  paavo ilmari yrjÃ¶lÃ¤ (18 june 1902 in hÃ¤meenkyrÃ¶ â 11 february 1980 in vilppula), also known as the bear of hÃ¤meenkyrÃ¶ (hÃ¤meenkyrÃ¶n karhu), was a finnish track and field athlete who won the gold medal in the decathlon at the 1928 summer olympics. he also competed in shot put and high jump at the same games, and in decathlon in 1924 and 1932, but less successfully. in the 1928 olympics, he had to rerun the 100&nbsp;m hurdles as the fourth hurdle was placed incorrectly in the first run. finland took the top two spots in the decathlon that year with yrjÃ¶lÃ¤ taking the gold (with a world record) and akilles jÃ¤rvinen the silver. in his years of competing, yrjÃ¶lÃ¤ set three officially ratified world records: 7820&nbsp;points in 1926 (6460 according to the current scoring tables and with standard manual timing corrections of 0.24 seconds for 100 metres and 110 metre hurdles, 0.14 seconds for 400 metres and nothing for 1500 metres), 7995 points in 1927 (6586) and 8053 in the 1928 summer olympics (6587). yrjÃ¶lÃ¤ was the first decathlete to score higher than jim thorpe at the 1912 summer olympics. thorpe's performance wasn't officially recognized as a record due to his semi-professional status. yrjÃ¶lÃ¤ set one more record in 1930 of 8117 points (6700), but this wasn't officially ratified. athletics was a
1902_births 1980_deaths Athletes_(track_and_field)_at_the_1924_Summer_Olympics Athletes_(track_and_field)_at_the_1928_Summer_Olympics Athletes_(track_and_field)_at_the_1932_Summer_Olympics Finnish_decathletes Olympic_athletes_of_Finland Olympic_gold_medalists_for_Finland Olympic_medalists_in_athletics_(track_and_field) People_from_HA$?meenkyrAP People_from_Turku_and_Pori_Province_(Grand_Duchy_of_Finland)