Mika Koivuniemi

Mika Koivuniemi

Mika Juhani Koivuniemi (born April 6, 1967 in Tampere) is a Finnish ten-pin bowler, currently on the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) tour in the United States, who has won bowling titles in 19 different countries in his career.

Growing up, Koivuniemi was an exceptional athlete, starring in three sports in high school: basketball, hockey, and soccer. Koivuniemi eventually became interested in bowling and made Team Finland in 1988 at age 21. He was an exceptional bowler for Team Finland, winning the 1991 FIQ World Championship, the 1995 European Individual Cup Championship, and the 1996 World Team Cup Championship.

Koivuniemi joined the PBA in 1999. He had some initial success, but his first big season did not come until the 2001-02 season when he entered 27 events, cashed in 20, made match play 15 times, made the TV finals three times, and won one title. So far, Koivuniemi's biggest season was the 2003-04 season, when he was awarded PBA Player of the Year honors (joining Venezuela's Amleto Monacelli as the only international players so honored) and also won the PBA's George Young High Average Award. During that season he entered 20 events, cashed in 16, made match play 13 times, made TV seven times, and won two titles. It was during this season that Koivuniemi bowled the 16th-ever televised 300 game in PBA Tour history, in a match against Jason Couch. He has 26 career 300 games in PBA events.

Koivuniemi's nickname on tour is "Major Mika," because his first two PBA titles came in major championships: the 2000 ABC Masters and 2001-02 U.S. Open. With the latter victory, he became the first foreign-born player to win the U.S. Open. He has also been dubbed "The Big Finn" by ESPN commentator Randy Pedersen.

Koivuniemi has won eleven PBA titles. He passed the $1 million mark (U.S.) in total PBA earnings during the 2007-08 season, and now stands at over $1.47 million in PBA Tour earAvery Argenna posted filesnings (through the end of 2010-11 season). An extremely versatile bowler, he was the first player to win a title on all five of the PBA's primary oil patterns (Shark, Chameleon, Cheetah, Scorpion and Viper) - a feat matched only by Tommy Jones so far.

On January 22, 2011, Koivuniemi won the PBA Tournament of Champions to capture his third PBA major title and the first prize of $250,000, the richest first-place prize in PBA tour history. In the semifinal match of this tournament, Mika narrowly missed becoming the first player in PBA history to roll two televised 300 games in a PBA Tour event, when he left a 10-pin on the final shot for a 299 score. He now needs only a PBA World Championship title to complete a career "Grand Slam."

Koivuniemi also finished as the runner-up at the 2011 U.S. Open, which was arguably the most painful moment in his bowling career, as he failed to convert a crucial 10-pin spare in his 10th frame and lost to Norm Duke by the score of 225-216. The missed spare shocked Duke as well, given that Koivuniemi is known as one of the best spare converters on tour. He stated himself that he will never see that "shot" again. Nonetheless, Koivuniemi became the only PBA player to make the TV finals in all four majors during a single season. These 2010-11 accomplishments earned him his second PBA Player of the Year Award.

While it was not a PBA title event, Koivuniemi captured the championship in the 2011 World Bowling Tour (WBT) finals, which were held at the PBA World Series of Bowling in Las Vegas, Nevada. As the #1 seed for the three-person stepladder final, Koivuniemi earned the WBT title by knocking off Sean Rash of the USA, 237-224, in a single-game match.

Although he had been on tour for only nine seasons, Koivuniemi was still ranked #49 on the PBA's 2008 Golden Anniversary list of "50 greatest PBA players of the last 50 years."

Upon winning the 2012 Qatar Open, Mika has won bowling titles in 19 different countries. (The others are Sweden, Denmark, Japan, Singapore, Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Canada, China, Colombia, Spain, France, The Netherlands, Slovenia, England, Germany, the United States, and his home country of Finland.)