Väinö Siikaniemi
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Urho Peltonen, Julius Saaristo and Väinö Siikaniemi at the 1912 Olympics | ||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||
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| Full name | Väinö Villiam Siikaniemi | |||||||||
| Born |
27 March 1887 Hollola, Päijät-Häme, Finland | |||||||||
| Died |
24 August 1932 (aged 45) Helsinki, Finland | |||||||||
| Height | 1.82 m (6 ft 0 in) | |||||||||
| Weight | 83 kg (183 lb) | |||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||
| Sport | Javelin throw | |||||||||
| Club | HKV, Helsinki | |||||||||
Medal record
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Väinö Villiam Siikaniemi (27 March 1887 – 24 August 1932) was a Finnish athlete who competed at the 1912 Summer Olympics. He finished fifth in the conventional javelin throw and won the silver medal in the two-handed javelin throw, a one-time Olympic event in which the total was counted as a sum of best throws with the right hand and with the left hand.
Siikaniemi retired from sports after the 1912 Games and became a math teacher, poet and translator. In 1923 he published his first poem and 1929 a collection of poetry. In 1916 he married singer Oili Silventoinen (1888–1932) and later also wrote lyrics for songs. He died of pneumonia, aged 45. It was said that he caught a cold during a marathon swim, which he took in an attempt to fight depression caused by a sudden death of his wife two weeks earlier.