Veikko Kankkonen (born 5 January 1940) 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 ...

ski jumper Ski jumping is a winter sport in which competitors aim to achieve the farthest jump after sliding down on their skis from a specially designed curved ramp. Along with jump length, competitor's aerial style and other factors also affect the fina ...

who competed at the 1960, 1964 and 1968 Winter Olympics. He won two medals in 1964 with a gold in the individual normal hill and a silver in the individual large hill event. That same year he won the jumping competition at the

Holmenkollen ski festival The Holmenkollen Ski Festival ( no, Holmenkollen skifestival or ) is a traditional annual Nordic skiing event in Holmenkollen, Oslo, Norway. The full official name of the event is Holmenkollen FIS World Cup Nordic. History It takes place in March ...

, which also earned him the Holmenkollen medal (shared with

Eero Mäntyranta Eero Antero Mäntyranta (20 November 1937 – 29 December 2013) was one of the most successful Finnish cross-country skiers. He competed in four Winter Olympics (1960–1972) winning seven medals at three of them. His performance at the 1964 Wi ...

Georg Thoma Georg Thoma (; born 20 August 1937) is a retired German Nordic combined skier and ski jumper. He won a gold medal at the 1960 Olympics, becoming the first non-Scandinavian athlete to do so, and was voted German Sportsman of the Year. At the 196 ...

, and Halvor Næs). He also won the

Four Hills Tournament The Four Hills Tournament (german: link=no, Vierschanzentournee) or the German-Austrian Ski Jumping Week (german: link=no, Deutsch-Österreichische Skisprung-Woche) is a ski jumping event composed of four World Cup events and has taken place in ...

and served as the flag bearer for Finland at the 1968 Olympics. Besides skiing Kankkonen played

pesäpallo Pesäpallo (; sv, boboll, both names literally meaning "nest ball", colloquially known in Finnish as pesis, also referred to as Finnish baseball) is a fast-moving bat-and-ball sport that is often referred to as the national sport of Finland a ...

for the ''Maila-Veikot Lahti'' club in the national championships of 1963–64. He also regularly competed in golf at the national level, with the best result of fourth place. Kankkonen was a turner by trade and later worked as a ski jumping coach. His son Anssi Kankkonen became a professional golfer, but he also competed in ski jumping and won a national title in 1985.

References

External links

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Holmenkollen medalists
– click Holmenkollmedaljen for downloadable pdf file
Holmenkollen winners since 1892
– click Vinnere for downloadable pdf file {{DEFAULTSORT:Kankkonen, Veikko 1940 births Living people People from Sotkamo Ski jumpers at the 1960 Winter Olympics Ski jumpers at the 1964 Winter Olympics Ski jumpers at the 1968 Winter Olympics Finnish male ski jumpers Holmenkollen medalists Holmenkollen Ski Festival winners Olympic ski jumpers of Finland Olympic gold medalists for Finland Olympic silver medalists for Finland Olympic medalists in ski jumping Pesäpallo players Medalists at the 1964 Winter Olympics Sportspeople from Kainuu