Veikko Leo Karvonen (5 January 1926 – 1 August 2007) 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 ...

long-distance runner Long-distance running, or endurance running, is a form of continuous running over distances of at least . Physiologically, it is largely Aerobic exercise, aerobic in nature and requires endurance, stamina as well as mental strength. Within e ...

who mainly competed in the

marathon The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of , usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There are also wheelchair div ...

. He won the bronze medal in the marathon at the

1956 Summer Olympics The 1956 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVI Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, from 22 November to 8 December 1956, with the exception of the equestrian events, whi ...

. At the 1954 European Championships he won the gold medal in the marathon and the following year won the

Boston Marathon The Boston Marathon is an annual marathon race hosted by several cities and towns in greater Boston in eastern Massachusetts, United States. It is traditionally held on Patriots' Day, the third Monday of April. Begun in 1897, the event was i ...

Career

Karvonen was born in Sakkola, a small

Karelia Karelia ( Karelian and fi, Karjala, ; rus, Каре́лия, links=y, r=Karélija, p=kɐˈrʲelʲɪjə, historically ''Korjela''; sv, Karelen), the land of the Karelian people, is an area in Northern Europe of historical significance for ...

n town that then belonged to Finland but was invaded by the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

during

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 ...

. Karvonen was evacuated to

Saarijärvi Saarijärvi () is a town and municipality of Finland. It is located in the Central Finland region. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . Neighbouring municipalities are K ...

, where he started his running career training with

Jussi Kurikkala Juho "Jussi" Kurikkala (12 August 1912 – 10 March 1951) was a Finnish cross-country skier who competed in the 1930s. He was born in Kalajoki, and won three medals at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships with a silver in the 4 × ...

. He ran his first marathon in autumn 1949 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''; ...

with the promising result of 2:45:07. Karvonen participated in the 1950 European Championships in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

. He finished second in the marathon 32 seconds after the winner Jack Holden. In the ''

Track & Field News ''Track & Field News'' is an American monthly sports magazine founded in 1948 by brothers Bert Nelson and Cordner Nelson, focused on the world of track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running ...

'' annual world ranking he was the second best marathon runner of 1950, after Holden. In 1951 Karvonen ran three marathons and won all of them. In the Finnish Championship marathon in July his winning time was 2:28:46. In August in the Nordic Championship marathon he ran 2:28:07. In September he won the

Enschede Marathon The Enschede Marathon is an annual marathon race held in the city of Enschede, Netherlands. The race is the distance of a typical marathon (42 km, 195 metres). It has been held annually since 1991, after being bi-annual for the previous 44 years. ...

by over six minutes' margin before Tom Richards, Karvonen's winning time was 2:29:02. In 1951 Karvonen was ranked as the best marathon runner by the ''Track & Field News''. Karvonen trained hard for 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 ...

, which were 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 ...

, the capital of his home country, Finland. In spring 1952 he was at the training camp in

Dinan Dinan (; ) is a walled Breton town and a commune in the Côtes-d'Armor department in northwestern France. On 1 January 2018, the former commune of Léhon was merged into Dinan. Geography Its geographical setting is exceptional. Instead of n ...

when he suddenly started to suffer from

back pain Back pain is pain felt in the back. It may be classified as neck pain (cervical), middle back pain (thoracic), lower back pain (lumbar) or coccydynia (tailbone or sacral pain) based on the segment affected. The lumbar area is the most common area ...

, which was diagnosed as a stress reaction of the

intervertebral disc An intervertebral disc (or intervertebral fibrocartilage) lies between adjacent vertebrae in the vertebral column. Each disc forms a fibrocartilaginous joint (a symphysis), to allow slight movement of the vertebrae, to act as a ligament to hold t ...

. As a result, he was forced to quit running for six weeks. Consequently, Karvonen was only sixth in the Finnish Championship marathon on the Olympic course of Helsinki on 22 June. However, he was nominated to the Finnish Olympic team. Karvonen rewarded his supporters at the

Olympic marathon The marathon at the Summer Olympics is the only road running event held at the multi-sport event. The men's marathon has been present on the Olympic athletics programme since 1896. Nearly ninety years later, the women's event was added to the prog ...

by finishing fifth with the time 2:26:41, three and half minutes after the Olympic champion

Emil Zátopek Emil Zátopek (; 19 September 1922 – 21 November 2000) was a Czech long-distance runner best known for winning three gold medals at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki. He won gold in the 5,000 metres and 10,000 metres runs, but his final me ...

