Veikko Heinonen
Veikko Heinonen ( born October 4, 1934 in Lahti ) is a former Finnish ski jumper and pesäpallo player.
Ski Jumping
Heinonen, who started for Lahti Hiihtoseura, won his first competition in 1951. Way he was in 1951 and 1952 Finnish youth champion in ski jumping. In 1954 he was appointed to the A national team and won at the Nordic World Ski Championships 1954 in Falun, Sweden with jumps of 72.5 and 76 m silver medal behind compatriot Matti Pietikäinen. He was able to prevail here only because of better style points against 0.5 points behind him lying Sweden Bror Östman. Together with Pietikäinen he won the first international medals in ski jumping for Finland at the World Cup. Despite the success he was nominated after the World Cup not for other international championships. In the Swiss ski week 1955 Heinonen was seventh. He was third in the jumping of St. Moritz and La Locle, but fell at the first jump in Arosa and thus lost his chances of a medal in the overall standings. In the Four Hills Tournament 1955/56, Heinonen crashed in Oberstdorf at the first jump and finished second in Garmisch -Partenkirchen the 23th Place.
In addition to the World Championships, he finished in the ski event in Salpausselkä, Falun and Ounasvaara each second. In the ski flying at Kulm week he won in 1956 two part contests. In the first part he had competition but must start over-tired after the arrival had been delayed due to a general strike, and was only sixth. In the overall standings, he was so second behind Werner Lesser from the GDR. At Kulm Heinonen jumped with 118 meters the longest jump of his career. In the Finnish Championships in 1955 he became fourth and seventh in 1954 after he was unsuccessful there, his second jump.
Heinonen ended his competitive career in 1966 after crashing during a training jump and a kidney injury suffered.
Pesäpallo
Veikko Heinonen played 1953-1958 in the Finnish pesäpallo league in jersey of the club Lahti Mailaveikot. With these he was once runner-up
Private
His son Kari Heinonen was in the late seventies and early eighties ski jumpers in the Finnish national team.