Juha Mieto

Juha Mieto was the most successful Finnish skier of the 1970s. Mieto made his international début at the 1972 Winter Olympics, where he lost the bronze medal in the 15 km to Norwegian Ivar Formo by only 0.06 seconds. At the 1974 World Championships Mieto won his first international championship medal, a silver, in the 30 km and was again fourth in the 15 km. Mieto’s only gold medal at a major international tournament came at the 1976 Winter Olympics, where he won a gold in the relay. Individually he placed fourth in the 30 km at those Olympics. At the 1978 World Championships, Mieto won a silver in the relay and bronze in the 15 km, but the high point of his career came at the 1980 Winter Olympics, where won silvers at both 15 km and 50 km and a bronze in the relay. His loss to Swede Thomas Wassberg in the 15 km was by only 0.01 seconds, the closest margin of victory ever in Olympic cross-country skiing, and led the International Ski Federation to round all of their times to the nearest 1/10th second in future competitions. Mieto also competed at the 1982 World Championships and 1984 Olympic Winter Games, before retiring from sports. Mieto was also successful in World Cup cross-country skiing, winning in 1975-76 and 1979-80, placing second in 1973-74 and 1976-77, and third in 1974-75. He also recorded six victories at the Holmenkollen Ski Festival, once in the 50 km (1973) and five times in the 15 km (1973-75, 1977-78), and he was awarded the Holmenkollen Medal in 1974. Mieto won the 15 km race at the Lahti Ski Games in 1976 and won 19 Finnish titles. After his sporting career Mieto worked in public relations for several organizations, including Nordea Bank, Kuortane Sports Resort and World Vision. In 2007 Mieto was elected to the Finnish Parliament (Eduskunta) with 13,768 votes; which was the seventh highest vote total in all of Finland.