Voitto Kolho


Voitto Valdemar Kolho was a Finnish sport shooter, who won an Olympic bronze and five Finnish national championships.

Shooting

Olympics

GamesEventRankNotes
1908 Summer Olympics300 metre free rifle, three positions17thSource:
1908 Summer Olympics300 metre free rifle, team8thSource:
1912 Summer Olympics300 metre free rifle, three positions13th
1912 Summer OlympicsTeam free rifle5th
1920 Summer Olympics50 metre team free pistol11th
1920 Summer Olympics300 metre free rifle, three positions7th
1920 Summer OlympicsTeam free rifle4th
1920 Summer Olympics300 metre team military rifle, prone3rd
1920 Summer Olympics600 metre team military rifle, prone8th
1920 Summer Olympics300 metre team military rifle, standing7th
1920 Summer Olympics300 and 600 metre team military rifle, prone10th
1924 Summer Olympics50 metre rifle, prone18th
1924 Summer OlympicsTeam free rifle5th

He was the leader of Finland's shooting team in the 1952 Summer Olympics and a deputy member of the board of the Finnish Olympic Committee in 1957–1960.

International

Kolho competed at the 1914 and the 1924 ISSF World Shooting Championships.

National

He won five Finnish national championship golds in shooting:
  • 150 metre free rifle, standing: 1919, 1920, 1921
  • 150 metre free rifle, three positions: 1920
  • center-fire pistol, rapid fire: 1930
He won a shooting competition at the Finnish Winter Games 1919 in Helsinki, the largest shooting competition in Finland yet at the time.
He was a founding member of Finnish Shooting Sport Federation and a member of the board in 1919–1921 and a vice-chairman 1953–1957.

Other

He was born to farmer Abram Evert Kolho and Eulalia Riihimäki. Olympic shooters Lauri and Yrjö Kolho were his brothers, as was architect Vilho Kolho. Born Saxberg, they finnicized the family name to Kolho on 12 May 1906.
He married Eira Helena Nylund. They had four children:
  1. Ritva
  2. Maija-Stiina
  3. Mauri
  4. Kai
He graduated as a Master of Science from the Helsinki University of Technology in 1912. He was a senior engineer and a member of the board in the Enso-Gutzeit Oy in 1935–1950. He was awarded an honorary doctorate in technology.
In the municipal elections of 1936 he was elected in Jääski and was a member of the National Coalition Party. He sat until the end of the term, but was not re-elected in 1945.