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Ville Ritola

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Ville Ritola

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Finnish long distance runner

Key facts

Full name
Vilho Eino Ritola
Born
( 1896-01-18 ) 18 January 1896, Peräseinäjoki , Grand Duchy of Finland , Russian Empire
Died
24 April 1982 (1982-04-24) (aged 86) , Helsinki , Finland
Height
1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Weight
66 kg (146 lb)
Sport
Running
Club
Tampereen Pyrintö, Helsingin Toverit

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Instance of
human
Given name
Ville
Gender
male
Citizenship
Finland
Place of birth
Peräseinäjoki
Place of death
Helsinki
Languages spoken
Finnish
Native language
Finnish
Participant in
1924 Summer Olympics
Country for sport
Finland
Mass
66
Image
Ville Ritola2.jpg
Height
175
Work location
Helsinki
Show 5 more facts
Commons category
Ville Ritola
date of birth
1896-01-18
date of death
1982-04-24
sports discipline competed in
long-distance running
end of work period
1928-00-00
Sources (5)

via Wikidata · CC0

~7 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Vilho "Ville" Eino Ritola (18 January 1896 – 24 April 1982) was a Finnish long-distance runner. Known as one of the "Flying Finns", he won five Olympic gold medals and three Olympic silver medals in the 1920s. He holds the record of winning most athletics medals at a single Games – four golds and two silvers in Paris 1924 – and ranks second in terms of most athletics gold medals at a single Games.

Childhood and emigration to the United States

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Ville Ritola” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.