Werner WECKMAN

Inspired by circus wrestlers, Verner Weckman, a farmer’s boy from Loviisa, started Greco-Roman wrestling in 1902 and won his only Finnish title in 1904 in the heavyweight class. In 1905 Weckman started study at the University of Karlsruhe (now the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology), and, while in Germany, won the unofficial 1905 World Championship in Duisburg in the heavyweight class against five Germans. In 1906, Finland took part in the Olympic Games for the first time and Weckman became the first Finn to win Olympic gold when he won the Greco-Roman middleweight class. This also allowed him to compete in the all-around competition, where the winners of all the weight classes competed for the all-around title, but Weckman lost his match against heavyweight winner Søren Jensen and had to settle for a silver medal. Two years later, Weckman competed again at the Olympic arena and won a gold medal in the Greco-Roman light-heavyweight event. Weckman retired from sports after the 1908 Olympics and after graduating from the University of Karlsruhe with an engineering degree, worked as an engineer in Russia from 1909-21. In 1921, Weckman returned to Finland and worked at Suomen Kaapelitehdas Oy (Finnish Cable Works), which in 1967 was merged with two other companies to form Nokia Corporation, where he served as the longtime executive director until 1955.