Virgilijus Alekna

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Medal record
Virgilijus Alekna
Men's Athletics
Competitor for Lithuania
Olympic Games
Gold	2000 Sydney	Discus
Gold	2004 Athens	Discus
Bronze	2008 Beijing	Discus
World Championships
Gold	2003 Paris	Discus
Gold	2005 Helsinki	Discus
Silver	1997 Athens	Discus
Silver	2001 Edmonton	Discus
European Championships
Gold	2006 Gothenburg	Discus
Silver	2002 Munich	Discus
Bronze	1998 Budapest	Discus
IAAF World Athletics Final
Gold	2003 Monte Carlo	Discus
Gold	2005 Monte Carlo	Discus
Gold	2006 Stuttgart	Discus
Silver	2007 Stuttgart	Discus
Gold	2009 Thessaloniki	Discus

Virgilijus Alekna (13 February 1972 in Terpeikiai, near Kupiškis) is a Lithuanian athlete who specialises in the discus throw. He won medals at the 2000, 2004 and 2008 Olympics, including two golds.

Career

Alekna has so far won two gold medals in the Summer Olympics, both in the discus throw. The first was in the 2000 and the second in 2004. Alekna's performance at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics was less successful, winning him the bronze medal at his fourth attempt of 67.79 m. In 2007, he was appointed as UNESCO Champion for Sport. 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^[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
2007	World Championship	4	65.24
2007	World Athletics Final	2	65.94
2008	Summer Olympics	3	67.79
2008	World Athletics Final	8	61.03
2009	World Championship	4	66.36
2009	World Athletics Final	1	67.63

Alekna at his eighth World Championships in 2009, Berlin.

Alekna was awarded the title of the Athlete of the Year for 2000 by Track and Field News. He was also awarded the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas by the government of Lithuania. He became the Lithuanian Sportsman of the Year 4 times (2000, 2004, 2005, and 2006). Since 1995 Alekna has served as a bodyguard of the Lithuanian Prime Minister.

He is married to former long jumper Kristina Sablovskytė-Aleknienė and has two young sons named Martynas and Mykolas.

At a height of 2.00 m (6 ft 7 in), Alekna has an abnormally long wingspan, measured 2.22m (7 ft 3.5 in), which is useful for discus throwing. He can make fingerprints on windows of two opposite sides of a bus simultaneously.^[2]

During the 2007 World Championship Virgilijus Alekna competed with an injury. Having sustained the injury on 20 August, he competed in the World Championship's qualification on 28 August^[3] and, as a result, suffered a defeat, which broke his 37 victories in a row over the past two years.^[3].

Notes

^ 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 erased from all records, and consequently the Olympic Record was credited to Alekna (whose winning throw in Athens had beaten the old Olympic Record).
^ IAAF
^ ^a ^b (Lithuanian) Eglė Šilinskaitė. Nenugalimąjį metiką įveikė kojos trauma (Unbeatable thrower was defeat by leg injury). Retrieved on 2007-08-29

External links

http://alekna.lt - the official home page of Virgilijus Alekna
IAAF profile for Virgilijus Alekna

European Athlete of the Year (men)

Linford Christie (1993) · Colin Jackson (1994) · Jonathan Edwards (1995) · Jan Železný (1996) · Wilson Kipketer (1997) · Jonathan Edwards (1998) · Tomáš Dvořák (1999) · Jan Železný (2000) · André Bucher (2001) · Dwain Chambers (2002) · Christian Olsson (2003) · Christian Olsson (2004) · Virgilijus Alekna (2005) · Francis Obikwelu (2006) · Tero Pitkämäki (2007) · Andreas Thorkildsen (2008) · Phillips Idowu (2009) ·

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 • 2008: Gerd Kanter

v • d • e World Champions in Men's Discus Throw

1983: Imrich Bugár (TCH) • 1987: Jürgen Schult (GDR) • 1991: Lars Riedel (GER) • 1993: Lars Riedel (GER) • 1995: Lars Riedel (GER) • 1997: Lars Riedel (GER) • 1999: Anthony Washington (USA) • 2001: Lars Riedel (GER) • 2003: Virgilijus Alekna (LTU) • 2005: Virgilijus Alekna (LTU) • 2007: Gerd Kanter (EST) • 2009: Robert Harting (GER)

European Champions in Men's Discus Throw

1934: Harald Andersson (SWE) • 1938: Willy Schröder (GER) • 1946: Adolfo Consolini (ITA) • 1950: Adolfo Consolini (ITA) • 1954: Adolfo Consolini (ITA) • 1958: Edmund Piątkowski (POL) • 1962: Vladimir Trusenyev (URS) • 1966: Detlef Thorith (GDR) • 1969: Hartmut Losch (GDR) • 1971: Ludvík Daněk (TCH) • 1974: Pentti Kahma (FIN) • 1978: Wolfgang Schmidt (GDR) • 1982: Imrich Bugár (TCH) • 1986: Romas Ubartas (URS) • 1990: Jürgen Schult (GDR) • 1994: Vladimir Dubrovshchik (BLR) • 1998: Lars Riedel (GER) • 2002: Róbert Fazekas (HUN) • 2006: Virgilijus Alekna (LTU)

Awards
Preceded by Hicham El Guerrouj	Men's Track & Field Athlete of the Year 2000	Succeeded by Hicham El Guerrouj
Preceded by Christian Olsson	Men's European Athlete of the Year 2005	Succeeded by Francis Obikwelu
Preceded by Edita Pučinskaitė	Best Lithuanian sportman of the Year 2000	Succeeded by Rasa Polikevičiūtė
Preceded by Šarūnas Jasikevičius	Best Lithuanian sportman of the Year 2004, 2005, 2006	Succeeded by Ramūnas Šiškauskas

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