Skiing legend Siiri Rantanen has died today in Lahti at the age of 98. The matter was confirmed to STT by Siiri Rantanen’s son Martti Rantanen.
STT Sports,
Anu Karttunen,
Pertti Lappalainen
Siiri Johanna Rantanen was a pioneer of Finnish women’s sports. Women’s cross-country skiing was accepted for the first time at the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo, where Rantanen poled by Lydia Wideman and Mirja Hietamienen after 10 kilometers for bronze.
Rantanen experienced the star moment of his racing career four years later in Italy at the Olympic track in Cortina d’Ampezzo. He won gold in the 3×5 kilometer relay Sirkka Polkunen and with Hietamie.
Rantas became a celebrated hero as relay anchor in Cortina, because he started the final leg, depending on the sources, 10-20 seconds behind the Soviet anchor Radja Jeroshina after. The difference at the finish line was 27 seconds in favor of Rantanen.
– I caught him in a long descent. Another kilometer before the finish, I passed, and the custodian whispered that Jeroshina would stay, stay, Rantanen recalled in STT’s 90th anniversary interview.
He was born on December 14, 1924.
In the teeth of gentlemen
Rantanen got the nickname Äitee during his racing years. The nickname given at the joint camp in Sotkamo’s Vuokatti in the 1950s described the cool skier well.
– My skiing buddy Mirja Hietamies was from Kymenlaakso and in his speech he pushed the ea and the ee everywhere. The girls started humming Mother in the choir, Rantanen said.
In the camps, she wove woolen warm clothes for her two sons. The role of the mother of the family expanded outside the home, when Rantanen, the oldest of the top skiers, took care of her competitive sisters.
Outspoken Rantanen didn’t bully the ski gentlemen. He was even banned from competition by the Lahti Ski Club when he withdrew from the SC relay at the request of his teammates. The teammates had hoped that Rantanen would give them a chance for medals as well.
– I was suddenly abrupt, My habit is to tell it like it is. But the poor man should have been humble, Rantanen described.
Rantanen’s star moment in recent years came at the Lahti World Championships in the spring and winter of 2017. At that time, the prestigious spectators president Sauli from Niinistö to the king of Sweden Kaarle Kustaasen cheered on Ranta, who skied stylishly at the ski stadium in Lahti.
Rantanen praised STT for winning the men’s 15 km traditional race world championship Iivo from Niska.
– A fit and handsome manly man. There is hope for us, just like that Let’s think about Jussi.
Even the amputation of his left leg at the beginning of 2021 did not dampen the youthful Rantanen’s zest for life. The pain in his leg from a toe infection drove him to the operation.
Rantanen gave different advice to Aino-Kaisa Saarinen
“Mother” always sided with her racing sisters and cleared the way for the next generations. Multiple world champion Aino-Kaisa Saarinen in my opinion, Rantanen’s importance has been great.
– The road has been cleared, but he took the side of us female athletes and demanded the same rights for us as for men. He intervened in the situation and hit the table with his fist, Saarinen said.
In Saarinen’s opinion, Rantanen was a top athlete, but also a mediator of the joy of exercise. Rantanen’s good news for exercise was conveyed until the end. Saarinen remembers meeting Rantanen on the slopes of Salpausselkä and at sports events in Lahti. He remembers very well the conversation from 2011, when the World Ski Championships in Oslo were approaching, but the team was sick.
– Siiri asked what makes you sick at work girls? It is said that he always had a bottle of cognac under his bed and “if you drink it, you will stay healthy!” He had cheerful and funny stories, Saarinen recalled.