Aarne Pelkonen was a member of the Finnish gymnastics team that won silver behind Norway in the free system at the 1912 Olympic Games. Two years later, he graduated as a gymnastics teacher. During the Finnish Civil War Pelkonen fought for the Whites and was later promoted to lieutenant of the reserve. After the war, he worked as a municipal doctor in various places including Laihia. In 1938, Pelkonen received a doctor’s degree and worked subsequently as a lecturer for surgery at the University of Helsinki.
With his first wife, Hertta Ingrid Henriksson, he had one daughter. After his wife’s death, he married Ulla Kristiina Westergren in 1940, one of his students and 22 years his junior. Together they had one more child.
Finland