Markku Uusipaavalniemi (born 23 November 1966 in

Karkkila Karkkila (; sv, Högfors) is a town and a municipality of Finland. Neighboring municipalities are Lohja, Loppi, Tammela and Vihti. Geography Karkkila is located in the Uusimaa region. The municipality has a population of () and it covers an ar ...

) is 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 ...

curler and former politician.

Curling career

Uusipaavalniemi was the skip of Team Finland for the first time in the mid-1990s. Most (but not all) of Finland's curling medals have been achieved with Uusipaavalniemi as skip. Uusipaavalniemi's team won the European championship in 2000. He is also a two-time

World Curling Championships The World Curling Championships are the annual world championships for curling, organized by the World Curling Federation and contested by national championship teams. There are men's, women's and mixed doubles championships, as well as men's an ...

bronze medalist (1998 and 2000) and two-time European Curling Championships bronze medalist (1999 and 2001). Uusipaavalniemi's Finland team disappointingly finished fifth at the 2002 Olympic tournament. In 2004, he and his somewhat altered Finland line-up pulled off the daunting task of securing qualification for the 2005 Ford World Men's Curling Championships from the 'B' competition at the European championships, where they languished following the country's relegation the previous season. To do this, they had to win the competition outright, and then overcome

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in an additional play-off match. At the 2005 World Championship, Uusipaavalniemi's team finished the round-robin tied for first place with five other teams on an 8–3 record. In the tie-breakers however, they were knocked out of contention by

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Randy Ferbey Randy S. Ferbey (born May 30, 1959) is a Canadian retired curler from Sherwood Park, Alberta. Ferbey is a six-time Canadian champion and a four-time World Champion. He currently coaches the Rachel Homan women's team. Born in Edmonton, Albert ...

. Also in 2005, Uusipaavalniemi won the first ever

European Mixed Curling Championship The European Mixed Curling Championship was a mixed curling tournament held annually in the autumn for European nations. The first tournament was held in 2005. The European Mixed Curling Championship was replaced with a World Mixed Curling Champi ...

with teammates Kirsi Nykänen,

Teemu Salo Teemu Salo (born 11 February 1974) is a Finnish curler from Hyvinkää. He has played lead position for Markku Uusipaavalniemi since 2002. Salo won a silver medal as a member of Uusipaavaliemi's team at the 2006 Winter Olympics. He won a ...

and

Tiina Kautonen Tiina is an Estonian and Finnish feminine given name. People named Tiina include: * Tiina Ala-aho (born 19??), Finnish Paralympic track and field athlete * Tiina Benno (born 1961), Estonian politician * Tiina Intelmann (born 1963), Estonian dipl ...

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. Uusipaavalniemi's Finland team finished the round-robin at the 2006 Olympic tournament in first place, with a 7–2 record. They beat

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4–3 in the semi-final, with the last stone of the final end — thrown by Uusipaavalniemi — giving the Finns the deciding point. Finland lost the final to Canada 10-4 taking the silver medal. Two weeks before the start of the 2006 World Men's Curling Championship in

Lowell, Massachusetts Lowell () is a city in Massachusetts, in the United States. Alongside Cambridge, It is one of two traditional seats of Middlesex County. With an estimated population of 115,554 in 2020, it was the fifth most populous city in Massachusetts as of ...

, Uusipaavalniemi suffered a wrist injury that forced him to miss the team's first three games of the competition. He recovered enough to start playing in the fourth game, where he skipped and threw second rocks. He played out the rest of the competition throwing third rocks, but Finland did not make the playoff round, finishing tied for fifth with a 6–5 record. Uusipaavalniemi returned to the

2007 Ford World Men's Curling Championship The 2007 World Men's Curling Championship (branded as 2007 Ford World Men's Curling Championship for sponsorship reasons) was held at Rexall Place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada from March 31 to April 8. Team Canada skipped by Glenn Howard won the go ...

but his team got off to a rough start, losing their first two games and stringing together back-to-back wins only twice. Finland qualified for a tiebreaker with a 6–5 record, but lost to

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8-5 and finished sixth. Markku admitted that his recent campaign for (and eventual election to) Finnish parliament had forced him to cut back on curling practice time, perhaps contributing to the team's early struggles. After the 2007 World Championships Uusipaavalniemi didn't play at a competitive level until he returned to curling in the 2009–10 season with a new team. The new team won the Finnish Championship in the 2010–11 curling season and represented Finland in

2011 European Curling Championships The 2011 Le Gruyère European Curling Championships were held in Moscow, Russia from December 2 to 10.Finnish parliament The Parliament of Finland ( ; ) is the unicameral and supreme legislature of Finland, founded on 9 May 1906. In accordance with the Constitution of Finland, sovereignty belongs to the people, and that power is vested in the Parliament. The ...

in the 2007 election for the Centre Partybr>
Uusipaavalniemi was elected along with three other members of his party from the

Uusimaa Uusimaa (; sv, Nyland, ; both lit. 'new land') is a region of Finland. It borders the regions of Southwest Finland, Tavastia Proper (Kanta-Häme), Päijänne Tavastia (Päijät-Häme), and Kymenlaakso. Finland's capital and largest city, He ...

constituency. He voted against the further privatization of government owned companies as well as against the Lisbon treaty, both of which were supported by the party. On 11 November 2010 Uusipaavalniemi defected from the Centre Party and joined the ranks of the

True Finns The Finns Party, formerly known as the True Finns ( fi, Perussuomalaiset, PS, sv, Sannfinländarna, Sannf.), is a right-wing populist political party in Finland. It was founded in 1995 following the dissolution of the Finnish Rural Party. The ...

Party. He was not reelected in the 2011 election.

Personal life

Uusipaavalniemi lives in

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

. He is divorced and has three children. His older brother

Jussi Jussi () is a male given name. In Finnish originally it is short for Juhani or Juho, Finnish for Johannes/John, but is also recognized as a name in its own right for official purposes. It can also be short for Justus, or a Finnish form of Justin. ...

taught him how to curl.

Awards

Colin Campbell Award The Collie Campbell Memorial Award was created in honour of Canadian Collie Campbell, who served as president of the International Curling Federation, now known as the World Curling Federation, from 1969 until his death in 1978. It is presented t ...

: 1998, 2003 * Markku of the Year, 2002. The award is given by an association of people named Markku.

References

External links

*
Profile on Finnish Curling Association's statistics

Oulunkylä Curling Hall

Uusipaavalniemi's candidate for Finnish Parliament campaign site

{{DEFAULTSORT:Uusipaavalniemi, Markku 1966 births Living people People from Karkkila Centre Party (Finland) politicians Finns Party politicians Members of the Parliament of Finland (2007–11) Finnish male curlers Olympic curlers of Finland Curlers at the 2002 Winter Olympics Curlers at the 2006 Winter Olympics Olympic silver medalists for Finland Olympic medalists in curling Medalists at the 2006 Winter Olympics Continental Cup of Curling participants European curling champions