Harri Kirvesniemi

Harri Kirvesniemi
Medal record
Men's cross country skiing
Olympic Games
1980 Lake Placid 4 x 10 km
1984 Sarajevo 15 km
1984 Sarajevo 4 x 10 km
1992 Albertville 4 x 10 km
1994 Lillehammer 4 x 10 km
1998 Nagano 4 x 10 km
World Championships
1989 Lahti 15 km classical
1989 Lahti 4 x 10 km
1995 Thunder Bay 4 x 10 km
1997 Trondheim 4 x 10 km
1982 Oslo 15 km
1982 Oslo 4 x 10 km
1985 Seefeld 30 km
1991 Val di Fiemme 4 x 10 km
Disqualified 2001 Lahti 4 x 10 km

Harri Tapani Kirvesniemi (born 10 May 1958 in Mikkeli) is a Finnish former cross country skier who competed from 1980 to 2001. During his career he won six Olympic medals (all bronzes), and also the 50 km event at the Holmenkollen ski festival in 2000. He was born at Mikkeli.

His biggest successes though were at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships, where he earned a total of 8 medals. This included one gold (15 km: 1989), three silvers (4 x 10 km: 1989, 1995. 1997), and four bronzes (15 km: 1982, 30 km: 1985, 4 x 10 km: 1982 (shared with East Germany), 1991). In 1998, he earned the Holmenkollen medal (shared with Fred Børre Lundberg, Larissa Lazutina, and Alexey Prokurorov). He was married to Marja-Liisa Kirvesniemi, who won the Holmenkollen medal in 1989. This makes them the third husband-wife team to ever win the Holmenkollen medal.

During the 2001 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Lahti, he tested positive for use of the banned plasma expander Hemohes together with five fellow Finnish cross-country skiers. This resulted in the disqualification of the gold-medal winning Finnish relay team. Following the scandal, Kirvesniemi retired from competitive skiing. In 2013, he received a 6-month suspended sentence after the Helsinki District Court found that he had committed perjury when witnessing to the court in 2011 that he was unaware of any doping use in the 1990s.[1]

Presently Kirvesniemi works as the Plant Manager and Board Member at Yoko Ski.

See also

References

External links

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