Ville Ritola
Finland
Athletics
Overall Ranks
#27 among Track & Field Athletes
#21 among Male Track & Field Athletes
#3 among Finnish Olympians
#2 among Finnish Track & Field Athletes
Olympic Results
1924
5000m - Silver
10000m - Gold
Steeplechase - Gold
Team Race - Gold
Cross Country - Silver
Cross Country Team - Gold
1928
5000m - Gold
10000m - Silver
Total
Events - 9
Gold - 5
Silver - 3
Vilho Eino Ritola, known as Ville, was born on January 18, 1896 in Peraseinajoki, Finland, which at the time was part of the Russian Empire. He was the 14th of 20 children, and he joined 7 of them in emigrating to the United States in 1913 to find work as a carpenter. He didn't begin training as a runner until he was 23 years old.
In 1922, he won a couple of gold medals in the AAU Championship, and came in second in the Boston Marathon, after which he felt he was ready to try to make the Olympics, competing for his home country of Finland. Some other American Finns helped raise money to send him home to Finland to compete in the Olympic trials, where he set a world record in the 10000m, breaking the record previously held by fellow Finn Paavo Nurmi.
Ritola went to Paris to compete in 6 events. His first was the 10000m, where he was a heavy favorite, thanks partly to his new world record, and partly due to Nurmi choosing to sit out to conserve his energy for other events. He pulled away early, with only Edvin Wide of Sweden keeping pace, but after 4000m, Wide dropped back, and Ritola continued his pace, winning the race by 32 seconds, nearly half a lap, and breaking his own world record by 12 seconds, giving him a dominant gold medal in his first event.
His next event was the steeplechase, which he had never run before. He didn't have the technique down, but his speed and endurance were enough as he won the race by over 11 seconds, setting a new Olympic record, and coming up just 0.2 seconds short of the world record.
Up next was the 5000m, in which he would finally face Nurmi. Nurmi had just won the gold medal in the 1500m less than an hour earlier, so Ritola and Wide took off early, hoping that Nurmi would be too tired to catch them, but at the 2000m mark, Nurmi had caught up to the leaders, and by 3000m, Wide had dropped off the pace, leaving the two Finns to battle for gold. Nurmi passed Ritola at the 4000m mark, then held him off the rest of the way, winning the gold, and leaving Ritola with a silver by 0.2 seconds.
The cross country event was next, which covered nearly 10000m on one of the hottest days in Paris history. Nurmi and Ritola took off ahead of the pack again, but Ritola was unable to keep pace, and ended up losing by almost a minute and a half, though he still won silver by over a minute. More than half of the racers were unable to finish due to the heat.
The cross country team event scoring was based on placement of the top 3 runners from each country in the individual event, so Finland was a massive favorite due to having the top 2 finishers. Heikki Liimatainen was the third Finnish runner, and he was stumbling toward the finish, then stepped off the course thinking that he had finished, but he was still 30 meters short. After the crowd let him know that he hadn't finished, he returned to the course, and staggered for two minutes toward the line, finally crossing just in time to earn Finland the gold ahead of the USA.
The final event was the team 3000m race, in which the places of the top 3 finishers counted toward each country's score. Nurmi and Ritola again finished in first and second, but they didn't have to wait as long this time, as teammate Elias Katz came in fifth, earning the Finns an easy gold medal, the fourth for Ritola at his first Olympics. His 6 total medals are still the record for a track athlete at a single Olympics, and his 4 golds only trail Nurmi's 5 from the same Olympics.
He returned to the US after the Olympics and returned to work in construction, rarely training, but still competing in some meets. He decided to compete in the Olympics again in 1928, heading to Amsterdam, where he would go head to head with Nurmi in 3 events again.
The first event was the 10000m, where Ritola was the defending champ, but Nurmi was now the world record holder, and the two of them, along with Wide, left the field behind early again, with Ritola in front. Wide kept up with the Finns until 8000m, then fell behind, leaving the two favorites to fight for gold again. Nurmi stayed right behind Ritola until the final straightaway, when he passed his teammate and pulled away slightly to win by 0.6 seconds in Olympic record time, both more than 40 seconds ahead of Wide, the bronze medalist.
In the 5000m final, the same three runners pulled away from the pack again, with Ritola taking the lead around the halfway point. Wide fell behind with 600m left, while Ritola started to pull away from Nurmi, and ended up winning the race by 2 seconds, while Nurmi held on for the silver.
His final event was the steeplechase, where he was the defending champ. He qualified for the final, but hurt his ankle in the process, and while he still ran, he was unable to finish the race, the first time he had ever failed to win a medal in an Olympic event.
He retired soon after the 1928 Olympics, returning to the United States, where he spent the next 30 years working construction until he was old enough to retire. A few years later, he returned to Finland, where he passed away a decade later in Helsinki on April 24, 1982. He was overshadowed by his teammate Nurmi through his whole career, but he finally beat him head-to-head in his final Olympic win, and he was so much better than anyone else at the time, that he is obviously one of the greatest Olympians of all time.
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