingin Kisa-Veikot club, which was part of the general Finnish wrestling association . Väinö wrestled mainly in the Greco-Roman style. In 1918 he drew attention to himself for the first time with a 4th place at the Finnish featherweight championships. He celebrated his greatest success at the World Cup in Helsinki in 1921 , when he won the world title with four victories.

At the World Cup in 1922, the last World Cup before a long break until 1950, he did not win a medal. But he got one of those again by winning the bronze medal at the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris in the bantamweight, Greco-Roman style. Väinö was then active for several years, but did not start at an international championship more.

Ikonen was also successful as a track and field athlete. At the Finnish championships in 1916 he won a bronze medal in the pole vault. In 1915 he had achieved fifth place in the high jump and four in the pole vault.

International success

(OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championship, GR = Greco-Roman style, F = freestyle, Ba = bantam weight, up to 58 kg, Fe = feather weight, up to 60 kg or 62 kg body weight)

• 1921, 1st place , World Championships in Helsinki , GR, Ba, with victories over Johan Välimaa, Sweden , Risto Mustonen, Finland , Albert Volrat, Estonia and Kaarlo Mäkinen , Finland;
• 1922, 4th place , World Cup in Stockholm , GR, Ba, with victories over Ruben Scheftelowitz, Denmark and Haraald Jönsson, Sweden and defeats against Fritjof Svensson , Sweden and Eduard Pütsep , Estonia;
• 1924, bronze medal , OS in Paris , GR, Ba, with victories over Svend Martinsen , Norway , Ragnvald Olsen, Norway, Giovanni Gozzi , Italy and Anton Koolman, Estonia and defeats against Anselm Ahlfors , Finland and Eduard Pütsep

Finnish championships

• 1918, 4th place, GR, Fe, behind Kalle Anttila , August Pehkanen and Kaarlo Mäkinen ,
• 1921, 2nd place, GR, Fe, behind Kaarlo Mäkinen and in front of Arvo Kangas,
• 1922, 1st place, GR, Fe, in front of Santto Toivola and Juha Savolainen,
• 1924, 1st place, F, Ba, in front of Urho Pappinen and Jaakko Mypenpää ,
• 1928, 3rd place, GR, Ba, behind Urho Pappinen and Erkki Pasanen

swell

• Documentation of FILA's International Wrestling Championships, 1976
• Website of the Finnish Workers' Sports Association TUL

Web links

• Short portrait of Väinö Ikonen in Finnish
• Väinö icons in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )