Jukka RAUHALA

The high point in the career of Jukka Rauhala, who mainly competed in freestyle lightweight, came at the 1984 Olympics, where he won his only major international medal, bronze. During his career, Rauhala also competed at the 1988 Olympics, five World Championships (1981-83, 1986-87) and eight European Championships (1980-82, 1984-88), his best place being fourth at the 1981, 1986 and 1987 Europeans. He captured the Nordic light-flyweight title in 1975, Nordic bantamweight titles in 1977 and 1978, a Nordic featherweight title in 1979 and nine Finnish titles (1976 in flyweight, 1977 in bantamweight, 1978 and 1979 in featherweight and 1981-83, 1985 and 1986 in lightweight).

Rauhala graduated from the Helsinki University of Technology with a Master of Science in Technology degree in 1985, with a main concentration on Industrial Economics and Computer Sciences. After working as a business analyst with OKO Bank Finland from 1984-85, he worked with Hewlett-Packard from 1985-99, starting as a systems engineer and marketing manager in Finland’s office and finishing his career with them as a solution business manager in Singapore office. From 1999-2002, Rauhala was the director and general manager for mobile internet customer operations with Nokia Corporation and then, from 2002-09, worked with the investment firm Nordic Venture Partners. Since 2010 he has been the director of Technopolis Plc, which specializes in leasing space and providing business support services.

From 1988-96 Rauhala was a board member of the Finnish wrestling Federation and, from 1993-96 and since 2008, a member of the board of directors of the Finnish National Olympic Committee. In 2008 he became president of the Finnish Wrestling Federation. His brother Pekka also represented Finland in wrestling at the Olympic Games and his uncle Kalervo won the Greco-Roman middleweight silver at the 1952 Olympics.