Virgilijus Alekna

Virgilijus Alekna
Virgilijus Alekna, Bydgoszcz 2007
nation	Lithuania
birthday	February 13, 1972
place of birth	Terpeikiai , Kupiškis
size	200 cm
Weight	130 kg
Career
discipline	Discus throw
Best performance	73.88 m
society	Metikas Vilnius
status	resigned
End of career	August 31, 2014
Medal table
Olympic games 2 × 0 × 1 × World championships 2 × 2 × 0 × European championships 1 × 1 × 1 ×
Olympic games gold Sydney 2000 Discus throw gold Athens 2004 Discus throw bronze Beijing 2008 Discus throw  World championships silver Athens 1997 Discus throw silver Edmonton 2001 Discus throw gold Paris 2003 Discus throw gold Helsinki 2005 Discus throw  European championships bronze Budapest 1998 Discus throw silver Munich 2002 Discus throw gold Gothenburg 2006 Discus throw
last change: August 20, 2014

Virgilijus Alekna (born February 13, 1972 in Terpeikiai near Kupiškis , Lithuanian SSR , USSR ) is a former Lithuanian discus thrower . He was twice Olympic champion and world champion.

Life

Alekna has been a world leader in discus throwing since the mid-1990s. Especially his duels with the German Lars Riedel have been spectacular in the past. In the 1990s, Riedel in particular had the better end for himself in international competitions.

After winning numerous medals, Alekna won his first title at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney , where he relegated Lars Riedel to second place with a width of 69.30 m. He was able to repeat this success at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens , but only with a delay, as the Hungarian Róbert Fazekas had won the competition , which was then disqualified for doping .

He won his first title at the 2003 World Championships in Paris / Saint-Denis . He defended this at the 2005 World Championships in Helsinki . But he was brought to the brink of defeat by the surprisingly strong Estonian Gerd Kanter . Alekna initially led as expected. With his fourth litter, Kanter was able to take first position, and Alekna only succeeded in winning the world title again with his last litter. He was then voted Europe's athlete of the year .

A year later he was able to win the European championship title for the first time at the European Championships in Gothenburg in 2006 . He won again in front of Gerd Kanter. At the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing , he achieved bronze. After gold in 2004 and bronze in 2008, however, four years later he went empty-handed in London . Alekna took fourth place with 67.38 m.

He set his personal best in 2000 with 73.88 m, which put him in second place in the world best list behind world record holder Jürgen Schult . He ended his active career in Berlin on August 31, 2014.

Alekna is 2.00 m tall and has a competition weight of 130 kg. He worked as the bodyguard of the Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus . In 2012 he ran for chairmanship of the National Olympic Committee of Lithuania, but lost to former Olympic shooting champion Daina Gudzinevičiūtė .

Web links

Commons : Virgilijus Alekna  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Virgilijus Alekna in the database of World Athletics (English)
• Virgilijus Alekna 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. ↑ Top favorites do not stumble; Scrap strong eighth , HDsports.at, August 7, 2012
3. ↑ Jan-Henner Reitze: Virgilijus Alekna - Legend leaves the ring , www.leichtathletik.de November 4, 2012
4. ↑ Jan-Henner Reitze: Virgilijus Alekna - Legend leaves the ring , www.leichtathletik.de November 4, 2012