Anita Włodarczyk (; born 8 August 1985) is a Polish

hammer throw The hammer throw is one of the four throwing events in regular track and field competitions, along with the discus throw, shot put and javelin. The "hammer" used in this sport is not like any of the tools also called by that name. It consis ...

er. She is the

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and

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, 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. Włodarczyk Kopron London 2017

Career

Włodarczyk won her first national U23 championships in 2007, and went on to compete in the

2007 European Athletics U23 Championships The 6th European Athletics U23 Championships was held between 12 and 15 July 2007 in the Gyulai István Athletic Stadium in Debrecen, Hungary. Results Complete results and medal winners were published. Men Women †: In discus ...

, although she did not progress beyond the qualifying round. She finished sixth in the hammer throw competition at the

2008 Olympic Games The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...

. Włodarczyk qualified for the

2008 World Athletics Final The 6th IAAF World Athletics Final was held at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Stuttgart, Germany on September 13 and September 14, 2008. A number of road races also took place on the second day of competition. There were seven different starting poi ...

and won a bronze medal. The following year, she took part in the

2009 European Team Championships The first European Athletics Team Championships took place on 20 and 21 June 2009. The track and field athletics tournament run by European Athletics was the successor of the old European Cup competition which was held annually until 2008. The Ch ...

, winning her first gold medal at a major international competition. Włodarczyk achieved a personal best throw of , achieved on 30 May 2009 in

Biała Podlaska Biała Podlaska ( la, Alba Ducalis) is a city in eastern Poland with 56,498 inhabitants as of December 2021. It is situated in the Lublin Voivodeship (since 1999), having previously been the capital of Biała Podlaska Voivodeship (1975–1998). ...

, beating her previous record by 81 cm and improve 76.59 m in

Golden Spike Ostrava Golden Spike ( cz, Zlatá tretra) is an annual athletics event at the Městský Stadion in Ostrava- Vítkovice, Czech Republic as part of the IAAF World Challenge Meetings. It was first organized in 1961. The history of the meeting was interru ...

. Prior to the

2009 World Championships in Athletics The 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics () were held in Berlin, Germany from 15–23 August 2009. The majority of events took place in the Olympiastadion, while the marathon and racewalking events started and finished at the Brandenburg ...

, she produced a national record-breaking performance in

Cottbus Cottbus (; Lower Sorbian: ''Chóśebuz'' ; Polish: Chociebuż) is a university city and the second-largest city in Brandenburg, Germany. Situated around southeast of Berlin, on the River Spree, Cottbus is also a major railway junction with exten ...

, winning the competition with a world-leading throw. This was fourth longest throw by a woman in

. On 22 August 2009, during the

World Championships in Athletics The World Athletics Championships (until 2019 known as the World Championships in Athletics) are a biennial athletics competition organized by World Athletics (formerly IAAF, International Association of Athletics Federations). Alongside the Ol ...

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, Włodarczyk set a world record with a throw of . Her season ended prematurely when she twisted her left ankle during her celebration. Returning to competition at the

Meeting Grand Prix IAAF de Dakar A meeting is when two or more people come together to discuss one or more topics, often in a formal or business setting, but meetings also occur in a variety of other environments. Meetings can be used as form of group decision making. Defini ...

in April 2010, she easily won her event with a throw of 75.13 m. She then proceeded to break her existing world record with a hammer throw at the Enea Cup in

Bydgoszcz Bydgoszcz ( , , ; german: Bromberg) is a city in northern Poland, straddling the meeting of the River Vistula with its left-bank tributary, the Brda. With a city population of 339,053 as of December 2021 and an urban agglomeration with more ...

on 6 June 2010. She won the bronze at the

2010 European Athletics Championships The 2010 European Athletics Championships were the 20th edition of the European Athletics Championships, organised under the supervision of the European Athletic Association. They were held at the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys in Barcelona, Cat ...

and was ranked second overall for the season in the

IAAF Hammer Throw Challenge The IAAF Hammer Throw Challenge was an annual hammer throw series, organized by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) from 2010 until the end of 2019 season. The series of hammer throw competitions for men and women were pri ...

, finishing behind

Betty Heidler Betty Heidler (born 14 October 1983) is a retired German track and field athlete who competed in the hammer throw. She held the world record from 2011 until 2014 with her personal best throw of 79.42 m (260 ft 6 in). She is the 2012 Olympi ...

. She finished outside of the medals at the

2011 World Championships in Athletics The 13th IAAF World Championships in Athletics () was an international athletics competition that was held in Daegu, South Korea. It started on 27 August 2011 and finished on 4 September 2011. The United States topped the medal standings in th ...

, coming fifth overall. In 2012, Włodarczyk finished third at the

Ostrava Golden Spike Golden Spike ( cz, Zlatá tretra) is an annual athletics event at the Městský Stadion in Ostrava- Vítkovice, Czech Republic as part of the IAAF World Challenge Meetings. It was first organized in 1961. The history of the meeting was interru ...

and was the runner-up at the

Prefontaine Classic The Prefontaine Classic, an Oregon Track Club event, is one of the premier track and field meets in the United States, held in Eugene, Oregon. Every year it draws a world caliber field to compete at Hayward Field on the campus of the University o ...

