Matti Yrjölä

Who is Matti Yrjölä?

Matti Manu Ilmari Yrjölä is a 192 cm tall Finnish shot putter, who represented Kyröskosken Ponsi and weighed 121 kg when competing. He was the second Finn to put the shot more than 20 m in an official competition when he put it 20.04 metres in Hämeenkyrö, Finland on August 2, 1972.

His personal best outdoors is 20.84 m, which he put on July 6, 1976 in Kokemäki. His personal best indoors of 19.12 m, which he put in Turku on February 25, 1973, was enough to win him the Finnish Championships that year. Internationally, his highest rankings in the European Championships was a fourth place in Athens in 1969 and a 3rd place in the competition between Finland and Sweden in 1973.

Yrjölä came from an athletic family: both his father and his uncle competed in the decathlon.

Yrjölä was one of the first six Finns originally admitted to the 20 meter club when it was founded in April 1983.