Voldemar Väli

Voldemar Väli

Voldemar Väli (born January 10, 1903 in Kuressaare , † April 13, 1997 in Stockholm , Sweden ) was an Estonian wrestler .

Career

Voldemar Väli grew up in his birthplace and started wrestling there in 1920. After the first major successes, he moved to the sports club "Sport Tallinn ". In 1922 he became the first Estonian master in the Greco-Roman style, the style he exclusively wrestled. In 1924 he started his first international championship, the Olympic Games in Paris . He won two fights and lost two fights and ended up in the featherweight class occupied with 27 wrestlers in 8th place.

In 1926 he achieved his first major victory in an international championship. In Riga he became European featherweight champion with a remarkable victory in the final battle over Erik Malmberg from Sweden . In 1927 he succeeded in repeating this victory in Budapest . He became European champion again. The local Károly Kárpáti lost it in the final. In 1928 Väli achieved the third major victory in a row. He became Olympic featherweight champion in Amsterdam . In the final battle he again defeated Erik Malmberg on points.

In 1929 Väli switched to the lightweight and finished second at the European Championships in Stockholm in 1930 behind Erik Malmberg, to whom he was defeated this time. He also took the same place at the 1931 European Championships in Prague . In the final, Väli lost to Eduard Sperling from Dortmund .

Voldemar Väli was denied participation in the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles because Estonia did not have the financial means to send a wrestling team there. But in 1933 and 1934, Väli was again at the start of the European lightweight championships. But he couldn't place himself among the top three winners.

At the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin , Väli won another bronze medal with five victories. He also defeated the great German hope Heinrich Nettesheim from Cologne . Väli suffered defeats against Josef Herda from Czechoslovakia and Lauri Koskela from Finland . In 1937 and 1938, Väli again won no medals at the European Championships. It failed every time because of Lauri Koskela.

International success

(OS = Olympic Games, EM = European Championship, GR = Greco-Roman style, Fe = featherweight, Le = lightweight, at that time up to 81 kg and 66 kg body weight)

• 1924, 8th place , OS in Paris , GR, Fe, with victories over Eduard Rottiers , Belgium and Jordán Vallmajo , Spain and defeats against Ödön Radvány , Hungary and Arthur Nord , Norway ;
• 1926, 1st place , EM in Riga , GR, Fe, with victories over Ambrus, Hungary , Antonin Zeman, Czechoslovakia , Ernst Steinig , Germany and Erik Malmberg , Sweden ;
• 1927, 1st place , EM in Budapest , GR, Fe, with victories over Martin Egeberg, Norway , Wacław Ziółkowski, Poland , Eugen Fleischmann, Czechoslovakia, Sigfrid Hansson, Sweden and Károly Kárpáti , Hungary ;
• 1928, gold medal , OS in Amsterdam , GR, Fe, with victories over A. Kamel, Egypt , Ludwig Schlanger, Austria , František Kratochvil, Czechoslovakia, Ernst Steinig, Károly Kárpáti and Erik Malmberg,
• 1930, 2nd place , EM in Stockholm , GR, Le, with victories over Reidar Andersen, Norway and Emile Rivollier, France and defeats against Károly Kárpáti and Erik Malmberg;
• 1931, 2nd place , EM in Prague , GR, Le, with victories over Antun Fischer, Yugoslavia , Antti Mäki , Finland , J. Nolten, Netherlands , Arild Dahl, Norway and one defeat against Eduard Sperling , Germany;
• 1931, 3rd place , intern. Tournament in Malmö , GR, Le, behind days Jarl u. Gustav Klaren, bde. Sweden;
• 1933, 4th place , EM in Helsinki , GR, Le, with victories over Arild Dahl and Einar Karlsson , Sweden and one defeat against Aarne Reini , Finland;
• 1934, 6th place , EM in Rome , GR, Le, with victories over Einar Karlsson and Piotr Neuff, Poland and defeats against Abraham Kurland , Denmark and Aarne Reini;
• 1936, bronze medal , OS in Berlin , GR, Le, with victories over Zbigniew Szajewski, Poland, Arild Dahl, Heinrich Nettesheim , Germany , Saim Arikan, Turkey and Herbert Olofsson , Sweden and defeats against Josef Herda , Czechoslovakia and Lauri Koskela , Finland;
• 1937, 6th place , EM in Paris , GR, Le, with victories over Jaroslav Jaróš, Czechoslovakia and Oskar Holinger, Switzerland and a defeat against Lauri Koskela;
• 1938, 4th place , EM in Tallinn , GR, Le, with victories over Ahmet Yener, Turkey and Abraham Kurland and a defeat against Lauri Koskela

Estonian championships

Voldemar Väli won the Estonian championship in the Greco-Roman style in feather or lightweight nineteen times in the period from 1922 to 1941.

swell

• Documentation of FILA's International Wrestling Championships, 1976
• various issues of the specialist magazine “Athletik” from 1929 to 1936 and the specialist magazine “Kraftsport” from 1937 to 1941

Web links

• Profile of Voldemar Väli at the Institute for Applied Training Science
• Voldemar Väli in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Sports achievements and photo (Estonian)