Oskar David "Oskari" Friman (27 January 1893 – 19 October 1933) was a Greco-Roman wrestler from

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 ...

. He won gold medals in lightweight categories at the 1920 and 1924 Olympics and 1921 World Championships. Nationally he collected eleven Finnish titles, in 1915-1924 and 1928. Friman took up wrestling in 1908, and by 1915 became one of the best Finnish lightweight wrestlers, together with his clubmate

Emil Väre Emil Ernst Väre (28 September 1885 – 31 January 1974) was a Finland, Finnish Amateur wrestling, wrestler who won the gold medals in the lightweight class at the 1912 and 1920 Summer Olympics. Väre held the 1911 World title, the 1912 uno ...

. Because of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, he started competing internationally only at the 1920 Olympics, where he dropped to featherweight to avoid meeting Väre. Väre retired soon after that, and Friman returned to lightweight. During those years he worked as a butcher and

tinsmith A tinsmith is a person who makes and repairs things made of tin or other light metals. The profession may sometimes also be known as a tinner, tinker, tinman, or tinplate worker; whitesmith may also refer to this profession, though the same wo ...

, but later, when he became famous and retired from competitions, he was hired as head coach of the Finnish and Swedish national wrestling teams.

References

1893 births 1933 deaths People from Vyborg District Sportspeople from Viipuri Province (Grand Duchy of Finland) Olympic wrestlers for Finland Wrestlers at the 1920 Summer Olympics Wrestlers at the 1924 Summer Olympics Finnish male sport wrestlers Olympic gold medalists for Finland Olympic medalists in wrestling Medalists at the 1920 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1924 Summer Olympics World Wrestling Championships medalists Finnish wrestling coaches {{Finland-wrestling-bio-stub