Kaarlo Olavi Kangasniemi (born 4 February 1941) is a retired

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 ...

weightlifter Olympic weightlifting, or Olympic-style weightlifting (officially named Weightlifting), is a sport in which athletes compete in lifting a barbell loaded with weight plates from the ground to overhead, with each athlete trying to successfully lif ...

. Between 1968 and 1972 he won one Olympic, two world and two European titles in the 90 kg division, becoming the only Finnish weightlifter to win either an Olympic or world title. In the same period he set 16 ratified world records: four in the press, seven in the snatch and five in the total. He placed sixth at the 1972 Olympics and seventh in 1964. Kangasniemi was chosen as the world's best weightlifter in 1969 and as the

Finnish Sports Personality of the Year The Finnish Sportspersonality of the Year is chosen annually since 1947 by the national sports journalists. In addition, the best female athlete was nominated each year until 2009. Winners Men Women See also * Finnish Footballer of the ...

in 1968 and 1969. After retiring from senior competitions in 1973 he worked as a weightlifting coach and weightlifting commentator with

Eurosport Eurosport is a group of pay television networks in Europe and parts of Asia. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery through its international sports unit, it operates two main channels— Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2—across most of its territorie ...

; he continued competing in the masters category, winning a world title and setting a

clean and jerk The clean and jerk is a composite of two weightlifting movements, most often performed with a barbell: the clean and the jerk. During the ''clean'', the lifter moves the barbell from the floor to a racked position across the deltoids, without res ...

world record. In 1987 he was a candidate to the

Parliament of Finland The Parliament of Finland ( ; ) is the unicameral and supreme legislature of Finland, founded on 9 May 1906. In accordance with the Constitution of Finland, sovereignty belongs to the people, and that power is vested in the Parliament. The ...

from the

Finnish Rural Party The Finnish Rural Party ( fi, Suomen maaseudun puolue, SMP; sv, Finlands landsbygdsparti, FLP) was an agrarian and populist political party in Finland. Starting as a breakaway faction of the Agrarian League in 1959 as the Small Peasants' Part ...

, but was not elected. In 1998 he was inducted into the

International Weightlifting Federation The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF), headquartered in Lausanne, is the international governing body for the sport of Olympic weightlifting. The IWF was founded in 1905, and has 192 Member Federations. The IWF President is Mohammed H ...

Hall of Fame A hall, wall, or walk of fame is a list of individuals, achievements, or other entities, usually chosen by a group of electors, to mark their excellence or fame in their field. In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actual halls or muse ...

. Kangasniemi was born to a blacksmith and had seven brothers and three sisters. Four of his brothers were Finnish champions in weightlifting, and one, Kauko, competed at the Olympics. The Kangasniemi brothers had a rivalry at the national championships with the four Kailajärvi brothers.

References

External links

* 1941 births Living people People from Ulvila Finnish male weightlifters Olympic weightlifters of Finland Weightlifters at the 1964 Summer Olympics Weightlifters at the 1968 Summer Olympics Weightlifters at the 1972 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for Finland Olympic medalists in weightlifting Medalists at the 1968 Summer Olympics European Weightlifting Championships medalists World Weightlifting Championships medalists Sportspeople from Satakunta 20th-century Finnish people 21st-century Finnish people {{Finland-weightlifting-bio-stub