Frans Wilhelm "Ville" Pörhölä (originally Horneman, 24 December 1897 – 28 November 1964) 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 ...

athlete who competed in

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 ...

discus throw The discus throw (), also known as disc throw, is a track and field event in which an athlete throws a heavy disk (mathematics), disc—called a discus—in an attempt to mark a farther distance than their competitors. It is an classical antiqui ...

hammer throw The hammer throw is one of the four throwing events in regular track and field competitions, along with the discus throw, shot put and javelin. The "hammer" used in this sport is not like any of the tools also called by that name. It consis ...

and

weight throw Two sports have events that fall under the name of weight throw one being the track and field event and the other being the Scottish highland games events. The track and field event is most popular in the United States as an indoor equivalent t ...

. Pörhölä won the gold medal in shot put at the

1920 Summer Olympics The 1920 Summer Olympics (french: Jeux olympiques d'été de 1920; nl, Olympische Zomerspelen van 1920; german: Olympische Sommerspiele 1920), officially known as the Games of the VII Olympiad (french: Jeux de la VIIe olympiade; nl, Spelen van ...

. He also competed in discus throw finishing in eighth place and in weight throw in which he was ninth. He later concentrated on work leaving his sports career behind him. He re-emerged in the sports scene as a hammer thrower in 1929, and later became an Olympic silver medalist in 1932 and European champion in 1934. At his last Olympics in 1936 he finished 11th. Nationally, Pörhölä won eight Finnish titles: in standing triple jump in 1922, in shot put in 1929–31 and in hammer throw in 1934–35. He also won the British AAA shot put title in 1922. His trademark was wearing a cap in competitions. After retiring from competitions, Pörhölä worked for a large Finnish timber company, eventually becoming its managing director. He also served as president of the Sports Federation of Lapland in 1946–50. Pörhölä originated from the island of Röyttä, near

Tornio Tornio (; sv, Torneå; sme, Duortnus ; smn, Tuárnus) is a city and municipality in Lapland, Finland. The city forms a cross-border twin city together with Haparanda on the Swedish side. The municipality covers an area of , of which is ...

, and was known in Finland as ''Röyttän karhu'' ("The Bear from Röyttä").

References

1897 births 1964 deaths People from Tornio Finnish male discus throwers Finnish male hammer throwers Finnish male shot putters Olympic athletes of Finland Olympic gold medalists for Finland Athletes (track and field) at the 1920 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1924 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1932 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1936 Summer Olympics European Athletics Championships medalists Medalists at the 1932 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1920 Summer Olympics Olympic silver medalists for Finland Olympic gold medalists in athletics (track and field) Olympic silver medalists in athletics (track and field) Olympic weight throwers Sportspeople from Lapland (Finland) {{Finland-Olympic-medalist-stub