Kaarlo Vähämäki

Kaarlo Vähämäki attended the Finnish Real Lyceum in Helsinki and was a member of the Finnish gymnastics team that won silver behind Norway in the free system at the 1912 Olympic Games. He started working for the Lars Krogius shipping company in Helsinki eventually as an authorised representative. Subsequently he held the position of director of the forwarding and shipping companies Suomen Välityskeskus and John Nurminen.

Vähämäki represented Latvia for three years as consul in Helsinki. In 1924, he was appointed Finnish consul in Shanghai, thus becoming the first Finnish diplomat in China. One year later, he was promoted to consul general and chargé d’affaires in China, positions he held until his resignation in 1931.

He was married to Linnea Viola Järnström, with whom he had a daughter and a son. His daughter, Lilian Linnea Dresden (1919-2001), had two children out of wedlock with Avery Brundage, the future President of the IOC. Vähämäki immigrated to the United States in 1946 and became a US-citizen in 1956, working as a businessman in San Francisco. The time and place of his death are unknown. In 1984, he was declared dead in Finland, and the date was officially set as 01 January 1984.