Editing Ville Ritola (section)

== Amsterdam Olympics 1928 ==
[[File:Ville Ritola and Paavo Nurmi 1928.jpg|thumb|right|Ritola leads [[Paavo Nurmi]] in the 1928 Olympic 10000 m race.]]
In 1928, Ritola was 32 years old and had worked in construction for more than a decade. He had not trained systematically even though he still had won four gold medals in the AAU Championships 1927.<ref name=autogenerated3 />

In the [[1928 Summer Olympics]], Ritola's main competitor was again [[Paavo Nurmi]]. This time each got one win. The first race was 10,000m. Ritola took the lead at 1,500m, and only four competitors followed. At 3,000m, Ray (US) dropped from the leading group and before 4,000m, Beavers (UK). As [[Edvin Wide|Wide]] (Sweden) dropped at 6,500m, only Nurmi followed Ritola. At 100m before the finish Nurmi sprinted and won by 0.6 seconds. Wide was third, losing by a 45.2s margin.<ref name=autogenerated2>Jukola, Martti (toim.): ''Olympialaiskisat: III osa''. WSOY, 1928.</ref>

Ritola's last Olympic appearance was in the 5,000 m at the 1928 Summer Olympics. Both Ritola and Nurmi had hurt themselves in the steeplechase qualification competitions. Nurmi had a sore hip and Ritola a sore ankle. However, Ritola again took the lead at 2,500m. At 600m before the finish, only Ritola and Nurmi were left in the leading group. This time, Ritola pulled away from Nurmi in the final curve and won by 12 metres – 3 seconds. Wide nearly caught Nurmi, and Nurmi only held on to silver by a 0.2s margin.<ref name=autogenerated2 /> This victory brought Ritola's career total to five Olympic gold medals and three silver medals.<ref name=r1/>

Ritola never competed in the Finnish championships, but won a handful of medals in the [[Amateur Athletic Union|AAU]] Championships in the United States.<ref name=r1/> He was the AAU champion at {{convert|6|mi|km}} in 1927, at {{convert|10|mi|km}} road race in 1922, 1923 and from 1925 to 1927, at {{convert|2000|yd|abbr=on}} steeplechase in 1923, 1926 and 1927 and at cross country in 1922, 1923 and from 1925 to 1927.