Eino Leino had a very unusual wrestling career. He won medals in freestyle at four consecutive Olympics, making him one of only four wrestlers to win medals at four Games. In 1920 he won the gold medal in the middleweight class, his only Olympic title. He followed this with welterweight silver in 1924, lightweight bronze in 1928 and welterweight bronze in 1932. Leino’s 1932 bronze made him the second oldest wrestling medalist ever, after Adolf Lindfors, a distinction which both still held through 2016.
As Leino lived in the United States during his active wrestling career, he never competed at the European or World Championships or won a Finnish title. Before emigrating to the United States in late 1914, Leino was a noted diver and played football as a goalkeeper. He won the US AAU Championships in 1920 and 1923 in freestyle middleweight and captured various East Coast championships from 1915-28. Leino’s only medal at the Finnish championships, silver in freestyle welterweight, came in 1936, after he had moved back to Finland. By profession Leino was a carpenter and, from 1949-52, worked in various leading positions with the Finnish Workers’ Sports Federation.
Finland