. Karvonen was also ranked fifth by the ''Track & Field News''. In 1953 Karvonen finished second in the

. In this race he broke the 2:20 barrier for the first time; however the course was later found to be too short. In August Karvonen won silver medal at the Finnish Championship marathon and in September won a gold medal at the Nordic Championship marathon. In October he competed against Jim Peters in his home town of Turku. Peters improved his

world record A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organization ...

by six seconds to 2:18:35 and beat Karvonen by over seven minutes. In the 1953 ''Track & Field News'' world ranking Karvonen was third. Karvonen did not gave up after his disappointment in Turku. In the following year's Boston Marathon he followed Peters until he took the lead before the 30 km mark. Peters dropped from his pace at the course's Heartbreak Hill and Karvonen took his most memorable victory in 2:20:39. Peters finished in 2:22:40. At the 1954 European Championships in

Karvonen, Boris Grishayev, and Ivan Filin competed for the victory. Filin led by twenty meters when arriving first in the stadium. To his misfortune, he turned in the wrong direction on the track and missed victory. In the stadium Karvonen realized Filin's situation and ran for the gold medal before Grishayev and the disappointed Filin. Because of Filin's misfortune, Karvonen did not fully appreciate his championship. In 1954 Karvonen ran altogether five marathons within eight months and ranked first in the ''Track & Field News'' annual world ranking. In August 1955 Karvonen was second in the Finnish Championship marathon, four minutes after Paavo Kotila. For the rest of the year Karvonen did not lose any race; in September he won Nordic Championship marathon, in October he was first in the

Athens Peace Marathon The Athens Classic Marathon The Authentic is an annual marathon road race held in Athens, Greece, normally in early November (the second Sunday of November), since 1972. It also often serves as Greece's national marathon championships. The race ...

, and finally he won the

Fukuoka Marathon The is an IAAF Gold Label international men's marathon race held in Fukuoka, Japan. It was previously known as the Fukuoka International Open Marathon Championship between 1947 and 2021, when it was announced the race would be discontinued on its ...

in December. For the second year in a row he was ranked as world's best marathon runner by the ''Track & Field News''. In August 1956 Finnish Championship marathon Karvonen was only third after Paavo Kotila and

Eino Oksanen Eino Ilmari Oksanen (7 May 1931 – 10 August 2022) was a Finnish marathon runner who won the Boston Marathon three times (1959, 1961 and 1962). Oksanen also won the 1957 Turku Marathon in Finland and the 1959 Athens Peace Marathon. See also * ...

. However, in that race he ran his personal best 2:18:56, which remained his record until the end of his career. However, in the Olympics marathon Karvonen was the best Finn and overall third-place finisher. Twelve kilometers before the finish line, Karvonen was still in second position after

Alain Mimoun Alain Mimoun, born Ali Mimoun Ould Kacha (1 January 1921 – 27 June 2013), was an Algerian-born French long-distance runner who competed in track events, cross-country running and the marathon. He was the 1956 Olympic champion in the marathon ...

. The race was run in very hot conditions and later Karvonen admitted it as the most painful race of his career. Karvonen suffered in the last kilometers, but only

Franjo Mihalić Franjo Mihalić (; 9 March 1920 – 14 February 2015) was a Yugoslav and Croatian long-distance track event, long-distance runner best known for his 1958 win at the Boston Marathon and his marathon silver medal in the 1956 Summer Olympics. Mihali� ...

was able to pass him. It took months until Karvonen fully recovered from the race. In 1956 Karvonen was ranked third by the ''Track & Field News''. At the 1957 Boston Marathon, Karvonen was second after John J. Kelley, a young American, who beat Karvonen by almost four minutes.

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

reported that midway through the race, Karvonen was clutching his side and seemed to have a stitch. Karvonen was still sixth at the 1958 European Championships with his all-time third best time, 2:22:45, second at the 1958 Fukuoka Marathon, and fourth at the 1959 Boston Marathon. During his career Karvonen ran a total of 35 marathons and won 15 of them.

References

External links

IAAF obituary

Tilastopaja profile for Veikko Karvonen (in Finnish)

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Karvonen, Veikko 1926 births 2007 deaths People from Priozersky District Finnish male long-distance runners Finnish male marathon runners Olympic athletes of Finland Olympic bronze medalists for Finland Olympic bronze medalists in athletics (track and field) Athletes (track and field) at the 1952 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1956 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1956 Summer Olympics European Athletics Championships winners European Athletics Championships medalists Japan Championships in Athletics winners Boston Marathon male winners Olympic male marathon runners