Anita Włodarczyk

Anita Włodarczyk

Anita Włodarczyk in Rio 2016
Personal information
Nationality	Polish
Born	(1985-08-08) 8 August 1985 Rawicz, Poland
Height	1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)[1]
Weight	100 kg (220 lb)[1]
Sport
Sport	Athletics
Event(s)	Hammer throw
Club	Skra Warsaw
Medal record Women's athletics Representing  Poland Event 1st 2nd 3rd Olympic Games 2 0 0 World Championships 2 1 0 European Championships 3 0 1 Continental Cup 0 0 0 European Team Championships 2 1 0 Total 8 3 1 Olympic Games 2012 London Hammer throw 2016 Rio de Janeiro Hammer throw World Championships 2009 Berlin Hammer throw 2015 Beijing Hammer throw 2013 Moscow Hammer throw European Championships 2012 Helsinki Hammer throw 2014 Zürich Hammer throw 2016 Amsterdam Hammer throw 2010 Barcelona Hammer throw European Team Championships 2009 Leiria Hammer throw 2015 Cheboksary Hammer throw 2013 Gateshead Hammer throw European Cup Winter Throwing 2008 Split Hammer throws 2009 Split Hammer throw Jeux de la Francophonie 2013 Nice Hammer throw

Anita Włodarczyk (Polish pronunciation: [aˈnita vwɔˈdart͡ʂɨk]; born 8 August 1985) is a Polish hammer thrower. She is the 2012 and 2016 Olympic champion and the first woman in history to throw the hammer over 80 m; she currently holds the women's world record of 82.98 m. She is considered the greatest women’s hammer thrower of all time.^[2]

Career

Włodarczyk won her first national U23 championships in 2007, and went on to compete in the 2007 European Athletics U23 Championships, although she did not progress beyond the qualifying round. She finished sixth in the hammer throw competition at the 2008 Olympic Games.

Włodarczyk qualified for the 2008 World Athletics Final and won a bronze medal. The following year, she took part in the 2009 European Team Championships, winning her first gold medal at a major international competition.

Włodarczyk achieved a personal best throw of 76.20 metres (250.0 ft), achieved on 30 May 2009 in Biała Podlaska, beating her previous record by 81 cm and improve 76.59 m in Golden Spike Ostrava. Prior to the 2009 World Championships in Athletics, she produced a national record-breaking performance in Cottbus, winning the competition with a world-leading 77.20-metre (253.3 ft) throw. This was fourth longest throw by a woman in hammer throw.

On 22 August 2009, during the World Championships in Athletics in Berlin, Germany, Włodarczyk set a world record with a throw of 77.96 metres (255 ft 9 in).^[3] Her season ended prematurely when she twisted her left ankle during her celebration.^[4] Returning to competition at the Meeting Grand Prix IAAF de Dakar in April 2010, she easily won her event with a throw of 75.13 m.^[5] She then proceeded to break her existing world record with a 78.30-metre (256.9 ft) hammer throw at the Enea Cup in Bydgoszcz on 6 June 2010.^[6] She won the bronze at the 2010 European Athletics Championships and was ranked second overall for the season in the IAAF Hammer Throw Challenge, finishing behind Betty Heidler.^[7] She finished outside of the medals at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics, coming fifth overall.

In 2012, Włodarczyk finished third at the Ostrava Golden Spike and was the runner-up at the Prefontaine Classic.^[8] At the 2012 Summer Olympics, she won the silver medal with a throw of 77.60 m.^[9] On 11 October 2016, she was retroactively awarded gold after Russia's Tatyana Lysenko was stripped of the medal after testing positive in reanalysis of her stored doping samples. ^[10]

In 2014, Włodarczyk won the European Championship with a throw of 78.76, which was a championship and national record.^[11]

On 1 August 2015 Włodarczyk set a new world record with a throw of 81.08 metres (266.0 ft) and became the first woman to throw the hammer over 80 metres (260 ft).^[12] She went on to win the gold medal at the World Championships, once again throwing over 80 metres (260 ft).

On 15 August 2016 Włodarczyk won the gold medal at the Olympic Games in Rio, setting a new world record with a throw of 82.29 metres (270.0 ft).^[13] On 28 August 2016, she threw 82.98 metres (272.2 ft), setting a new world record just two weeks after the Olympics at the EAA 7th Kamila Skolimowska Memorial in Warsaw.

In competition, Włodarczyk uses some of the equipment that belonged to the late Kamila Skolimowska, as a tribute to her fellow hammer thrower.^[14]

Awards

For her sport achievements, she received:
Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (5th Class) in 2009.^[15]

International competitions

Year	Competition	Venue	Position	Notes
2007	European U23 Championships	Debrecen, Hungary	9th	63.74 m
2008	European Winter Throwing Cup	Split, Croatia	1st	71.84 m
	Olympic Games	Beijing, China	6th	71.56 m
	World Athletics Final	Stuttgart, Germany	3rd	70.97 m
2009	European Team Championships	Leiria, Portugal	1st	75.23 m
	World Championships	Berlin, Germany	1st	77.96 m
2010	European Championships	Barcelona, Spain	3rd	73.56 m
2011	World Championships	Daegu, South Korea	5th	73.56 m
2012	European Championships	Helsinki, Finland	1st	74.29 m
	Olympic Games	London, United Kingdom	1st	77.60 m
2013	World Championships	Moscow, Russia	2nd	78.46 m
	Jeux de la Francophonie	Nice, France	1st	75.62 m
2014	European Championships	Zürich, Switzerland	1st	78.76 m
2015	World Championships	Beijing, China	1st	80.85 m
2016	European Championships	Amsterdam, Netherlands	1st	78.14 m
	Olympic Games	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	1st	82.29 m OR

References

External links

• Anita Włodarczyk profile at IAAF