Matti Manu Ilmari Yrjölä (born March 26, 1938, in

Hämeenkyrö Hämeenkyrö (; sv, Tavastkyro) is a municipality of Finland. It is part of the Pirkanmaa region, and is located from Tampere. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . The ne ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

) is a 192 cm tall

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 ...

shot put The shot put is a track and field event involving "putting" (throwing) a heavy spherical ball—the ''shot''—as far as possible. The shot put competition for men has been a part of the modern Olympics since their revival in 1896, and women's ...

ter, who represented Kyröskosken Ponsi and weighed 121 kg when competing. He was the second Finn to put the shot more than 20 m in an official competition when he put it 20.04 metres in Hämeenkyrö, Finland on August 2, 1972. His personal best outdoors is 20.84 m, which he put on July 6, 1976, in

Kokemäki Kokemäki (; sv, Kumo) is a town and municipality in the Satakunta Region of Finland. The town has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . Finland is constitutionally bi-lingual with a Swedis ...

. His personal best indoors of 19.12 m, which he put in

Turku Turku ( ; ; sv, Åbo, ) is a city and former capital on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River, in the region of Finland Proper (''Varsinais-Suomi'') and the former Turku and Pori Province (''Turun ja Porin lääni''; ...

on February 25, 1973, was enough to win him the Finnish Championships that year. Internationally, his highest rankings in the

European Championships The European Championships is a multi-sport tournament which brings together the existing European Championships of some of the continent's leading sports every four years. The inaugural edition in 2018 was staged by the host cities of Berlin, ...

was a fourth place in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

in 1969 and a 3rd place in the competition between Finland and Sweden in 1973. Yrjölä came from an athletic family: both his father (

Paavo Yrjölä Paavo Ilmari Yrjölä (18 June 1902 in Hämeenkyrö – 11 February 1980 in Vilppula), also known as the ''Bear of Hämeenkyrö'' (''Hämeenkyrön karhu''), was a Finnish track and field athlete who won the gold medal in the decathlon at the 192 ...

) and his uncle (

Iivari Yrjölä Iivari Yrjölä (10 September 1899 – 11 November 1985) was a Finnish athlete. He competed in the men's decathlon at the 1924 Summer Olympics. References External links * 1899 births 1985 deaths Athletes (track and field) at t ...

) competed in the

decathlon The decathlon is a combined event in Athletics (sport), athletics consisting of ten track and field events. The word "decathlon" was formed, in analogy to the word "pentathlon", from Greek language, Greek δέκα (''déka'', meaning "ten") and ...

. Yrjölä was one of the first six Finns originally admitted to the

20 meter club The 20 meter club (''20 metrin kerho'' in Finnish) is an unregistered Finnish association for Finnish shot put The shot put is a track and field event involving "putting" (throwing) a heavy spherical ball—the ''shot''—as far as possible. T ...

when it was founded in April 1983.

References

tilastopaja
1938 births People from Hämeenkyrö Finnish male shot putters Living people Sportspeople from Pirkanmaa {{Finland-athletics-bio-stub