Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Mänttä, Finland
About Pekka Koskela
- Pekka Koskela (born 29 November 1982) is a Finnish speed skater, specialising on the sprint distances 500 m and 1000 m.
- He is the former world record holder on the 1000 m with the time 1:07.00.
- In December 2001 he set a junior world record on the 500 m with the time 35.89.
- Since that time he has established himself as one of the best speed skating sprinters in the world.
- He won his first medal, a bronze, on the 1000 m in the 2005 World Single Distance Championships.
- Koskela was number 10 in the 500 m of the 2006 Winter Olympics. Koskela was one of the two dominating skaters at the 2007 World Sprint Championship in Vikingskipet, Hamar.
- He won both 500 metres, and set a rink record with 34.80, and was leading the proceedings up to the last distance, where he lost the world championship title to Lee Kyou-hyuk.
- Skating in the very last 1000 m pair, Koskela needed 1:09.03 to equal Lee, which by coincidence was the exact time Koskela achieved on the first day of the championships.
- Koskela was 0.14 seconds too late to become world champion, however. Koskela has won four medals in World Championships.
- As of August 2013, he has won the 500 m 11 times and the 1000 m 3 times in the Speed Skating World Cup.
- He has been at the podium of World Cup competition 29 times altogether (500 and 1000 m) and he has been in the top ten 70 times at World Cup competitions.
- He has also two Finnish championship gold medals in track cycling. Koskela's brother Pasi Koskela was also world cup-level speed skater, and he is now head coach of the Finnish national speed skating team.
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