Harri Kirvesniemi

Who is Harri Kirvesniemi?

Harri Tapani Kirvesniemi is a Finnish former cross country skier who competed from 1980 to 2001. During his career he won six Olympic medals, and also the 50 km event at the Holmenkollen ski festival in 2000. He was born at Mikkeli.

His biggest successes though were at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships, where he earned a total of 8 medals. This included one gold, three silvers, and four bronzes. In 1998, he earned the Holmenkollen medal. He was married to Marja-Liisa Kirvesniemi, who won the Holmenkollen medal in 1989. This makes them the third husband-wife team to ever win the Holmenkollen medal.

During the 2001 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Lahtis, he tested positive for use of the banned plasma expander Hemohes together with five fellow Finnish cross-country skiers. This resulted in the disqualification of the gold-medal winning Finnish relay team. Following the scandal, Kirvesniemi retired from competitive skiing. In 2013, he received a 6-month suspended sentence after the Helsinki District Court found that he had committed perjury when witnessing to the court in 2011 that he was unaware of any doping use in the 1990s.