Juha Matti Ahokas (born September 18, 1969, in Kokkola) is a retired amateur Finnish Greco-Roman wrestler, who competed in the men's super heavyweight category.[1] Ahokas has won thirty Finnish championship titles, collected four medals (one gold, two silver, and one bronze) at the European Championships, and also represented his nation Finland in four editions of the Olympic Games (1988, 1992, 1996, and 2004). Throughout his sporting career, Ahokas trained for Nurmon Jymy Wrestling Club in Seinäjoki under his father and personal coach Risto Ahokas.
Determined to return to the Olympic scene and medal, Ahokas entered the 1996 Summer OlympicsinAtlanta as a top medal favorite in the men's 130 kg class. He beat Sweden's Tomas Johansson in his opening match, but suffered a tremendous fall from the unbeatable Russian and reigning Olympic champion Aleksandr Karelin in the third round.[2] Facing off against Ukraine's Petro Kotok in the fourth repechage, Ahokas could not score a single point to subdue his opponent and lost the match with a fourteenth-place finish.[3]
Despite a stunning upset from his third Games, Ahokas took home his first medal at the 1997 European Championships in Kouvola, and continued to flourish his sporting success in the late 1990s and early 2000s, until he wrestled Hungary's Mihály Deák-Bárdos for the gold in the 120-kg division at the 2003 European Championships in Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro.[4]
Eight years after his last Olympics and having missed the previous Games due to back injury, Ahokas qualified for the Finnish squad, as a 34-year-old veteran, in the men's 120 kg class at the 2004 Summer OlympicsinAthens. Earlier in the process, he received a ticket and rounded out the seventh spot from the 2003 World Wrestling ChampionshipsinCréteil, France.[5] Aged and frail, Ahokas lost two straight matches to his former rival Deák-Bárdos (0–3) and Iran's Sajjad Barzi through a 1–2 tight brawl in the prelim pool, finishing only in seventeenth place out of twenty super heavyweight wrestlers.[6][7]
Ahokas ended his illustrious sporting career with another silver medal at the 2006 European Championships in Moscow, before he officially retired by the following year due to spinal and shoulder injuries sustained in the past.[8][9]
Finland
