Lasse Virén biography

 Lasse Virén biography

Lasse Virén, (born July 22, 1949, Myrskylä, Finland), Finnish distance runner who was the primary athlete to win gold medals in each the 5,000- and 10,000-metre races at consecutive Olympic Games: at Munich, West Germany, in 1972 and at Montreal in 1976.

At age 19 Virén dropped out of faculty to coach beneath Rolf Haikkola, a follower of the New Zealand coach Arthur Lydiard, who burdened the significance of endurance gained by operating very lengthy distances. At the 1972 Games, Virén fell through the 10,000-metre race however scrambled rapidly to his ft and, operating sooner than ever, made up 50 metres misplaced to the leaders, held off a cost by Belgium’s Emiel Puttemans within the final lap to win the gold medal, and set a world file of 27 min 38.4 sec. The win gave Finland—a rustic that had dominated the gap occasions within the Twenties and early ’30s—its first gold in 36 years. He additionally set an Olympic file when he received the 5,000-metre race at Munich. He efficiently defended each titles on the 1976 Olympics in Montreal and positioned fifth within the marathon. His ultimate Olympic efficiency was a fifth-place end within the 10,000 metres on the 1980 Games in Moscow.

Because Virén centered his coaching on Olympic competitors, his highest achievement elsewhere was incomes a bronze medal within the 5,000-metre occasion on the 1974 European championships. At one time a policeman, Virén was a member of Finland’s parliament from 1999 to 2007 and from 2010 to 2011.