Virgilijus Alekna
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| Men's Athletics | ||
| Gold | 2000 | Discus |
| Gold | 2004 | Discus |
Virgilijus Alekna is a famous Lithuanian athlete. He was born on February 13, 1972 in Terpeikiai, near Kupiškis, Lithuania.
He won two gold medals in the Summer Olympics, both in the discus throw. The first was in the 2000 and the second in 2004. His personal record is 73.88 meters (242 ft 4½ in), surpassed only by the world record (74.08 m.).
| Performance in major competitions | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Competition | Place | Distance (meters) |
| 1994 | European Championship | 17 | 56.38 |
| 1995 | World Championship | 19 | 59.20 |
| 1996 | Summer Olympics | 5 | 65.30 |
| 1997 | World Championship | 2 | 66.70 |
| 1998 | European Championship | 3 | 66.46 |
| 1999 | World Championship | 4 | 67.53 |
| 2000 | Summer Olympics | 1 | 69.30 |
| 2001 | World Championship | 2 | 69.40 |
| 2002 | European Championship | 2 | 66.62 |
| 2003 | World Championship | 1 | 69.69 |
| 2003 | World Athletics Final | 1 | 68.30 |
| 2004 | Summer Olympics | 1* | 69.89 |
| 2004 | World Athletics Final | 4 | 63.64 |
| 2005 | World Championship | 1 | 70.17 |
| 2005 | World Athletics Final | 1 | 67.64 |
| 2006 | European Championship | 1 | 68.67 |
| 2006 | World Athletics Final | 1 | 68.63 |
- The 2004 Summer Olympics were marked by a scandal when Hungarian athlete Róbert Fazekas was stripped of his gold medal on the Men's discus event after being caught tampering with his urine sample and refusing to release it during his post-event doping exam. The gold medal was then awarded to Virgilijus Alekna. Although Fazekas set an Olympic Record, this was also erased from all records, and consequently, that Olympic Record was awarded to Alekna (who had still beaten the old Olympic Record).
Alekna was awarded the title of Athlete of the Year for 2000 by Track and Field News. He was also awarded Gediminas order by Lithuania government. Since 1995 has served as a body guard of the Lithuanian prime minister.
He is married to former long jumper Kristina Sablovskytė-Aleknienė and has two young sons – Martynas and Mykolas.
At a height of 2.00 m (6 ft 7 in), Alekna has abnormally long arms, measured 2.22m (7 ft 3.5 in), which help his throwing. He can make fingerprints on windows on both sides of a bus simultaneously.[1]
[edit] External links
- IAAF profile for Virgilijus Alekna
| Olympic champions in men's discus throw |
|---|
| 1896: Robert Garrett | 1900: Rudolf Bauer | 1904: Martin Sheridan | 1906: Martin Sheridan | 1908: Martin Sheridan | 1912: Armas Taipale | 1920: Elmer Niklander | 1924: Clarence Houser | 1928: Clarence Houser | 1932: John Anderson | 1936: Ken Carpenter | 1948: Adolfo Consolini | 1952: Sim Iness | 1956: Al Oerter | 1960: Al Oerter | 1964: Al Oerter | 1968 Al Oerter | 1972: Ludvík Daněk | 1976: Mac Wilkins | 1980: Viktor Rashchupkin | 1984: Rolf Danneberg | 1988: Jürgen Schult | 1992: Romas Ubartas | 1996: Lars Riedel | 2000: Virgilijus Alekna | 2004: Virgilijus Alekna |
