Verner Weckman

Johan Verner Weckman (26 July 1882 - 22 February 1968) was a Finnish sports fighter who competed in the interspersed Olympic Games of 1906 and in the Olympic Games of 1908.

He was born in Loviisa in a family of farmers. Inspired by circus fighters, Weckman began practicing the Greco-Roman fight and won his first Finnish championship in 1904 against Verner Järvinen. In 1905 he went to Germany to study at the University of Karlsruhe and won the unofficial world championship in Duisburg in the same year.

In 1906 he became the first Finnish winner in the Olympic Games against Austrian Rudolf Lindmayer, as he won the gold medal in the Greco-Roman middleweight category as well as the silver medal in the global competition.

Two years later he won the gold medal in the Greco-Roman light heavyweight event at the 1908 London Olympics.

Weckman worked as an engineer in Russia from 1909-1921 and later in Suomen Kaapelitehdas Oy or the Finnish Cable Works (which in 1967 merged with two other companies to form Nokia, the current telecommunications company), where he served as director long-term executive until 1955. Weckman was awarded the prestigious title Vuorineuvos for his long career in 1953. He died in Helsinki in 1968.

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