Paavo Yrjölä

Medal record
Paavo Yrjölä
Men’s athletics
Competitor for Finland
Olympic Games
Gold	Amsterdam 1928	Decathlon

Paavo Ilmari Yrjölä (June 18, 1902 in Hämeenkyrö – February 11, 1980 ibid.), also known as the Bear of Hämeenkyrö (Hämeenkyrön karhu), was a Finnish track and field athlete who won the gold medal in the decathlon at the Olympics in 1928.

In the 1928 Olympics, he had to rerun the 100 m hurdles as the fourth hurdle was placed incorrectly in the first run. Finland took the top two spots in the decathlon that year with Yrjölä taking the gold (with a world record) and Akilles Järvinen the silver.

In his years of competing, Yrjölä set three officially ratified world records: 7820 points in 1926 (6460 according to the current scoring tables and with standard manual timing corrections of 0.24 seconds for 100 metres and 110 metre hurdles, 0.14 seconds for 400 metres and nothing for 1500 metres), 7995 points in 1927 (6586) and 8053 in the 1928 Summer Olympics (6587). Yrjölä was the first decathlete to score higher than Jim Thorpe at the 1912 Summer Olympics. Thorpe's performance wasn't officially recognized as a record due to his semi-professional status. Yrjölä set one more record in 1930 of 8117 points (6700), but this wasn't officially ratified.

Athletics was a family affair as his brother, Iivari Yrjölä, also competed in the decathlon and his son, Matti Yrjölä, was a successful shotputter.

Major achievements

• Ninth in the decathlon at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris (5,547 points)
• A gold medal in the decathlon at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam (6,587 points)
• Sixth in the decathlon at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles (6,385 points)
• Ninth in the shot put at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam
• Finnish Champion in 1925, 1926 and 1927

Records

• 100 m: 11.6 s
• long jump: 676 
• shot put: 14.72  (1930)
• high jump: 187  (1924)
• 400 m: 51.9 
• 110 m hurdles: 15.5 
• discus throw: 43.26 
• pole vault: 330 
• javelin: 62.15 
• 1500 m: 4.26:8 
• decathlon: 6700 points (8117 with then current scoring tables) in 1930
• pentathlon: 3532 points (4067)

Notes

1.^ Yrjölä's first two world records sometimes appear as 7832.030 points and 8018.990 points respectively according to then current scoring tables. This discrepancy is explained in the former case by IAAF rounding up Yrjölä's times in the 110 metre hurdles and the 1500 metres to the accuracy of 1/5 of a second, as opposed to the 0.1 second accuracy actually used (this was according to the rules but was not done when converting to 6460 on modern scoring tables), and in the latter case by an actual discrepancy between the three clocks in the first event, 100 metres.

Records
Preceded by Harold Osborn	Men's Decathlon World Record Holder July 18, 1926 – July 20, 1930	Succeeded by Akilles Järvinen