Virgilijus Alekna

Virgilijus Alekna (; 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.

He has three children – Martynas Alekna, the discus world record holder Mykolas Alekna, and Gabrielė Aleknaite.

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 for the same event at the Beijing 2008 Olympics. In 2007, he was appointed as UNESCO Champion for Sport.

Alekna's personal record is , surpassed only by the former world record of 74.08 meters, set by Jürgen Schult in 1986, and his son Mykolas's current world record of 74.35 meters, achieved in 2024. His 20-year Olympic record of 69.89 meters, set in Athens 2004, was broken twice at the Paris 2024 Olympics — first by his son Mykolas with a throw of 69.97 meters, and then by Rojé Stona with a throw of 70.0 meters.

Major performances 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 (OR) 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 2013 World Championship 16 61.91 2014 European Championship 21 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_European_Athletics_Championships_%E2%80%93_Men%27s_discus_throw|59.35

Honors 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. In 2017 Alekna was awarded the European Athletics Lifetime Achievement award.

Personal life He is married to former long jumper Kristina Sablovskytė-Aleknienė and has two sons named Martynas and Mykolas, also discus throwers.

Physiology At a height of , Alekna has an unusually long armspan, measured 2.24 m (7 ft 4 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. 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.