Lassi Parkkinen


Lauri Rikhard Parkkinen was a Finnish speed skater.
Lassi Parkkinen was born in Varkaus, an industrial town in the southeast of Finland. He made his debut at the World Allround Championships in 1938, finishing ninth. He also participated the next year, 1939, in what would turn out to be the last World Championships before World War II, but his results on the first three distances were not good enough to qualify for the final distance. Due to the war, it took eight years before the World Championships were held again. At these first World Championships since World War II, Parkkinen was crowned the 1947 World Champion. His success continued the next year at the 1948 Winter Olympics of St. Moritz, when he won Olympic silver on the 10,000 m.
His final speed skating successes came in 1952 when he won silver at the World Championships and became Finnish Allround Champion for the fifth and last time. He also skated at the 1952 Winter Olympics of Oslo, but his 10,000 m time of 17:36.8 - almost identical to the time that won him silver in 1948 - was only good for the eighth place. His best result at those 1952 Winter Olympics was a sixth place on the 1,500 m. The next year, 1953, Parkkinen finished only twelfth at the World Championships and he retired from speed skating soon afterwards. He kept involved in speed skating though, being vice-chairman of the Suomen Luisteluliitto from 1954 to 1960, as well as being a committee member of the International Skating Union from 1957 to 1964.
Parkkinen died in 1994, aged 77.

Medals

An overview of medals won by Parkkinen at important championships he participated in, listing the years in which he won each:
ChampionshipsGold medalSilver medalBronze medal
Winter Olympics-1948 -
World Allround19471952-
European Allround---

In addition, Parkkinen was Finnish National Allround Champion in 1941, 1943, 1944, 1946, and 1952 - a total of five times.

Personal records

To put these personal records in perspective, the WR column lists the official world records on the dates that Parkkinen skated his personal records.
EventResultDateVenueWR
500 m43.99 February 1952Hamar41.2
1,000 m1:34.6March 19471:28.4
1,500 m2:19.62 February 1948St. Moritz2:13.8
3,000 m4:57.426 February 1947Helsinki4:45.7
5,000 m8:25.11 March 1952Hamar8:07.3
10,000 m17:25.710 February 1946Oslo17:01.5

Note that the official world record on the 5,000 m on the day that Parkkinen skated his personal record on that distance was Hjalmar Andersen's time of 8:07.3. In the meantime, Nikolay Mamonov had skated a time of 8:03.7, but Mamonov's time was not recognised as a world record by the International Skating Union until the 1955 ISU Congress.
Parkkinen has an Adelskalender score of 193.228 points.