Lauri ("Lassi") Rikhard Parkkinen (8 May 1917 – 3 October 1994) was a Finnish

speed skater Speed skating is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors race each other in travelling a certain distance on skates. Types of speed skating are long track speed skating, short track speed skating, and marathon speed skating. ...

. __NOTOC__ Lassi Parkkinen was born in

Varkaus Varkaus (before year 1929 ''Warkaus'') is a Middle- Savonian industrial town and municipality of Finland. It is located in the province of Eastern Finland and is part of the Northern Savonia region, between city of Kuopio and town of Savonlinna. T ...

, an industrial town in the southeast of Finland. He made his debut at the World Allround Championships in 1938, finishing ninth. He also participated the next year, 1939, in what would turn out to be the last World Championships before

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 ...

, but his results on the first three distances were not good enough to qualify for the final distance. Due to the war, it took eight years before the World Championships were held again. At these first World Championships since World War II, Parkkinen was crowned the 1947 World Champion. His success continued the next year at the

1948 Winter Olympics The 1948 Winter Olympics, officially known as the V Olympic Winter Games (german: V. Olympische Winterspiele; french: Ves Jeux olympiques d'hiver; it, V Giochi olimpici invernali; rm, V Gieus olimpics d'enviern) and commonly known as St. Moritz ...

St. Moritz St. Moritz (also german: Sankt Moritz, rm, , it, San Maurizio, french: Saint-Moritz) is a high Alpine resort town in the Engadine in Switzerland, at an elevation of about above sea level. It is Upper Engadine's major town and a municipality in ...

, when he won Olympic silver on the 10,000 m. His final speed skating successes came in 1952 when he won silver at the World Championships and became Finnish Allround Champion for the fifth and last time. He also skated at the

1952 Winter Olympics The 1952 Winter Olympics, officially known as the VI Olympic Winter Games ( no, De 6. olympiske vinterleker; nn, Dei 6. olympiske vinterleikane) and commonly known as Oslo 1952, was a winter multi-sport event held from 14 to 25 February 195 ...

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

, but his 10,000 m time of 17:36.8 – almost identical to the time that won him silver in 1948 – was only good for the eighth place. His best result at those 1952 Winter Olympics was a sixth place on the 1,500 m. The next year, 1953, Parkkinen finished only twelfth at the World Championships and he retired from speed skating soon afterwards. He kept involved in speed skating though, being vice-chairman of the ''Suomen Luisteluliitto'' (Finnish Skating Association) from 1954 to 1960, as well as being a committee member of the

International Skating Union The International Skating Union (ISU) is the international governing body for competitive ice skating disciplines, including figure skating, synchronized skating, speed skating, and short track speed skating. It was founded in Scheveningen, Net ...

from 1957 to 1964. Parkkinen died in 1994, aged 77.

Medals

An overview of medals won by Parkkinen at important championships he participated in, listing the years in which he won each: In addition, Parkkinen was Finnish National Allround Champion in 1941, 1943, 1944, 1946, and 1952 – a total of five times.

Personal records

To put these personal records in perspective, the ''WR'' column lists the official world records on the dates that Parkkinen skated his personal records. Note that the official world record on the 5,000 m on the day that Parkkinen skated his personal record on that distance was Hjalmar Andersen's time of 8:07.3. In the meantime,

Nikolay Mamonov Nikolay Mamonov is a former Soviet speedskater. He set a world record in 5,000 m in Medeo in 1952 Events January–February * January 26 – Black Saturday in Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and u ...

had skated a time of 8:03.7, but Mamonov's time was not recognised as a world record by the

(ISU) until the 1955 ISU Congress. Parkkinen has an Adelskalender score of 193.228 points.

References

Lassi Parkkinen at SkateResults.com

from the ''International Skating Union''

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Parkkinen, Lassi 1917 births 1994 deaths People from Varkaus Finnish male speed skaters Olympic speed skaters for Finland Speed skaters at the 1948 Winter Olympics Speed skaters at the 1952 Winter Olympics Olympic silver medalists for Finland Olympic medalists in speed skating Medalists at the 1948 Winter Olympics World Allround Speed Skating Championships medalists Sportspeople from North Savo