Kaarlo Olavi Kangasniemi (born 4 February 1941) is a retired Finnish weightlifter.

In the same period he set 16 ratified world records: four in the press, seven in the snatch and five in the total.

Kangasniemi was chosen as the world's best weightlifter in 1969 and as the Finnish Sports Personality of the Year in 1968 and 1969.

After retiring from senior competitions in 1973 he worked as a weightlifting coach and weightlifting commentator with Eurosport; he continued competing in the masters category, winning a world title and setting a clean and jerk world record.

[2] In 1987 he was a candidate to the Parliament of Finland from the Finnish Rural Party, but was not elected.