Jorma Valkama

Jorma Rainer Valkama ( born October 4, 1928 in Vyborg, † December 11, 1962 ) was a Finnish long jumper.

After Valkama had missed each qualifying for the finals at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki and at the European Athletics Championships in Berne in 1954, he scored the most international success of his career at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne. With a length of 7.48 meters, he won behind the Americans Greg Bell ( 7.83 m ) and John Bennett ( 7.68 m) the bronze medal in the long jump.

1957 remained Valkama unbeaten in 40 matches. The European Athletics Championships 1958 in Stockholm he won with 7.50 m in sixth place and at the Olympic Games in Rome in 1960 with 7.69 m in fifth place. His last international championship, he played at the European Athletics Championships 1962 in Belgrade. In qualifying he was still convinced with a jump of 7.65 meters, but was then able to achieve only the zwölftbeste length in the final with 6.78 m. Almost three months later, he came at the age of 34 years to life in a traffic accident.

Jorma Valkama was 1.72 m tall and weighed 66 kg. His personal best of 7.77 meters, achieved on 16 September 1956 in Turku, at that time was a Finnish record.