One of the world’s best middleweight Greco-Roman wrestlers at the start of the 1910s, Alppo Asikainen has gone down in sporting history as the loser of the marathon match he had with Estonian Martin Klein in the Greco-Roman middleweight semi-final round at the 1912 Olympics. The match lasted 11 hours and 40 minutes on a blisteringly sunny day outdoors in the Stockholm Olympic Stadium and Klein won by pin. After winning the middleweight gold at the 1911 World Championships, Asikainen went to the 1912 Olympics as a favorite for the middleweight gold medal. At the Olympics, Asikainen had won his first three matches by fall and defeated the eventual winner Claes Johanson by decision, but the loss to Klein left him with only a bronze medal. Asikainen won his sole Finnish title in 1910, but clinched gold in the 83 kg class at the 1911 at the unofficial World Championships in Helsinki. Alppo’s son Toivo Asikainen was a soccer player and won the Finnish championship in 1940 and played in two A internationals.
Finland