Ville Pörhölä

Ville Pörhölä

Ville Pörhölä (actually: Frans Wilhelm Pörhölä , born as Frans Wilhelm Horneman ; * December 24, 1897 in Alatornio , † November 28, 1964 in Oulu ) was a Finnish athlete .

Pörhölä is the rare case of a top athlete who, after retiring as a shot putter, has made a comeback in another discipline, namely as a hammer thrower .

At the Olympic Games in Antwerp in 1920 Pörhölä competed in three disciplines. In the discus throw he was eighth with 38.19 m, in the weight throw he was ninth with 8.85 m. In the shot put, however, Pörhölä won Olympic gold. Pörhölä led after five attempts with 14.255 m and that would have made him Olympic champion. His last push of 14.81 m extended the lead over his compatriot Elmer Niklander to 75 centimeters.

Four years later, in 1924 in Paris , Pörhölä finished seventh in the shot put with 14.10 m. Then he retired from the sport. In 1929 he started again as a hammer thrower. At the Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 1932 he was second with 52.27 m behind the Irish Pat O'Callaghan , who came to 53.92 m.

At the European Championships in Turin in 1934 O'Callaghan did not appear. Pörhölä won the hammer throw with 50.34 m ahead of the Italian Fernando Vandelli with 48.69 m. At the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin , Pörhölä finished eleventh with 49.89 m.

Pörhölä was 1.83 m tall and weighed 85 kg during his active time. He came from the small island of Röyttä near Tornio . His nickname in Finland was Röyttän karhu ("Bear of Röyttä").

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede: The Modern Olympic Century 1896-1996 Track and Fields Athletics. Berlin 1999 (published by the German Society for Athletics Documentation eV )

Web links

• Ville Pörhölä in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )