61 years old Jouko Salomäki puts on the dvd player the final match, which is very familiar to him.
It has been 40 years since Salomäki won the Olympic gold in Greco-Roman wrestling in the 74-kilogram category in Los Angeles.
It is still the most recent Finnish Olympic victory in wrestling.
The opponent in the match was Sweden Roger Tallroththe reigning European champion of the series, to whom Salomäki had lost in the previous encounter.
In August 1984, it was time for revenge.
– I’ve watched this at least two hundred times. A small break came when we lived the crazy years of the 1990s and I drank more. Kännissa didn’t feel like watching this at all: I was longing for the wrestling mat and a little ashamed that why I didn’t do sports…
The analysis of events is still fast and sharp.
At the beginning, the Swede tries to gain the upper hand by butting his opponent.
– That’s where it shows again, when Roger is on top. It also happened in the European Championships. I don’t know what the idea was.
Jouko Salomäki comments on his Olympic victory after the Los Angeles Olympics. The interviewer is Voitto Liukkonen, who also explained the final on TV. The program was presented on September 7, 1984.
Kustaa surprised the Swede
Then Tallroth is properly surprised. The situation looks like a normal vertical wrestling match, until Salomäki suddenly throws the Swede to the mat. Salomäki scores the decisive five points for his performance: first, three points for the throw and two points for the ensuing tumble.
– Roger didn’t know how to expect that throw at all. No wonder, because it’s not in any wrestling manuals. We developed it ourselves: it’s called Kustaa. The tactic was that I score at the beginning and the rest of the time I make sure that the guy doesn’t pass.
Salomäki takes a close look at the situation where the judge orders the Finn under the mat. He remembers that at that stage the idea was very difficult to hold together.
– I had had an allergic reaction and was a bit confused. Before the final, the side was also numbed. The spike hit a nerve, and consciousness immediately left.
Tallroth tries everything to lift Salomäki from the mat. Salomäki refuses to get up. The fight was certainly decisive for the gold medal.
– I just kept myself on the mat.
Danger of death
The Swede, more than almost anyone else, did not know that Salomäki went into the match badly injured. Narrator legend, already deceased Victory Liukkonen had time to worry if Tallroth had perhaps succeeded in harming the Finn.
Was not. Salomäki was injured in the semi-final match against Romania Adrian Rusua against. Rusu was the reigning Olympic champion from Moscow in 1980. The Soviet Union and the countries of the Eastern Bloc were left out of the Los Angeles Games, but the level was tough.
– The best men were involved. Several ribs were broken when I didn’t go to Rusu’s avalanche. Two bones were broken and one was cracked.
The wrestler was literally in danger of his life, but it was about an Olympic victory.
– There was a risk that the bones would come through the lungs. The Swedes knew nothing of this. Was a doctor Huikurin Kauko took the medical certificate to the jury at the same time as Tallroth and I came to the mat. If he had gone any earlier, the information would surely have been leaked.
The risk was worth it. Jouko Salomäki won the match 5–4.
– When you’re in good shape, you’re always lucky.
A little boy’s dream
On August 2, 1984, Jouko Salomäki fulfilled a dream that he had already said aloud eight years earlier. The 13-year-old boy, who was eagerly watching the Montreal Summer Olympics, outlined his life’s goals to his mother:
– I will either become an Olympic champion or the president of the republic.
– Do you think so? asked the mother.
The boy had been used to training since he was 6 years old. There were four brothers in the family, and mutual competition was fierce.
– You can say that all boys in Ostrobothnia wrestle. We trained so hard that there was nothing to worry about.
Father Pause was a well-known powerlifter in the region, who did not let his sons off the hook. In the wrestling ring, the juices were often taken away so that the boys struggled on the borderlands of consciousness.
– We woke up at five in the morning for the first practice. We went for a run on the Neva with weight vests on, whatever the weather. A home-made sports drink of the time was drunk on top of it, to which were added, among other things, grapefruit, lemon and several whole eggs. At eight we left for the construction site. The last practice ended at nine in the evening.
Jouko Salomäki received a hero’s welcome in Finland and in his home region Nurmo. The troubadours performed a song in honor of Salomäki.
The program was presented on September 7, 1984.
A superstar of his time
In the 1980s, Finnish sports heroes were superstars. Jouko Salomäki also got her share of sweet mammon.
– The situation was such that Rengonharjuntie was full of cars when returning from the Olympics. From Helsinki–Vantaa, we were transported directly home, and all the doors of the saloon were open, we went wherever we went. It was a little too much for the young boy.
Salomäki’s victory was also of considerable help to the municipality of Nurmo. The win brought state aid, which was used to build a sports hall.
– Previously, those facilities were in a bomb shelter.
The wrestler was 21 years old when he achieved the Olympic victory. As a result of the success, training suffered, because the social young man had enough invitees.
– Challengers sometimes came during their free time. Pohjalai men have a bit of a habit of getting to know a friend by playing matches. I got out of these situations because all a wrestler needs is a hand to hold on to.
Jouko Salomäki won the World Championship gold in Clermont-Ferrand, France, on August 22, 1987. Kirsti Pohjaväre is the reporter for the sports news, and Salomäki is interviewed on the spot by Voitto Liukkonen.
Success came even after Los Angeles. Salomäki won another World Championship gold in Clermont-Ferrand, France in August 1987.
Slowly, alcohol began to creep into life and it was time to become a serious master. The sportsman also noticed that he smokes when drunk.
– In the life of an athlete, there are always little cheers. I also remember when I drank more alcohol, I was angry with myself. I thought I should be training and not drinking. At worst, I could drink without limit.
In November 1990, Jouko Salomäki, who had wrestled Olympic gold and 1987 World Championship gold six years earlier, was caught by Helsinki customs for smuggling doping substances. The editor of the sports channel is Jukka Saarinen, the Illan Finaali program is hosted by Jukka Rönkä. The program was shown on November 5, 1990.
At some point, Salomäki realized that alcohol was taking the Olympic champion’s back.
One bottom was reached in 1990, when Salomäki was accused of smuggling doping substances at Helsinki-Vantaa airport at the end of a wet race. The result was a two-year ban and a fine.
In 1993, he came to faith and was allowed to stop drinking alcohol almost completely.
– I’ve been drinking from time to time even after that. Now the situation has been for a long time that you don’t feel like drinking. It can also be partly due to age.
Death on the buttocks
Jouko Salomäki’s life has also been overshadowed by the death of several loved ones.
On top of this have come my own health problems.
The Olympic winner has suffered from eye pressure disease glaucoma and adult-onset diabetes. The worst opponent has been pancreatic cancer, which was operated on at the beginning of the year.
– First I got a pulmonary embolism. The doctor wondered how you were alive. When the lungs were imaged, a tumor was found in the pancreas in the same images.
After the surgery, it seems that the cancer has been defeated this time.
– In the new pictures, carcinosis was no longer visible. The situation is pretty good at the moment, but you never know if it will happen again. After the operation, balloon dilatation of the heart was also performed.
Cancer treatments also brought the power sports champion to his knees.
– I took cytostats for seven months. I remember a situation where I had to ask the boy to go around a regular drinking bottle with the cap open. The powers were so gone.
40 years of waiting
Finland has also had regular wrestling success since the 1980s. However, Olympic gold has persistently eluded athletes.
Salomäki wants to believe that now is finally the time in Paris to correct the direction of fate.
– I have been waiting for 40 years. Many times it has been close: Marko Asell was really close in Atlanta 1996 and Marko Yli-Hannuksela In Athens eight years later. Now there are two wrestlers involved, so let’s say there will be two medals.
Known to be social, Salomäki plans to watch Olympic wrestling from beginning to end, and of course the other sports as a friend. There are friends and acquaintances, so joint speculation and reflection is definitely a friend of the sports experience.
– When we go to the store with the lady, I always keep my mouth shut. My nature has always been that I like to chat with people.
Above all, Salomäki says he loves life.
– My health is good right now. You can be grateful for everything you experience. And yes, I will still see the Olympic victory of that wrestler in my lifetime.