Veera Marita Ruoho (née Liukkonen; born 4 August 1969 in

Hirvensalmi Hirvensalmi is a municipality of Finland. It is located in the Southern Savonia region. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . Neighbour municipalities: Joutsa, Kangasniemi ...

) is a Finnish politician and an Olympic

Taekwondo Taekwondo (; ; ) is a Korean martial art and combat sport involving primarily kicking techniques and punching. "Taekwondo" can be translated as ''tae'' ("strike with foot"), ''kwon'' ("strike with hand"), and ''do'' ("the art or way"). In ad ...

practitioner. She participated in the Women's Heavyweight competition in

Taekwondo at the 2000 Summer Olympics Taekwondo was contested as an official sport at the Olympic Games for the first time at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. It had previously been a demonstration sport in 1988 and 1992. Medals were awarded in four weight classes each for me ...

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

, Australia, losing in the first round to Canadian Dominique Bosshart. She was elected to parliament representing the

Finns Party The Finns Party ( , PS; , Sannf), formerly known as the True Finns, is a right-wing populist political party in Finland. It was founded in 1995 following the dissolution of the Finnish Rural Party. The party achieved its electoral breakthro ...

in April 2015. She left the party in June 2017 after the election of an ultra-nationalist as its leader, and subsequently announced that she would join the

National Coalition Party The National Coalition Party (NCP; , Kok; , Saml) is a liberal conservatism, liberal-conservative List of political parties in Finland, political party in Finland. It is the current governing political party of Finland. Founded in 1918, the ...

led by

Petteri Orpo Antti Petteri Orpo (; born 3 November 1969) is a Finland, Finnish politician currently serving as the prime minister of Finland since 2023 and as the leader of the National Coalition Party since 2016. He briefly served as speaker of the Parliame ...

. Ruoho took part in the 2019 parliamentary election as a candidate of the National Coalition Party, but was not re-elected. She was a police officer before entering politics.

References

External links

* ''English version'' * ''Finnish version, with more information in CV section'' 1969 births Living people People from Hirvensalmi Finns Party politicians National Coalition Party politicians Members of the Parliament of Finland (2015–2019) Olympic taekwondo practitioners for Finland Finnish female taekwondo practitioners Taekwondo practitioners at the 2000 Summer Olympics Women members of the Parliament of Finland 21st-century Finnish women politicians {{Finland-taekwondo-bio-stub