Väinö Kokkinen

Väinö Kokkinen medal table
[[File: Väinö Kokkinen, 1928 | 220x180px | border | Väinö Kokkinen]] Väinö Kokkinen
Wrestling
Finland
Olympic games
gold	1928 Amsterdam	medium
gold	1932 Los Angeles	medium
European Championship
silver	1925 Milan	medium
silver	Dortmund	medium
gold	Stockholm	medium
silver	Prague	medium
silver	Helsinki	Semi-difficult
1st Workers' Olympics
gold	1925 Frankfurt (Main)	medium

Väinö Anselmi Kokkinen (born November 25, 1899 in Hollola , † August 27, 1967 in Kouvola ) was a Finnish wrestler.

Career

Väinö Kokkinen started wrestling at a young age at the Lahden Taimi club , which was part of the Finnish Workers' Sports Association TUL . In 1926 he moved to the Helsingin Atleettiklubi club from Helsinki and at the same time the association. He now belonged to a club that belonged to the international wrestling federation. Väinö Kokkinen was an extremely successful wrestler. The Swedish wrestler king Ivar Johansson felt that, too, who lost three times to Kokkinen at the beginning of his career at international championships. Two Olympic victories were the highlight of Kokkinen's career, which ended in 1936.

Kokkinen fought for the Red Guards in the Finnish Civil War in 1918 and was sentenced to three years in prison. However, the verdict was dropped again.

International success

(OS = Olympic Games, EM = European Champion, GR = Greco-Roman style, Wed = middleweight, HS = light heavyweight, back then up to 79 kg or 87 kg body weight)

• 1925, 1st place , Workers' Olympics in Frankfurt am Main , GR, Wed;
• 1925, 2nd place , EM in Milan , GR, Wed, with victories over Giuseppe Gorletti , Italy , Mario Gruppioni , Italy and one defeat against Fritz Bräun , Germany ;
• 1928, gold medal , OS in Amsterdam , GR, Wed, with victories over František Hála , Czechoslovakia , waltz, Argentina , Dr. László Papp , Hungary , Ivar Johansson , Sweden and Johannes Jakobsen , Denmark ;
• 1929, 2nd place , EM in Dortmund , GR, Wed, with victories over Jean Földeák , Germany, Viktors Kavals , Latvia , Albert Kusnets , Estonia , Ivar Johansson and one defeat against József Tunyogi , Hungary ;
• 1929, 1st place , intern. Tournament in Stockholm , GR, Wed, in front of Ivar Johansson u. Jozsef Tunyogi;
• 1930, 1st place , EM in Stockholm , GR, Wed, with victories over Beránek, Czechoslovakia, Ivar Johansson and Karl Kullisaar , Estonia;
• 1930, 2nd place , intern. Tournament in Stockholm, GR, Wed, behind Ivar Johansson u. before Portström, bde. Sweden;
• 1931, 2nd place , EM in Prague , GR, Wed, with victories over Eduard Krämer , Germany, Glušac, Yugoslavia , Josef Přibyl , Czechoslovakia, Viktors Kavals and a defeat against Ivar Johansson;
• 1931, 1st place , intern. Tournament in Gothenburg , GR, Wed, in front of Ivar Johansson u. Knut Fridell , bde. Sweden;
• 1931, 2nd place , intern. Tournament in Malmö , GR, Wed, behind Ivar Johansson u. before Johan Friis, bde. Sweden;
• 1931, 2nd place , intern. Tournament in Helsinki , GR, Wed, behind Ivar Johansson u. in front of Mikko Nordling , Finland ;
• 1932, 1st place , intern. Tournament in Helsinki, GR, Wed, in front of Fritz Bräun , Germany a. Edvard Westerlund , Finland;
• 1932, gold medal , OS in Los Angeles , GR, Wed, with victories over Émile Poilvé , France , Jean Földeák and Axel Cadier , Sweden;
• 1933, 2nd place , EM in Helsinki , GR, HS, with victories over Rudolf Svensson , Sweden and one defeat against Olaf Luiga , Estonia;
• 1934, 7th place , EM In Rome , GR, HS, after victory over Rovedo, Italy and defeat against Erich Siebert , Germany, retired due to injury;
• 1936, 4th place , OS in Berlin , GR, Wed, with victories over Voldemar Mägi , Estonia, Fredrikssen, Denmark, Francisc Cocoş , Romania and defeats against Ercole Gallegati , Italy and Ivar Johansson.

Successes at Finnish championships

Kokkinen was 1924 and 1925 champion and 1922 vice champion of the association TUL in the middleweight division and Finnish champion in 1926, 1929, 1930, 1931, 1932 each in the middleweight, Greco-Roman style and 1934 in the light heavyweight division. In 1936 he was runner-up in the middleweight division.

TUL Championships:

• 1922, 2nd place , GR, up to 75 kg, behind Onni Pellinen and in front of Evert Salonen
• 1924, 1st place , GR, up to 75 kg, ahead of Väinö Kajander and K. Aaltonen
• 1925, 1st place , GR, up to 75 kg, ahead of Vihtori Liljeqvist and Evert Salonen

National championships:

• 1926, 1st place , GR, up to 75 kg, ahead of Edvard Vesterlund and F. Saarinen
• 1929, 1st place , GR, up to 75 kg, ahead of Eero Salo and Jaska Filppula
• 1930, 1st place , GR, up to 79 kg, ahead of Edvard Vesterlund and Jaska Filppula
• 1931, 1st place , GR, up to 79 kg, ahead of Mikko Nordling and Edvard Vesterlund
• 1932, 1st place , GR, up to 79 kg, ahead of Edvard Vesterlund and Eelis Vecksten
• 1934, 1st place , GR, up to 87 kg, ahead of Edil Rosenqvist and Edvard Vesterlund
• 1936, 2nd place , GR, up to 79 kg, behind Arvi Pikkusaari and in front of Viljo Lappalainen

Web links

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