Johans Oja

In addition to being a police officer Johans Oja was an excellent sprinter who won multiple Latvian titles. In 1924 Oja became the national champion in the 100, 200, 400, and 800 metres, in addition to winning gold in the Swedish relay. These performances secured him a place on the Olympic team for the Paris Games where he made the quarter-finals in both the 100 and 200 metres. He was also a three-time Latvian champion in the 4 x 100 metres relay (1923-24, 1930) and set 11 national records across multiple distances.

In 1925 Oja graduated from the Rīga Police School and was soon appointed as a senior officer at his local station. By 1927 he had become a criminal police supervisor before he began his Army service in 1928. After serving in the Latvian Army for a year he returned to the police force where he worked as an investigator until 1940. A year later, however, he was arrested by the Soviet secret police force the NKVD. Oja spent a brief period in prison in Rīga before he was transferred to a prison in Chernivtsi where he was executed in May 1942.

Personal Bests: 100 – 11.0 (1924); 200 – 23.0 (1924).