Kalle Jalkanen (10 May 1907 in

Suonenjoki Suonenjoki (; literally means "vein's river") is a town and municipality of Finland. It is located in the Northern Savonia region, southwest of the Kuopio city. The town has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The popu ...

– 5 September 1941 in Kirjasalo) was a

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

cross-country skier Cross-country skiing is a form of skiing where skiers rely on their own locomotion to move across snow-covered terrain, rather than using ski lifts or other forms of assistance. Cross-country skiing is widely practiced as a sport and recreation ...

who competed in the late 1930s. He won a gold medal at the

1936 Winter Olympics The 1936 Winter Olympics, officially known as the IV Olympic Winter Games (german: IV. Olympische Winterspiele) and commonly known as Garmisch-Partenkirchen 1936 ( bar, Garmasch-Partakurch 1936), were a winter multi-sport event held from 6 to 16 ...

Garmisch-Partenkirchen Garmisch-Partenkirchen (; Bavarian: ''Garmasch-Partakurch''), nicknamed Ga-Pa, is an Alpine ski town in Bavaria, southern Germany. It is the seat of government of the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen (abbreviated ''GAP''), in the O ...

in the 4 × 10 km relay. He won the relay along with

Sulo Nurmela Sulo Nurmela (13 February 1908 – 13 August 1999) was a Finnish cross-country skier. He won a gold medal at the 1936 Winter Olympics in the 4 × 10 km relay and served as the Finnish flag bearer at those games. Nurmela won two world title ...

Klaes Karppinen Klaes Karppinen (also spelled Klaus; 9 October 1907 – 24 January 1992) was a Finnish cross-country skier who competed in the 1930s. He won a gold medal at the 1936 Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in the 4 × 10 km relay. Karppin ...

and Matti Lähde. Jalkanen's biggest successes were at the

Nordic skiing World Championships The FIS Nordic World Ski Championships is a biennial nordic skiing event organized by the International Ski Federation (FIS). The World Championships was started in 1925 for men and opened for women's participation in 1954. World Championship e ...

where he earned four medals, including one gold (50 km: 1938), two silvers (18 km and 4 × 10 km relay: both 1937), and one bronze (18 km: 1938) He was killed during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Cross-country skiing results

All results are sourced from the International Ski Federation (FIS).

Olympic Games

* 1 medal – (1 gold)

World Championships

* 4 medals – (1 gold, 2 silver, 1 bronze)

References

External links

* * * 1907 births 1941 deaths People from Suonenjoki Finnish male cross-country skiers Cross-country skiers at the 1936 Winter Olympics Olympic medalists in cross-country skiing FIS Nordic World Ski Championships medalists in cross-country skiing Olympic gold medalists for Finland Medalists at the 1936 Winter Olympics Finnish military personnel killed in World War II Sportspeople from North Savo 20th-century Finnish people {{Finland-XC-skiing-bio-stub