Rauno Leonard Mäkinen (22 January 1931 – 9 September 2010) 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 ...

featherweight wrestler. He started as a freestyle wrestler, winning four consecutive national titles in 1952–55 and finishing sixth at the

1952 Summer Olympics The 1952 Summer Olympics ( fi, Kesäolympialaiset 1952; sv, Olympiska sommarspelen 1952), officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad ( fi, XV olympiadin kisat; sv, Den XV olympiadens spel) and commonly known as Helsinki 1952 ( sv, Helsin ...

. He then changed to Greco-Roman wrestling and won a national title and an Olympic gold medal in 1956. His further career was hampered by injuries. In 1960 he won one more national title, but withdrew from the 1960 Olympics after two bouts and retired from competitions. Mäkinen followed his father Väinö, who competed internationally in freestyle wrestling and founded the Tampereen Paini-Miehet wrestling club. Besides wrestling Mäkinen played

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

at the national level for Ilves-Kissat. Originally a construction engineer, after retiring from competitions he became a policeman and worked in

Tampere Tampere ( , , ; sv, Tammerfors, ) is a city in the Pirkanmaa region, located in the western part of Finland. Tampere is the most populous inland city in the Nordic countries. It has a population of 244,029; the urban area has a population o ...

Jyväskylä Jyväskylä () is a city and municipality in Finland in the western part of the Finnish Lakeland. It is located about 150 km north-east from Tampere, the third largest city in Finland; and about 270 km north from Helsinki, the capital of ...

and

Vaajakoski Vaajakoski is a district of Jyväskylä, 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 t ...

until retiring in 1974 due to an illness. He remained involved in wrestling as a referee, and in this function attended the 1962 and 1965 World Championships and 1968 Olympic Games. While living in Tampere, he also coached young wrestlers and football players and headed the Tampereen Paini-Miehet club. In 1950 Mäkinen married Raili Kymäläisen. They had five children: Arja (b. 1951), Pirjo (b. 1952), Reijo (b. 1954), Marjo (b. 1960) and Merja (b. 1961).

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* 1931 births 2010 deaths Olympic wrestlers of Finland Wrestlers at the 1952 Summer Olympics Wrestlers at the 1956 Summer Olympics Wrestlers at the 1960 Summer Olympics Finnish male sport wrestlers Olympic gold medalists for Finland Olympic medalists in wrestling Medalists at the 1956 Summer Olympics Finnish wrestling coaches Sportspeople from Pori {{Finland-wrestling-bio-stub