Dainis Kūla

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Olympic medal record
Men's athletics
Gold	1980 Moscow	Javelin throw

Dainis Kūla (born Tukums, April 28, 1959) is a former Latvian javelin thrower, an Olympic champion and a World Championship bronze medalist. At the international level, he represented the Soviet Union.

Early in the training season for the 1980 Summer Olympics, Kūla threw 90.30 meters and in the run-up to the Olympics, he threw even farther: 92.06 meters. The favorite though was Hungary's formidable Ferenc Paragi, who had thrown a new world record of 96.72 in April.

At the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, Kūla already garnered attention in the preliminaries — not so much for throwing well, but for having crossed the foul line on both of his first two throws, ensuring that everything hung on his third throw. Although the third throw flew far, it clearly landed flat and failed to pierce the field. In front of the home crowd, the officials raised a white flag anyways to show that the throw was good and it was measured, sending him to the finals. On his fourth throw in the finals, he threw 91.20 meters, which was the only throw to exceed 90 m, giving him the Olympic gold. The silver went to the Soviet Aleksandr Makarov, giving the Soviet Union both of the top spots. The pre-competition favorite Paragi only managed a 79.52 in the qualifiers, which was not enough to send him to the finals.

Kūla won his second major championship medal, a bronze, at the Helsinki World Championships in Athletics of 1983. His best throw this time was 85.60 meters, which was only two centimeters short of the American Tom Petranoff's silver throw.

Kūla, who stands 189cm tall and weighs 94 kilograms, continued to compete for many years afterwards and won the Soviet Championships three times (1982–1984). He continued to compete internationally up until the 1993 World Championships in Athletics in Stuttgart, where he failed to achieve any noticeable success there, as none of his throws crossed the 80 meter line.

Olympic champions in men's javelin throw

1908: Eric Lemming | 1912: Eric Lemming | 1920: Jonni Myyrä | 1924: Jonni Myyrä | 1928: Erik Lundqvist | 1932: Matti Järvinen | 1936: Gerhard Stöck | 1948: Tapio Rautavaara | 1952: Cyrus Young | 1956: Egil Danielsen | 1960: Viktor Tsybulenko | 1964: Pauli Nevala | 1968: Jānis Lūsis | 1972: Klaus Wolfermann | 1976: Miklós Németh | 1980: Dainis Kūla | 1984: Arto Härkönen | 1988: Tapio Korjus | 1992: Jan Železný | 1996: Jan Železný | 2000: Jan Železný | 2004: Andreas Thorkildsen