Arsi Ilari Harju (born March 18, 1974) is a Finnish former track and field athlete who competed in the

shot put The shot put is a track and field event involving "putting" (throwing) a heavy spherical ball—the ''shot''—as far as possible. The shot put competition for men has been a part of the modern Olympics since their revival in 1896, and women's ...

. He won the gold medal at the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

. He set his personal best of 21.39 in the qualification. In the final, Harju secured the gold medal with his second round shot put of 21.29, beating silver medalist

Adam Nelson Adam McCright Nelson (born July 7, 1975) is an American shot putter and Olympic gold medalist. Nelson competed in three consecutive Olympic Games in 2000, 2004 and 2008. In addition to his gold medal at the 2004 Olympics, Nelson won a silver me ...

by 8 cm and bronze medalist

John Godina John Carl Godina (born May 31, 1972) is an American shot putter, whose record includes three World Championship wins and two Olympic medals. He also competes in discus. Godina was born in Fort Sill, Oklahoma. High school years While attendi ...

by 9 cm. In 2000, Harju was also named the

Finnish Sports Personality of the Year The Finnish Athlete of the Year, Sportspersonality of the Year is chosen annually since 1947 by the national sports journalism, sports journalists. In addition, the best female athlete was nominated each year until 2009. Winners Men Women ...

. Harju was the 12th member to be inducted into the

20 metre club The 20 meter club (''20 metrin kerho'' in Finnish) is an unregistered Finnish association for Finnish shot put The shot put is a track and field event involving "putting" (throwing) a heavy spherical ball—the ''shot''—as far as possible. T ...

after achieving the distance of 20.16 on March 2, 1997, in

Tampere Tampere ( , , ; sv, Tammerfors, ) is a city in the Pirkanmaa region, located in the western part of Finland. Tampere is the most populous inland city in the Nordic countries. It has a population of 244,029; the urban area has a population o ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

. Harju was a patron of

UNICEF UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Devel ...

School walks in Finland. Harju retired from international competitions after the season 2005. He competed again from 2011 to 2012 marking 18.48 as his season best in both years.

Major achievements

References

*
Arsi Harju's webpage on the Perhon Kiri site

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harju, Arsi 1974 births Living people People from Kurikka Finnish male shot putters Olympic gold medalists for Finland Olympic athletes of Finland Athletes (track and field) at the 1996 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2000 Summer Olympics World Athletics Championships medalists UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists in athletics (track and field) Sportspeople from South Ostrobothnia