Aale Tynni is the only woman to have won a gold medal at the Olympic Art Competitions. She was awarded the medal for her work Hellaan laakeri (Laurel of Hellas) in 1948 in the category Literature, Lyric Works. The poem was published in 1949 as part of the anthology of poems _ Ylitse Vuoren Lasisen_ (Over the Mountain of Glass). Tynni was born south of Leningrad as a member of the Finno-Ugric minority of Ingrians. After the October Revolution and the fight against the Bolsheviks, the family managed to escape to Finland in 1919. In the 1920s Tynni joined the literary group “Tulenkantajat” (“Torchbearer”). She studied in Helsinki, but travelled frequently to France and Italy until the onset of World War II. In 1940 Tynni married church historian Kauko Pirinen, but later married poet Martti Haavio. Her son Matti Antero Pirinen also became a poet. She became best-known as a translator of the Ibsen work Brand, and European poetry ranging from the Middle Ages, but also for her own poetry. In 1982 she became the first woman admitted to the Finnish Academy.
Finland