Andreas Thorkildsen

Andreas Thorkildsen medal table
Andreas Thorkildsen (2008)
Javelin throw
Norway
Olympic games
gold	2004 Athens	Javelin throw
gold	2008 Beijing	Javelin throw
World championships
silver	2005 Helsinki	Javelin throw
silver	2007 Osaka	Javelin throw
gold	2009 Berlin	Javelin throw
silver	2011 Daegu	Javelin throw
European championships
gold	2006 Gothenburg	Javelin throw
gold	2010 Barcelona	Javelin throw
Junior World Championships
silver	2000 Santiago	Javelin throw

Andreas Thorkildsen at the World Championships in Helsinki 2005

Andreas Thorkildsen (born April 1, 1982 in Kristiansand ) is a Norwegian javelin thrower and Olympic champion .

biography

The vice-junior world champion from 2000 took part in the World Championships in Edmonton in 2001 and in Paris in 2003 , but did not get past an eleventh place (2003).

His victory at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens came as a bit of a surprise with 86.50 m, more than one and a half meters behind Vadims Vasiļevskis (LAT) and Sergei Makarow (RUS).

In the following years Thorkildsen established himself among the best in the world. At the World Championships in Helsinki in 2005 he finished second behind Andrus Värnik from Estonia, and at the 2006 European Championships in Gothenburg he won the title with a width of 88.78 m. At the 2007 World Championships he was again second, this time behind Tero Pitkämäki (FIN). In the Olympic Games of Beijing he won with a distance of 90.57 meters gold. He also won gold at the 2009 World Championships and was again European Champion at the 2010 European Championships in Barcelona. At the 2011 World Championships , Thorkildsen won the silver medal. In 2012 he finished fourth at the European Championships and sixth at the Olympic Games in London.

Thorkildsen improved the Norwegian national record several times, most recently on June 2, 2006 in Oslo to 91.59 m. He also holds the junior world record with 83.87 m (2001).

In 2004 and 2008 he won the Norwegian Sportsman of the Year election . In 2008 he was also European Athlete of the Year Trophy and the Aftenposten gold medal and the Fearnley Award honored.

Andreas Thorkildsen is 1.88 m tall and has a competition weight of 90 kg. His father, Tomm Thorkildsen , was also a good javelin thrower (best performance: 71.64 m, 1974) and excited his son for the same sport. His mother is Bente Amundsen , who was the Norwegian hurdler champion in the 1970s . Andreas Thorkildsen has been throwing javelins since he was eleven, his home club was Kristiansand IF . In 2001 he moved to Oslo and has been coached by Åsmund Martinsen at SK Vidar ever since . Andreas Thorkildsen was in a relationship with the Norwegian hurdler Christina Vukicevic until March 2011 .

In mid-2016, he ended his sporting career at the age of 34 due to hip problems.

Web links

Commons : Andreas Thorkildsen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Andreas Thorkildsen in the database of World Athletics (English)
• Andreas Thorkildsen in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Christian Fuchs: Mo Farah wins election - Robert Harting fifth , www.leichtathletik.de October 5, 2012
2. ↑ Thorkildsen has to end his career. Spigele Online, May 11, 2016, accessed August 9, 2017 .