Claudia Heill (24 January 1982 – 31 March 2011) was an

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

judo is an unarmed modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponica, "Judo"). ...

ka best known for winning the silver medal in the half-middleweight (63 kg) division at the 2004 Summer Olympics.

Biography

In addition to her success at the 2004 Summer Olympics, Heill won silver medals at the European championship in 2001 and 2005 and bronze medals in 2002, 2003 and 2007. She placed fifth at the 2008 Summer Olympics and retired one year later. After retiring from competition, she began coaching junior judoka. Heill in 1998 aged 16 won the -63 kg category at the Senior Austrian National Championships. Later that same year Heill won silver at the Junior World Championships (Cali) where she lost to the Japanese Maeda Keiko. Within a month Heill took the gold medal at the Junior European Championships (Bucharest). Heill’s position as a world-class judoka in the -63 kg category was developing quickly. In 2000, at the Junior World Championships (Nabul) she won bronze and at the Junior European Championships (Nicosia) she won silver. By 2001, Heill began concentrating on her senior career and she took a silver medal in the European Championships (

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

) and placed fifth at the World Championships (Munich). Heill spent the next seven years competing internationally. She was one of four Austrians (

Sabrina Filzmoser Sabrina Filzmoser (born 12 June 1980 in Wels) is an Austrian retired judoka. She is a two-time bronze medalist at the World Judo Championships and she has also won medals, including two golds, in her event at the European Judo Championships. S ...

Ludwig Paischer Ludwig Paischer (born 28 November 1981 in Oberndorf bei Salzburg) is an Austrian judoka is an unarmed modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本 ...

and Andreas Mitterfellner making up the quartet) to take gold medals at the World Military Championships in 2006 helping her country top the medal table. Her finest hour was her silver medal-winning performance at the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004. “This had been her dream even as she began practicing her first judo attacks as a seven-year-old,” said her longtime coach Hubert Rohrauer. Heill was part of the organizing committee at the European Championships in Vienna in 2010. Heill committed suicide by jumping to her death from a 6th-story window in Vienna on March 31st, 2011. Shortly before her death, Heill was a commentator on JudoTV at the Judo World Cup in Oberwart. Her former teammate Ludwig Paischer was stunned by her tragic death, saying, "She was such a fun-loving, friendly person."

External links

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Heill, Claudia 1982 births 2011 suicides Suicides by jumping in Austria Austrian female judoka Judoka at the 2004 Summer Olympics Judoka at the 2008 Summer Olympics Olympic judoka of Austria Olympic silver medalists for Austria Olympic medalists in judo Sportspeople from Vienna Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics 20th-century Austrian women 21st-century Austrian women