Matti Pietikäinen

Matti Pietikäinen ( born October 29, 1927 in Kuopio, † November 5, 1967 ) was a Finnish ski jumper.

Career

Pietikäinen, the one Puijon Hiihtoseura started for the club of his birthplace and hometown of Kuopio, was to Laurinburg and Aatto the youngest of the three brothers Pietikäinen, the ski jumping in Finland dominated in the 1940s. He was also one of the first ski jumper who, instead of jumping with arms outstretched, arms docked on the body side.

At the Olympic Winter Games in 1948 in St. Moritz, he reached the fourth, his brother Aatto eighth. Four years later he was in Oslo as punishment for a bar fight not in the Finnish squad. In the Nordic World Ski Championships 1950 in Lake Placid, he jumped on the normal hill on the ninth.

In the Nordic World Ski Championships 1954 in Falun Pietikänen be secured ahead of his compatriot Veikko Heinonen and Sweden Bror Östman the gold medal and was thus the first Finnish world champion in ski jumping.

Pietikänen stopped on the hill in Kotka until its demolition with 39 meters the hill record.

Matti Pietikäinen died in 1967 a few days after his 40th birthday in a traffic accident.