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 | Lithuanian Athletics Championships | 1 | 73.88 (NR) |
| 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 | 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 |
| 2010 | European Championship | 5 | 64.64 |
| 2011 | World Championship | 6 | 64.09 |
| 2012 | Summer Olympics | 4 | 67.38 |
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.
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 and, as a result, suffered a defeat, which broke his 37 victories in a row over the past two years.
Read more about this topic: Virgilijus Alekna
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