Career
He also competed in shot put and high jump at the same Games, and in decathlon in 1924 and 1932, but less successfully. In the 1928 Olympics, he had to rerun the 100 m hurdles as the fourth hurdle was placed incorrectly in the first run. Finland took the top two spots in the decathlon that year with Yrjölä taking the gold (with a world record) and Akilles Järvinen the silver.
In his years of competing, Yrjölä set three officially ratified world records: 7820 points in 1926 (6460 according to the current scoring tables and with standard manual timing corrections of 024 seconds for 100 metres and 110 metre hurdles, 014 seconds for 400 metres and nothing for 1500 metres), 7995 points in 1927 (6586) and 8053 in the 1928 Summer Olympics (6587).
Yrjölä was the first decathlete to score higher than Jim Thorpe at the 1912 Summer Olympics. Thorpe"s performance wasn"t officially recognized as a record due to his semi-professional status.
Yrjölä set one more record in 1930 of 8117 points (6700), but this wasn"t officially ratified. 100 m: 11.6 s long jump: 676 shot put: 14.72 m (1930) high jump: 187 cm (1924) 400 m: 51.9 110 m hurdles: 15.5 discus throw: 43.26 pole vault: 330 javelin: 62.15 1500 m: 4.26:8 decathlon: 6700 points (8117 with then current scoring tables) in 1930 pentathlon: 3532 points (4067).