At the 1930 Finnish ChampionshipsatTampere he won the pentathlon with 4011 points, an unofficial world record.[2] He also triumphed at that year's International University Games, scoring 3979 points to secure gold ahead of Latvia's Jānis Dimza.[3] Tolamo's world record was broken the following year by javelin throwerMatti Sippala;[2] however, with modern scoring tables Tolamo's score would have remained the record, and it eventually re-emerged as a national pentathlon best, only broken in 2007.[4]
Tolamo legitimately broke the Finnish long jump record in 1933 in a dual meet between Finland and Norway, jumping 7.46 m.[2][5] At that year's International University Games he won silver in the long jump and bronze in the pentathlon.[3] He broke his own national long jump record in September 1934, in another dual meet (between Finland and Germany); he jumped 7.51 m and defeated both Wilhelm Leichum, who had won the European championship the previous week, and future Olympic silver medalist Luz Long.[2] That jump remained the Finnish record until 1954, when Jorma Valkama broke it.[6]
Tolamo returned to the Olympics in 1936, competing in both the decathlon and the long jump.[1] He failed to make the final in the long jump and did not finish in the decathlon.[1]
