Along with Ivar Johansson, Väinö Kokkinen was one of the world’s top Greco-Roman middleweight wrestlers at the end of 1920s and start of 1930s. A blacksmith by trade, Kokkinen took up wrestling in 1921, after participating in the Finnish Civil War and moving to Helsinki. During his wrestling career, which lasted nearly 15 years, Kokkinen won two Greco-Roman Olympic middleweight gold medals, in 1928 and 1932, and was an unfortunate fourth at the 1936 Olympics. Kokkinen also earned the European Greco-Roman middleweight title in 1930, while taking silver at the 1925, 1929, 1931 (in Greco-Roman middleweight) and 1933 (in Greco-Roman light-heavyweight) European Championships. Kokkinen never competed at the World Championships, but captured gold at the 1925 Workers’ Olympiad. Domestically, Kokkinen won six Finnish titles: in 1926, 1929-32 in Greco-Roman middleweight and in 1934 in Greco-Roman light-heavyweight. He also won the Finnish Workers’ Sports Federation championships in Greco-Roman middleweight in 1924 and 1925. Kokkinen retired from wrestling after the 1936 Olympics and later became a successful businessman in the clothing and hospitality industry. In the 1940s he was also a board member of the sports club Helsingin Jyry.
Finland