Juhani Salmenkylä
Finnish orienteering competitor (1932–2022)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Juhani Salmenkylä (8 March 1932 – 4 May 2022)[1] was a Finnish orienteering competitor and European champion, basketball player, coach, referee and contributor. He was born in Helsinki. In orienteering he won a gold medal with the Finnish relay team at the 1964 European Orienteering Championships in Le Brassus.[2]
| Medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Men's orienteering | ||
Representing  Finland | ||
| World Championships | ||
 | 1966 Fiskars | Relay |
| 1968 Linköping | Relay |
| European Championships | ||
 | 1964 Le Brassus | Relay |
Orienteering
Salmenkylä received a silver medal in the relay at the 1966 World Orienteering Championships with the Finnish team, and again in 1968.[3]
His daughter Leena Salmenkylä was World Champion in relay in 1979.[4]
He won the Jukola relay seven times, winning first at the second edition in 1950 at the age of 18 and winning last in 1970 at the age of 38.[5] He also won the second edition of O-Ringen in 1966.
Basketball
Salmenkylä impacted Finnish basketball with large radius. As a player, he won seven national championships. As a referee he participated in many tournaments abroad, including the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. He was also a top tier coach in Finland, and served as the head of Finnish Basketball Association in 1969–1972.[6][7]
In August 2015 Salmenkylä was inducted into the Finnish Basketball Hall of Fame.[8]