. At the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

, she won the silver medal with a throw of 77.60 m. On 11 October 2016, she was retroactively awarded gold after Russia's

Tatyana Lysenko Tatyana Viktorovna Lysenko (russian: Татьяна Викторовна Лысенко, born 9 October 1983 in Bataysk) is a Russian hammer thrower. Her career has been blighted by repeated doping infractions. In February 2019, the Court of Ar ...

was stripped of the medal after testing positive in reanalysis of her stored doping samples. In 2014, Włodarczyk won the European Championship with a throw of 78.76, which was a championship and national record. On 1 August 2015 Włodarczyk set a new world record with a throw of and became the first woman to throw the hammer over . She went on to win the gold medal at the

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

, once again throwing over . On 15 August 2016 Włodarczyk won the gold medal at the Olympic Games in Rio, setting a new world record with a throw of . On 28 August 2016, she threw , 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 Skolimowska, as a tribute to her fellow hammer thrower. In 2014, 2016 and 2017 she was given Track & Field News Athlete of the Year award. In 2017, she received

Polish Sportspersonality of the Year The Polish Sports Personality of the Year (Polish: ''Plebiscyt Przeglądu Sportowego na najlepszego polskiego sportowca roku'') is chosen annually since 1926 by the readers of the newspaper ''Przegląd Sportowy'', which makes it the second oldest s ...

Award for her sports achievements in the previous year. She finished the year with a 42 contests winning streak which began in July 2014. , she holds all of the top 15 women's hammer throw results and 27 out of the top 30. At the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

, she won the

event with a throw of 78.48 m. Włodarczyk is the only woman to ever win this event three times in a row (in the men's competition, only

John Flanagan John Flanagan or Jack Flanagan may refer to: Sportspeople * Jack Flanagan (footballer) (1902–1989), English footballer * John Flanagan (hammer thrower) (1868–1938), Irish-American three-time Olympic champion in athletics * John Flanagan (Limeri ...

did so, winning the event at the

1900 As of March 1 ( O.S. February 17), when the Julian calendar acknowledged a leap day and the Gregorian calendar did not, the Julian calendar fell one day further behind, bringing the difference to 13 days until February 28 ( O.S. February 15), 2 ...

1904 Events January * January 7 – The distress signal ''CQD'' is established, only to be replaced 2 years later by ''SOS''. * January 8 – The Blackstone Library is dedicated, marking the beginning of the Chicago Public Library system. * ...

and

1908 Summer Olympics The 1908 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the IV Olympiad and also known as London 1908) were an international multi-sport event held in London, England, United Kingdom, from 27 April to 31 October 1908. The 1908 Games were ori ...

). She is also the first woman to win a specific individual athletics event three times in a row at the Olympic Games. With three Olympic gold medals, she ranks third in the all-time

medal table The Olympic medal table is a method of sorting the medal placements of countries in the modern-day Olympics and Paralympics. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) does not officially recognize a ranking of participating countries at the Olympic ...

among Polish athletes who competed at the Summer Olympics, behind racewalker

Robert Korzeniowski Robert Marek Korzeniowski (born 30 July 1968) is a Polish former racewalker who won four gold medals at the Olympic Games and three gold medals at World Championships. Biography Korzeniowski was born in Lubaczów, and is the brother of fello ...

and sprinter

Irena Szewińska Irena Szewińska (née Kirszenstein; Polish pronunciation: ; 24 May 1946 – 29 June 2018) was a Polish sprinter who was one of the world's foremost athletes for nearly two decades, in multiple events. She is the only athlete in history, m ...

Awards and accolades

For her sport achievements, she received:
Knight's Cross of the

Order of Polonia Restituta The Order of Polonia Restituta ( pl, Order Odrodzenia Polski, en, Order of Restored Poland) is a Polish state decoration, state Order (decoration), order established 4 February 1921. It is conferred on both military and civilians as well as on al ...

(5th Class) in 2009. In 2021

Mattel Mattel, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment company founded in January 1945 and headquartered in El Segundo, California. The company has presence in 35 countries and territories and sells products in more ...

announced the creation of a Shero Barbie doll with Włodarczyk's image for her “inspiration to others” in pursuing their dreams. She became the third Polish woman to have one after

Martyna Wojciechowska Martyna Wojciechowska (Polish pronunciation: ; born 28 September 1974 in Warsaw as Marta Eliza Wojciechowska) is a Polish TV presenter, mountaineer, traveller, journalist, sportswoman and writer. In 2010, she completed the Seven Summits. She pre ...

and Iwona Blecharczyk.

International competitions

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wlodarczyk, Anita 1985 births Living people People from Rawicz Sportspeople from Greater Poland Voivodeship Skra Warszawa athletes Polish female hammer throwers Olympic athletes of Poland Olympic gold medalists for Poland Athletes (track and field) at the 2008 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2012 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics World Athletics Championships athletes for Poland World Athletics Championships medalists European Athletics Championships medalists World Athletics record holders Knights of the Order of Polonia Restituta Olympic gold medalists in athletics (track and field) Olympic female hammer throwers Track & Field News Athlete of the Year winners World Athletics Championships winners European Athletics Championships winners IAAF Continental Cup winners Polish Athletics Championships winners Athletes (track and field) at the 2020 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics