Eero Mäntyranta
Eero Antero Mäntyranta ( born November 20, 1937 in Turtola, † December 30, 2013 in Oulu ) was a Finnish cross-country skiers.
Career
Mäntyranta took 1960-1972 some four times at the Olympic Winter Games, where he won three gold, two silver and two bronze medals. At the World Championships, he won two gold, two silver and one bronze medal. In 1964 he received the Holmenkollen medal.
Mäntyranta was the first Finnish athlete who tested positive for doping. In the Finnish Championships 1972 taking amphetamines could be detected in him, but the findings were initially withheld. After the 1972 Olympic Games in Sapporo, where he remained without a medal, the test result was known afterwards, but Mäntyranta denied any guilt. Later, he admitted to have used hormonal preparations, which were during his sporting career but not prohibited. After a DNA analysis that was conducted on 200 people of his relatives circle in 1993, it turned out that in Mäntyranta a point mutation in the gene was present for the erythropoietin receptor. Thus he made increased red blood cells and was more powerful than athletes without this mutation.
His nephew Pertti Teurajärvi was also known as cross-country skiers.