Jalmari Kivenheimo

Jalmari Kivenheimo was born under the name Stenvall but the family later Finnicized the name to Kivenheimo. He was a member of the Finnish gymnastics team that won silver behind Norway in the free system at the 1912 Olympic Games. He studied biology at the University of Helsinki, from which he graduated with a master’s degree in 1914. For three years (1916-19), he then worked as a teacher at the Rauma Joint High School. Subsequently, he was a lecturer at the teachers’ training seminary in Rauma, a position he held until 1957. In 1948, he defended his doctoral thesis in botany at the age of 59.

Around 1990, he lived for about 10 years with his daughter’s family in Arizona in the USA. His wife Liida Lyydia (née Lulli) died there in 1969. They had two sons and one daughter.

Kivenheimo reached the age of 105 to become the last surviving athlete from the 1912 Olympic Games, at the time the world’s oldest living Olympic medallist, and Finland’s oldest living Olympian.