Kaarlo Kangasniemi answers the phone at home at Pori Mayor Luoto. We have arranged the interview for two in the afternoon. At that time, Kangasniemi had time to return home from his standard gym in Pori Fitness Center.
How did the workouts go?
“Moderately,” Kangasniemi regrets.
“It’s not in any top condition here.”
He is modest.
In reality, he is in iron stitch. Until a few years ago, Kangasniemi practiced off-road sets with 150 kilos.
He thinks that a couple of hundred kilos of disposable weight should still be torn from the ground.
But he doesn’t bother anymore.
For security reasons. However, the age is 80 years.
Kangasniemi is by far Finland’s most successful weightlifter of all time: the Olympic champion from Mexico in 1968, a two-time World Cup and European Championship gold medalist and a seventeen-time world record holder.
No nickname “Kulta-Kalle” was born out of nowhere.
But what made him such a good weightlifter? “Yes, I guess those heritage factors must have been,” Kangasniemi ponders.
That’s probably what he’s right about. Of Kangasniemi’s eight brothers, five competed in powerlifting at the national level. Kid brother Kauko Kangasniemi achieved as many as five world records and three medals in his sports career.
The genes were in place.
His youth Kangasniemi spent time in Kulla, a small village in Leineper on the outskirts of Pori. He became acquainted with powerlifting as a little boy, with homemade cement weights. During the summer, he played football, athletics and swimming. In winter we skied.
Kangasniemi went to the vocational school by bicycle. 50 miles a day, six times a week. As a teenager, he threw jobs as a support reader and in forest jobs.
Life consisted of work and sports.
“There was nothing else,” Kangasniemi says.
No wonder rye accumulated on the wrist. Power was also gathered by slightly more questionable means. Kangasniemi has said that he has used anabolic steroids during his sports career. Admittedly, almost everyone else did the same. Steroids were not yet banned in competitive sports in the 1960s, and their dangers were not known.
For Kangasniemi, steroids were originally prescribed in 1967 to cure abdominal muscle spasms. The course also unexpectedly led to an improvement in the results, so the doctor was happy to prescribe more to Kangasniemi.
A year later, Kangasniemi celebrated Olympic gold.
There were also nasty side effects with the hormone regimen. Kangasniemi says that he has been in overdrive all the time and has slept an average of three hours a night. The nerves were tight all the time.
Excessive training also led to many injuries. Kangasniemi has ended up on the operating table almost twenty times since his sports career. The operation has targeted, for example, both shoulders and the back. Twice.
In 1978, Kangasniemi retired from disability.
What does he think of doping substances today? I would allow them, Kangasniemi answers. “I think that top-level sport all use vippaskonsteja. Therefore, perhaps it would be quite good not to ban doping. Doctors could openly recommend and investigate the matter further. There would be no current hustle and bustle at all. ”
Sports success brought a lot of publicity to Kangasniemi. He was chosen as the most popular Finn for two years in a row. People recognized wherever he went. Even a Swedish film crew went to make him a program.
Still, there has been no greater benefit from the reputation of a good man, Kangasniemi says.
“I thought that if you did really well, you would definitely get something. Weightlifting is not like that, no matter how good. It didn’t come like press articles. That’s all. Not much else. ”
Money has often been tight. A few years ago, Kangasniemi even traded his gold medal on Facebook to get the pipe repair paid for. The offer did not come hard enough.
“If someone offers a suitable price, then one can negotiate,” he says. “It doesn’t mean anything to me. There is no point in that. ”
That does not mean that Kangasniemi would not appreciate his achievements. Vice versa. Sport has meant to him a matter of the heart and a lifelong passion. In the gym, lustful movements are still performed three times a week.
Kangasniemi tells the memory of 70 years. “When Hakulinen won gold in Fifty in Oslo, I told my mother that I would win sometimes too. Mom laughed and replied that big words can’t split. ”
The promise was kept. Only the species was different.
Kaarlo Kangasniemi told his mother at a young age that he would still become a gold medalist.
Kaarlo Kangasniemi
Born in Kulla in 1941. Lives in Pori.
■ Finland’s most successful weightlifter of all time. Olympic gold from Mexico 1968. World Championships 1969 and European Championships in 1969 and 1970. Seven Finnish championships. 17 world records.
■ Athlete of the Year and Most Popular Finnish in 1968 and 1969.
■ Worked in coaching positions after his sports career.
■ The family includes a spouse, three children and five grandchildren
■ Celebrates 80 years on Thursday, February 4th.
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source https://pledgetimes.com/80-years-old-doping-should-be-allowed-says-olympic-champion-kaarlo-kangasniemi-there-would-be-no-current-hustle-and-bustle-at-all/
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