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Concept
Veikko Karvonen
Summary
Veikko Leo Karvonen (5 January 1926 – 1 August 2007) was a Finnish long-distance runner who mainly competed in the marathon. He won the bronze medal in the marathon at the 1956 Summer Olympics. At the 1954 European Championships he won the gold medal in the marathon and the following year won the Boston Marathon.
Karvonen was born in Sakkola, a small Karelian town that then belonged to Finland but was invaded by the Soviet Union during World War II. Karvonen was evacuated to Saarijärvi, where he started his running career training with Jussi Kurikkala. He ran his first marathon in autumn 1949 in Turku with the promising result of 2:45:07.
Karvonen participated in the 1950 European Championships in Brussels. He finished second in the marathon 32 seconds after the winner Jack Holden. In the Track & Field News annual world ranking he was the second best marathon runner of 1950, after Holden.
In 1951 Karvonen ran three marathons and won all of them. In the Finnish Championship marathon in July his winning time was 2:28:46. In August in the Nordic Championship marathon he ran 2:28:07. In September he won the Enschede Marathon by over six minutes' margin before Tom Richards, Karvonen's winning time was 2:29:02. In 1951 Karvonen was ranked as the best marathon runner by the Track & Field News.
Karvonen trained hard for the 1952 Summer Olympics, which were in Helsinki, the capital of his home country, Finland. In spring 1952 he was at the training camp in Dinan when he suddenly started to suffer from back pain, which was diagnosed as a stress reaction of the intervertebral disc. As a result, he was forced to quit running for six weeks. Consequently, Karvonen was only sixth in the Finnish Championship marathon on the Olympic course of Helsinki on 22 June. However, he was nominated to the Finnish Olympic team. Karvonen rewarded his supporters at the Olympic marathon by finishing fifth with the time 2:26:41, three and half minutes after the Olympic champion Emil Zátopek. Karvonen was also ranked fifth by the Track & Field News.
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