Steve Backley

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Steve Backley ( Stephen James Backley ; born February 12, 1969 in Sidcup ) is a former British javelin thrower . He was European champion four times in a row.

Since the early 1990s he has been among the best in the world. In 1992 he set his personal best on January 25th in Auckland with 91.46 m. At the Olympic Games in Barcelona he won the bronze medal with 83.38 m, and at the World Athletics Championships in 1993 in Stuttgart he came in fourth place.

After that he won the silver medal at almost every world athletics event: at the 1995 World Championships in Gothenburg, the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, the 1997 World Championships in Athens and the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. With the Sydney silver medal, he became the first Briton to win three medals in an athletics competition at three Olympic Games. Only at the 1999 World Championships in Seville did he have to be content with eighth place. At his fourth Olympic start, the 2004 Athens Games , he finished fourth.

Steve Backley was outstanding at the European Athletics Championships. He won the title four times in a row: 1990 in Split , 1994 in Helsinki , 1998 in Budapest and 2002 in Munich . At the Commonwealth Games he won in Auckland in 1990 , in Victoria in 1994 and in Manchester in 2002 , while in 1998 he won silver in Kuala Lumpur behind the South African Marius Corbett .

Backley was named World Athlete of the Year in 1990 . In 1995 he was awarded the fifth level of the Order of the British Empire (Member, MBE) and in 2003 the fourth level (Officer, OBE).

Steve Backley had a competition weight of 100 kg with a height of 1.96 m.

In 2008 he took part in the third season of the figure skating show Dancing on Ice .

Individual evidence

  1. Usain Bolt World Athlete for the fourth time , www.leichtathletik.de November 24, 2012
  2. ^ Steve Backley out of Dancing on Ice , February 18, 2008, Raidió Teilifís Éireann

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