Matti Manu Ilmari Yrjölä (born March 26, 1938, in

Hämeenkyrö Hämeenkyrö (; ) is a municipalities of Finland, municipality of Finland. It is part of the Pirkanmaa regions of Finland, region, and is located from Tampere. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. Th ...

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

) is a 192 cm tall Finnish

shot put The shot put is a track-and-field event involving "putting" (throwing) a heavy spherical Ball (sports), ball—the ''shot''—as far as possible. For men, the sport has been a part of the Olympic Games, modern Olympics since their 1896 Summer Olym ...

ter, who represented Kyröskosken Ponsi and weighed 121 kg when competing. He was the second Finn to put the shot more than 20 m in an official competition when he put it 20.04 metres in Hämeenkyrö, Finland on August 2, 1972. His personal best outdoors is 20.84 m, which he put on July 6, 1976, in

Kokemäki Kokemäki (; ) is a town and municipality in the Satakunta Region of Finland. The town has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . Finland is constitutionally bi-lingual with a Swedish speakin ...

. His personal best indoors of 19.12 m, which he put in

Turku Turku ( ; ; , ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Southwest Finland. It is located on the southwestern coast of the country at the mouth of the Aura River (Finland), River Aura. The population of Turku is approximately , while t ...

on February 25, 1973, was enough to win him the Finnish Championships that year. Internationally, his highest rankings in the

European Championships A European Championship is the top level international sports competition between European athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports clubs. In the plural, the European Championships also refers t ...

was a fourth place in

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

in 1969 and a 3rd place in the competition between Finland and Sweden in 1973. Yrjölä came from an athletic family: both his father (

Paavo Yrjölä Paavo Ilmari Yrjölä (18 June 1902 in Hämeenkyrö – 11 February 1980 in Vilppula), also known as the ''Bear of Hämeenkyrö'' (''Hämeenkyrön karhu''), was a Finnish track and field athlete who won the gold medal in the decathlon at the 19 ...

) and his uncle (

Iivari Yrjölä Iivari Yrjölä (10 September 1899 – 11 November 1985) was a Finnish athlete. He competed in the men's decathlon at the 1924 Summer Olympics The 1924 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the VIII Olympiad () and officially bra ...

) competed in the

decathlon The decathlon is a combined event in athletics consisting of 10 track and field events. The word "decathlon" was formed, in analogy to the word "pentathlon", from Greek δέκα (''déka'', meaning "ten") and ἄθλος (''áthlos'', or ἄ ...

. Yrjölä was one of the first six Finns originally admitted to the

20 meter club The 20 meter club (''20 metrin kerho'' in Finnish) is an unregistered Finnish association for Finnish shot putters who have put the shot more than in an official competition using a shot for men and a for women. The 20 meter club was founded ...

when it was founded in April 1983.

References

tilastopaja
1938 births People from Hämeenkyrö Finnish male shot putters Living people Sportspeople from Pirkanmaa Finnish Athletics Championships winners 20th-century Finnish sportsmen {{Finland-athletics-bio-stub