Kai Kazmirek (born 28 January 1991) is a German

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...

athlete who competes in the decathlon. He holds a personal best of 8580 points for the event achieved in

Rio 2016 ) , nations = 207 (including IOA and EOR teams) , athletes = 11,238 , events = 306 in 28 sports (41 disciplines) , opening = 5 August 2016 , closing = 21 August 2016 , opened_by = Vice President Michel Temer , cauldron = Vanderlei Cordeiro de ...

, as well as an

indoor heptathlon A heptathlon is a track and field combined events contest made up of seven events. The name derives from the Greek επτά (hepta, meaning "seven") and ἄθλος (áthlos, or ἄθλον, áthlon, meaning "competition"). A competitor in a hept ...

best of 6173 points. He is a member of LG Rhein-Wied athletics club. He represented Germany at the

2014 IAAF World Indoor Championships The 2014 IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics was the fifteenth edition of the international indoor track and field competition, organised by the IAAF. The event was held between 7–9 March 2014 at the Ergo Arena in Sopot, Poland. Prepa ...

, placing sixth. A two-time German champion (decathlon in 2012, heptathlon in 2014), he was also the winner at the

2013 European Athletics U23 Championships The 2013 European Athletics U23 Championships was the 9th edition of the biennial athletics competition between European athletes under the age of twenty-three. It was held in Tampere, Finland from 10 to 14 July. Russia topped the medal table wit ...

Career

Born in

Torgau Torgau () is a town on the banks of the Elbe in northwestern Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district Nordsachsen. Outside Germany, the town is best known as where on 25 April 1945, the United States and Soviet Armies forces first ...

, he initially specialised in the high jump and was the 2008 German

youth Youth is the time of life when one is young. The word, youth, can also mean the time between childhood and adulthood ( maturity), but it can also refer to one's peak, in terms of health or the period of life known as being a young adult. Yo ...

champion in the event. He also competed in the combined events youth championships, coming seventh outdoors and fourth indoors. In 2009 he was

runner-up at the national junior championships and also came third in the high jump. Outdoors, he placed third in the junior long jump, won in the junior decathlon section of the

Mehrkampf-Meeting Ratingen The Stadtwerke Ratingen Mehrkampf-Meeting is an annual track and field meeting for decathlon and heptathlon A heptathlon is a track and field combined events contest made up of seven events. The name derives from the Greek επτά (hepta, mean ...

, then claimed a bronze medal at the 2009 European Athletics Junior Championships in a personal best of 7639 points.Kai Kazmirek
LG Rhein. Retrieved on 2014-03-17. The year after he won the German junior heptathlon title and improved his decathlon score to 7829 points. He placed sixth at both the 2010 World Junior Championships in Athletics and the 2011 European Athletics U23 Championships.Kai Kazmirek
Tilastopaja. Retrieved on 2014-03-17. The 2012 Thorpe Cup saw him reach new heights in the senior division. He scored over eight thousand points for the first time and won the competition with a total of 8130 points. He won his first national title in the event but did not gain selection for the

2012 London 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 ...

as national rivals

Rico Freimuth Rico Freimuth (born 14 March 1988) is a retired German athlete who specialised in the decathlon. He won two medals at World Championships, bronze in 2015 and silver in 2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War A ...

, Pascal Behrenbruch, and Jan Felix Knobel had all performed better on the decathlon circuit that year. Kazmirek improved to 8350 points at the Ratingen meeting in 2013 and followed this up with an 8366-point best to win the gold medal at the

. However, again he was ranked outside of the top three nationally and was not selected for the

2013 World Championships in Athletics The 14th IAAF World Championships in Athletics (Moscow 2013) () was an international athletics competition held in Moscow, Russia, from 10–18 August 2013. Initially, Russia won the most gold medals to top the table for the first time since 200 ...

. He regarded this as a good thing, saying: "We have got a really strong Decathlon squad in Germany and I am really happy about that. We can learn so much from each other...I get an enormous amount from it". Kazmirek ranked ninth in Europe that year.European Top 30 2013 Men Decathlon
European Athletics. Retrieved on 2014-03-17. He opened the 2014 indoor season with a heptathlon best of 6083 points to win the German indoor title. This earned him his first senior international selection and he improved further at the

, taking sixth overall with a total score of 6173.

Personal bests

*; Decathlon – 8580 points (2016) **

100 metres The 100 metres, or 100-meter dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, the dash is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been conteste ...

– 10.62 sec (2016) ** 400 metres – 46.75 sec (2011) **

1500 metres The 1500 metres or 1,500-metre run (typically pronounced 'fifteen-hundred metres') is the foremost middle distance track event in athletics. The distance has been contested at the Summer Olympics since 1896 and the World Championships in Athle ...

– 4:31.25 min (2016) **

110 m hurdles The 110 metres hurdles, or 110-metre hurdles, is a hurdling track and field event for men. It is included in the athletics programme at the Summer Olympic Games. The female counterpart is the 100 metres hurdles. As part of a racing event, ten hur ...

– 14.05 sec (2014) ** High jump – 2.15 m (2014) **

Pole vault Pole vaulting, also known as pole jumping, is a track and field event in which an athlete uses a long and flexible pole, usually made from fiberglass or carbon fiber, as an aid to jump over a bar. Pole jumping competitions were known to the Myc ...

– 5.20 m (2013) **

Long jump The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a ...

– 7.69 m (2016) ** Shot put – 14.82 m (2017) **

Discus throw The discus throw (), also known as disc throw, is a track and field event in which an athlete throws a heavy disc—called a discus—in an attempt to mark a farther distance than their competitors. It is an ancient sport, as demonstrated by th ...

– 45.83 m (2015) **

Javelin throw The javelin throw is a track and field event where the javelin, a spear about in length, is thrown. The javelin thrower gains momentum by running within a predetermined area. Javelin throwing is an event of both the men's decathlon and the wom ...

– 64.60 m (2016) *; Heptathlon – 6238 points (2018) **

60 metres 60 metres, or 60-meter dash, is a sprint event in track and field. It is a championship event for indoor championships, normally dominated by the best outdoor 100 metres runners. At outdoor venues it is a rare distance, at least for senior ath ...

– 7.01 sec (2015) **

1000 metres The 1000 metres is an uncommon middle-distance running event in track and field competitions. The 1000 yards, an imperial alternative, was sometimes also contested. All-time top 25 *h = hand timed *i = indoor performance *A = affected by ...

– 2:39.51 min (2014) **

60 m hurdles 60 metres hurdles is a distance in hurdling which is generally run in indoor competitions. It is equivalent with the first 5 hurdles of a standard outdoor hurdle race. The current women's and men's world records are 7.68 seconds (Susanna Ka ...

– 7.95 sec (2018) ** High jump – 2.09 m (2016) **

– 5.20 m (2014) **

–7.68 m (2018) ** Shot put – 14.55 m (2018)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kazmirek, Kai 1991 births Living people People from Torgau German decathletes Athletes from Saxony World Athletics Championships athletes for Germany Olympic athletes for Germany Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Olympics World Athletics Championships medalists Athletes (track and field) at the 2020 Summer Olympics