Esko JÄRVINEN

Esko Järvinen made his first international appearance at the 1926 World Championships finishing sixth in Nordic combined and 19th in ski jumping. At the 1928 Olympic Winter Games he was the flagbearer for his country at the opening ceremony and competed in Nordic combined and ski jumping. As a soldier he replaced a sick member of the Finnish military ski patrol team, which finished second in this non-medal event. At the 1929 Worlds he participated in ski jumping and Nordic combined, winning a bronze medal in the latter. At his last World Championship, in 1931, he missed the top 60 and received no score. Between 1930-32 he coached the German cross-country team and later concentrated on Alpine skiing and was runner-up in the Finnish Downhill Championship in 1937. After retiring from active sports, Järvinen setup a successful ski factory in Lahti. The company produced wooden skis for the Finnish army during the Winter War and later for all leading Finnish skiers. In 1974 the production of wooden skis was replaced by fibre glass skis, however, and the company went bankrupt in 1991. Esko’s brother Erkki competed in the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam in the triple jump. His son Risto was a leading European skeet shooter in the 1960s.