Martti Vainio

Martti Olavi Vainio (born 30 December 1950) is a Finnish former long-distance runner.

In Finland he is recognized as the last of the great runners of the famous "V-line", the previous ones being Juha Väätäinen, Lasse Virén, and Pekka Vasala.

Each of them won at least one gold medal either at the Summer Olympics or the European Athletics Championships in the 1970s.

Vainio's accomplishments are tarnished though, for testing positive for PEDs on at least two occasions.

Martti Vainio started systematic training at the age of 20 in the autumn of 1971 with his coach Aulis Potinkara.

He received his first national championships medal in 1974 when he finished third in 5000 metres after Seppo Tuominen and Rune Holmén.

In the same year he ran his first 10,000 m race with the result 29:09.6.

He broke the 29-minutes barrier for the first time in 1976.

The same year he was second at the Finnish Championships in Athletics in 10,000 metres after Pekka Päivärinta and was selected to his first Olympics in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

However, he did not qualify for the 10,000 metres final, finishing as the second fastest runner to be eliminated from the final.

He won his first Finnish Championship in 1977 when he beat Kaarlo Maaninka by 0.9 seconds in 10,000 metres.

His achievements in major athletic championships include gold in the 10,000 metres race 1978 European Championships in Athletics in Prague and bronze in the same distance at the 1982 European Championships in Athletics in Athens.

Vainio used strategy in the 1978 European Championships 10,000 metres race, spending most of the race drifting off the lead pack until the 8,500-metre mark.

Due to the fast and steady pace, the other runners – some of them presumably better kickers than Vainio – had exhausted themselves, and Vainio only needed to sprint the last lap in 58.4 seconds to win the race.

Especially notable was Brendan Foster falling from the lead to fourth place in the last 130 metres.

His winning time 27:30.99 improved his personal best by 28.7 seconds.

Later at the same championships Vainio was sixth in the 5,000 metres race.

At the Track & Field News annual world ranking Vainio was second in 10,000 metres after world record breaker Henry Rono, and tenth in 5000 metres.

Because of his international breakthrough, Vainio was one of the potential gold medal candidates prior to the 1980 Summer Olympics.

Vainio was also known for his tough training programs, and during the winter 1980 he ran over 300 kilometres per week during his four-month-long training camp in New Zealand.

Later believing he had overtrained and suffered some unspecified stomach problems, Vainio did not succeed at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, finishing 13th in the 10,000 metres final and 11th in the 5,000 metres final.

Despite the disappointment of the Olympics, Vainio returned to the top of the world in 1981 in the 10,000 metres.

He won the Bislett Games in Oslo in 27:45.50 and represented Europe at the 1981 IAAF World Cup in Rome, finishing fifth running a 27:48.62.

At the Track & Field News annual world ranking he was fourth after Werner Schildhauer, Geoff Smith, and Mohamed Kedir.

In the following year 1982, Vainio succeeded again at the European Championships in Athens, where he won a bronze medal behind Alberto Cova and Werner Schildhauer in 10,000 metres running a 27:42.51.

After the 1982 season, collaboration between Vainio and coach Potinkara ended amicably and Vainio started to train by himself.

However, certain people started to influence his training; among them was Jouko Elevaara, known as the coach of Kaarlo Maaninka.

Vainio has stated that he started to use hormones in the autumn of 1982 to avoid the detrimental effects of overtraining in his preparation for the first World Championships in Helsinki, the capital of his home country, Finland.

According to Vainio, the first hormone ampullas were obtained from Palermo in the autumn of 1982.

The 10,000 metres final was held on the third day of the Helsinki Championships.

It was a slow race which was decided in the last lap.

Vainio finished fourth with the time 28:01.37, missing the gold medal by only 0.33 seconds and bronze by 0.11 seconds.

The home audience was very impressed with his achievement, since they knew slow-paced races were not his best strategically.

The gold medal was won again by Alberto Cova.

The 5000 metres final was held on the final day of the Championships.

Vainio delighted the Finnish audience with a bronze medal.

At the 1983 World Championships in Athletics he dropped to fourth place in the 10,000 metres race, but claimed the bronze in the 5000 metres in a close finish decided by a lunge over the finish line.

One of those events was the 1984 Olympic Games where he was disqualified and stripped of his medal and later suspended from sport.

He competed in 5,000 metres as well and finished 8th.

At the Track & Field News annual world ranking, Vainio end of year ranking was seventh in 10,000 metres.