Tragic
bereavement causes Olympic champion to miss indoor season
Chris Turner
8 February 2001 – Tampere, Finland - Olympic shot champion Arsi Harju has announced that he will not compete during this indoor season due to the sudden death of his fiancee on Saturday 3rd February who passed away after a long illness presumed to be cancer.
To avoid press intrusion during the illness Harju had refused to talk about his matrimonial status throughout last summer and so everybody outside his immediate family believed the engagement had been broken.
Given the tragic circumstances Harju made no further comment except for stating that he had made the announcement only because "it was fair to his fellow competitors to tell them the truth this early, so that they would know he would not been competing this winter".
