- Mikko Kolehmainen
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Medal record Men's canoe sprint Olympic Games Gold 1992 Barcelona K-1 500 m World Championships Gold 1993 Copenhagen K-1 500 m Mikko Yrjö Ilmari Kolehmainen (born August 18, 1964 in Mikkeli) is a Finnish sprint canoer who competed from the mid 1980s to the mid 1990s. Competing in four Summer Olympics, he won the gold medal in the K-1 500 m event at Barcelona in 1992. Kolehmainen's victory was Finland's only gold medal at those games.
By now established as Finland's strongest kayak sprinter, he concentrated in the K-1 500 m discipline. Although a respected competitor at international regattas he never really threatened the top paddlers for the major prizes. At the 1991 World Championships in Paris he finished a creditable seventh.
It was therefore a major shock when, at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, he won the K-1 500 m gold medal. His victory over reigning champion Zsolt Gyulay of Hungary gave Finland their only gold medal of an otherwise disappointing Games.
A year later he showed that his Barcelona performance was no fluke by winning the world championship K-1 500 m title in Copenhagen. At his farewell Olympics, in Atlanta in 1996 he finished in seventh place, and carried the flag at the opening ceremony.
References
- ICF medalists for Olympic and World Championships - Part 1: flatwater (now sprint): 1936-2007.
- ICF medalists for Olympic and World Championships - Part 2: rest of flatwater (now sprint) and remaining canoeing disciplines: 1936-2007.
- Sports-reference.com profile
Olympic Kayaking Champions in Men's K-1 500 m 1976: Vasile Dîba (ROU) • 1980: Vladimir Parfenovich (URS) • 1984: Ian Ferguson (NZL) • 1988: Zsolt Gyulay (HUN) • 1992: Mikko Kolehmainen (FIN) • 1996: Antonio Rossi (ITA) • 2000: Knut Holmann (NOR} • 2004: Adam van Koeverden (CAN) • 2008: Ken Wallace (AUS)
1948: Gert Fredriksson (SWE) * 1950: Johan Andersen (DEN) * 1954: Gert Fredriksson (SWE) * 1958: Stefan Kapłaniak (POL) * 1963: Aurel Vernescu (ROU) * 1966: Aurel Vernescu (ROU) * 1970: Anatoliy Tischenko (URS) * 1971: Nikolay Gogol (URS) * 1973: Géza Csapó (HUN) * 1974: Vasile Dîba (ROU) * 1975: Géza Csapó (HUN) * 1977: Vasile Dîba (ROU) * 1978: Vasile Dîba (ROU) * 1979: Vladimir Parfenovich (URS) * 1981: Vladimir Parfenovich (URS) * 1982: Vladimir Parfenovich (URS) * 1983: Vladimir Parfenovich (URS) * 1985: Andreas Stähle (GDR) * 1986: Jeremy West (GBR) * 1987: Paul MacDonald (NZL) * 1989: Martin Hunter (AUS) * 1990: Sergey Kalesnik (URS) * 1991: Renn Crichlow (CAN) * 1993: Mikko Kolehmainen (FIN) * 1994: Zsombor Borhi (HUN) * 1995: Piotr Markiewicz (POL) * 1997: Botond Storcz (HUN) * 1998: Ákos Vereckei (HUN) * 1999: Ákos Vereckei (HUN) * 2001: Ákos Vereckei (HUN) * 2002: Nathan Baggaley (AUS) * 2003: Nathan Baggaley (AUS) * 2005: Nathan Baggaley (AUS) * 2006: Marek Twardowski (POL) * 2007: Adam van Koeverden (CAN) * 2009: Ronald Rauhe (GER) * 2010: Anders Gustafsson (SWE) * 2011: Marek Twardowski (POL)Categories:- 1964 births
- Living people
- People from Mikkeli
- Canoeists at the 1984 Summer Olympics
- Canoeists at the 1988 Summer Olympics
- Canoeists at the 1992 Summer Olympics
- Canoeists at the 1996 Summer Olympics
- Finnish canoeists
- Olympic canoeists of Finland
- Olympic gold medalists for Finland
- Olympic medalists in canoeing
- European canoeist stubs
- Finnish sportspeople stubs
- Finnish Olympic medalist stubs
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