OLYMPIC GAMES
Discus thrower Mykolas Alekna takes Olympic record from his own father in Paris
Despite setting a new record at the Games, Lithuanian Alekna only took home the silver medal behind Jamaica’s Roje Stona.
Lithuanian discus thrower Mykolas Alekna set a new Olympic record in the men’s final at the 2024 Games in Paris, knocking his own father off top spot!
The Alekna family’s Olympic history
Virgiljus Alekna won Olympic medals in the men’s discus event at the 2000, 2004 and 2008, taking home golds in the first two of those Games and bronze in the latter.
In Athens in 2004, Alekna Sr, now 52, had looked set to claim silver despite a throw of 69.89m, which had beaten the previous Olympic record. However, potential gold medalist Robert Fazekas of Hungary was disqualified after being caught tampering with a urine sample.
Virgiljus misses out on gold despite Olympic record
20 years later and 21-year-old Virgiljus sensationally snatched the Olympic men’s discus record away from his own father, although only briefly.
In his second throw of the final, Alekna Jr threw 69.97m, 8cm more than his dad. The highlights of his career until now had been a gold medal at the 2022 European Championships in Munich, while he clinched silver at the World Championships in Eugene, Oregon in the same year.
Alekna, however, would only take the silver medal after Jamaica’s Roje Stona broke the Olympic record for the second time on the night with a throw of exactly 70.00m to take the gold.