Marko Suomi - one of the first kettlebell lifters in Finland. Marko was born in 1976. He works in IT and has a wife and 2 kids. Marko first run into kettlebells in 2005, and followed the instructions provided by Pavel Tsatsouline's books. His first encounter with Girevoy Sport was when he found out about the American Team who had been the first westerners in the GS world championships in Moscow in 2005. Marko contacted the NAKF representative Lorraine Patten, who had been part of the team. She and Steve Cotter talked Marko into coming with them to the World Championships in Latvia, in 2006.
The World Championships competition was an eye opening experience for Marko, who had previously only used kettlebells for general fitness, and had not seen elite level lifters. After the competition, Marko was even more enthusiastic about GS, and he luckily found people from Finland who shared similar interests. They started arranging the first national GS lifting events and formed a sport association for it in 2007: The Finnish Kettlebell Association (http://www.kahvakuula.fi).
In the first Finnish competitions, there were only a few participants but currently there are several lifters who participate regularly in international competitions. For example, in the 2009 IUKL World Championships the Finns had a team of 10 lifters, and they brought home some gold medals. Also in 2009 the first Finnish Championships were arranged by the association.
Marko has been competing regularly since 2006 and taken part in arranging competitions. His best result with 24kg bells is 70 jerks and 120 snatches, and with 32kg 24 jerks and 40 snatches.
Marko's goals with GS are spreading awareness of the sport and the lifting technique in Finland, getting to know people who are interested in the sport and also improving his own technique and competing as often and as long as possible. He sees GS as a sport which offers longevity, health, good fitness levels and good friends. He teaches general lifting and GS in a local association Hakalanmaen Ryhti. His heroes in GS are Eduard Trusevich, Roberts Innus, Fedor Fuglev and Anton Anasenko.
You can contact Marko trough his blog at http://marksgs.wordpress.com or directly by email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
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