Jump to content

Virgilijus Alekna

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Tadas12 (talk | contribs) at 20:17, 19 August 2009. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Virgilijus Alekna

Medal record
Men's Athletics
Representing  Lithuania
Olympic Games
Gold medal – first place 2000 Sydney Discus
Gold medal – first place 2004 Athens Discus
Bronze medal – third place 2008 Beijing Discus
World Championships
Gold medal – first place 2003 Paris Discus
Gold medal – first place 2005 Helsinki Discus
Silver medal – second place 1997 Athens Discus
Silver medal – second place 2001 Edmonton Discus
European Championships
Gold medal – first place 2006 Gothenburg Discus
Silver medal – second place 2002 Munich Discus
Bronze medal – third place 1998 Budapest 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

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

  1. ^ 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).
  2. ^ IAAF
  3. ^ a b Template:Lt icon Eglė Šilinskaitė. Nenugalimąjį metiką įveikė kojos trauma (Unbeatable thrower was defeat by leg injury). Retrieved on 2007-08-29



Awards
Preceded by Men's Track & Field Athlete of the Year
2000 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Men's European Athlete of the Year
2005 		Succeeded by


Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Virgilijus_Alekna&oldid=308938690"