Virgilijus Alekna
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Virgilijus Alekna at 2014 Lithuanian Championships in Athletics | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Nationality |
 Lithuanian |
| Born |
13 February 1972 Terpeikiai, Lithuanian SSR, Soviet Union |
| Height | 2.02 m (6 ft 7 1⁄2 in) |
| Weight | 130 kg (290 lb) |
| Sport | |
| Sport | Athletics |
| Event(s) | Discus throw |
| Achievements and titles | |
| Personal best(s) | 73.88 m (2000) |
Medal record
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| Updated on 12 August 2012. | |
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Virgilijus Alekna (Lithuanian pronunciation: [vʲɪrʲˈɡʲɪlʲɪjʊs ɐlʲɛkˈnɐ]; 13 February 1972 in Terpeikiai, near Kupiškis) is a Lithuanian discus thrower. He won medals at the 2000, 2004 and 2008 Olympics, including two golds.
Career
Alekna has won two gold medals in the Summer Olympics in the discus throw, the first was in 2000 and the second in 2004. He also won the bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. 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.).
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 unusually long armspan, measured 2.22m (7 ft 3.5 in), which is helpful in 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
- 1 2 (Lithuanian) Eglė Šilinskaitė. Nenugalimąjį metiką įveikė kojos trauma (Unbeatable thrower was defeat by leg injury). Retrieved on 2007-08-29
External links
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Virgilijus Alekna. |
- Virgilijus Alekna profile at IAAF
- ALEKNA biography rzutyiskoki.pl
| 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 sportsman of the Year 2000 |
Succeeded by Rasa Polikevičiūtė |
| Preceded by Šarūnas Jasikevičius |
Best Lithuanian sportsman of the Year 2004, 2005, 2006 |
Succeeded by Ramūnas Šiškauskas |
| Olympic Games | ||
| Preceded by Šarūnas Jasikevičius |
Flagbearer for Lithuania London 2012 |
Succeeded by Incumbent |
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