Virgilijus Alekna

Virgilijus Alekna (Lithuanian pronunciation: ​[vʲɪrʲˈɡʲɪlʲɪjʊs ɐlʲɛkˈnɐ]; 13 February 1972) is a Lithuanian former discus thrower and politician. He won medals at the 2000, 2004 and 2008 Olympics, including two golds. After retiring from athletics, Alekna was elected to the national parliament, the Seimas, in 2016.

Virgilijus Alekna
Virgilijus Alekna at 2014 Lithuanian Championships in Athletics
Personal information
NationalityLithuanian
Born (1972-02-13) 13 February 1972
Terpeikiai, Lithuanian SSR, Soviet Union
Height2.02 m (6 ft 7 1⁄2 in)
Weight130 kg (287 lb)
Sport
SportAthletics
Event(s)Discus throw
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)73.88 m (2000)
Medal record
Event 1st 2nd 3rd
Olympic Games 2 0 1
World Championships 2 2 0
European Championships 1 1 1
Continental Cup 4 1 0
Total 9 4 2
Olympic Games
2000 Sydney Discus
2004 Athens Discus
2008 BeijingDiscus
World Championships
2003 ParisDiscus
2005 HelsinkiDiscus
1997 AthensDiscus
2001 EdmontonDiscus
European Championships
2006 GothenburgDiscus
2002 MunichDiscus
1998 BudapestDiscus
IAAF World Athletics Final
2003 Monte CarloDiscus
2005 Monte CarloDiscus
2006 StuttgartDiscus
2009 ThessalonikiDiscus
2007 StuttgartDiscus
Updated on 12 August 2012.

Athletics 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).

Performance in major competitions
YearCompetitionPlaceDistance (meters)
1994European Championship1756.38
1995World Championship1959.20
1996Summer Olympics565.30
1997World Championship266.70
1998European Championship366.46
1999World Championship467.53
2000Lithuanian Athletics Championships173.88 (NR)
2000Summer Olympics169.30
2001World Championship269.40
2002European Championship266.62
2003World Championship169.69
2003World Athletics Final168.30
2004Summer Olympics1[1]69.89
2004World Athletics Final463.64
2005World Championship170.17
2005World Athletics Final167.64
2006European Championship168.67
2006World Athletics Final168.63
2007World Championship465.24
2007World Athletics Final265.94
2008Summer Olympics367.79
2008World Athletics Final861.03
2009World Championship466.36
2009World Athletics Final167.63
2010European Championship564.64
2011World Championship664.09
2012Summer Olympics467.38
2013World Championship1661.91
2014European Championship2159.35
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 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] In 2017 Alekna was awarded the European Athletics Lifetime Achievement award.[4][5]

Political career

In May 2016, Alekna announced he would participate in the elections to the Seimas the following October on the electoral list of the opposition Liberal Movement, without joining the party.[6] He lost the run-off in Naujamiestis single-member constituency, but was elected to the Twelfth Seimas through the electoral list of the party, where he was rated second.[7]

References
  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. (in Lithuanian) Eglė Šilinskaitė. Nenugalimąjį metiką įveikė kojos trauma (Unbeatable thrower was defeat by leg injury). Retrieved on 2007-08-29
  4. https://www.iaaf.org/news/news/european-athletes-year-2017-stefanidi-vetter
  5. https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1056575/vetter-and-stefanidi-crowned-european-athletes-of-the-year
  7. Į Seimą nepateko nė vienas liberalo Remigijaus Šimašiaus valdomo Vilniaus liberalas
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
Gintarė Scheidt
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