Robert Harting (; born 18 October 1984) is a retired German

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 ...

er. He represents the sports club

SCC Berlin SCC Berlin is a German sports club based in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin and founded in 1902 as ''Charlottenburger Sport-Club 1902''. In 1911, they merged with ''Sport-Club Westen 05'' and changed their club colors from yellow and blue ...

, his coach is Torsten Schmidt. He is a former Olympic, World, and European champion in the men's discus throw. His younger brother

Christoph Christoph is a male given name and surname. It is a German variant of Christopher. Notable people with the given name Christoph * Christoph Bach (1613–1661), German musician * Christoph Büchel (born 1966), Swiss artist * Christoph Dientzenhof ...

is the event's 2016 Olympic champion.

Biography

Harting was born 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 exte ...

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In t ...

. He won a

silver medal A silver medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, et ...

at the 2001 World Youth Championships. He was less successful at subsequent championships and finished in eighth in the qualifiers 2002 World Junior Championships. He took the

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have be ...

at the

2005 European Athletics U23 Championships The 5th European Athletics U23 Championships were held in Erfurt, Germany, at Steigerwaldstadion Steigerwaldstadion is a multi-purpose stadium in Erfurt, Germany. The stadium is able to hold 18,611 people and was built in 1931. It is currently ...

. He began competing at the senior level soon after and took part in the 2006 European Championships, where he just missed the qualifying mark in the earlier round of the competition. He improved in 2007, throwing a new personal best of 66.93 m and he won the silver medal at the 2007 World Championships. He was fourth at the

2007 IAAF World Athletics Final The 5th IAAF World Athletics Final was held at the Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion in Stuttgart, Germany on September 22 and September 23, 2007. Results Men Women See also *2007 in athletics (track and field) References ;Results2007 IAAF World ...

and then was second at the European Winter Throwing Cup the following year. He threw a personal best of 68.65 m in

Kaunas Kaunas (; ; also see other names) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the largest city and the centre of a county in the Duchy of Traka ...

in June and was selected for the German team at the

2008 Beijing Olympics 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 Nat ...

. He finished fourth with a throw of 67.09 m. He closed the season with a bronze medal at the 2008 IAAF World Athletics Final. At the Berlin 2009 World Championships, Harting was sitting in the silver medal position coming into the 6th round of the final, he then threw a personal best of 69.43 metres to gain the lead and ultimately win the gold medal. The final remaining competitor and leader since the 1st round, Polish athlete Piotr Malachowski, was unable to better the German's throw. Harting set a championship record of 66.80 m to win at the

2010 European Team Championships The second SPAR European Team Championships took place on 19 and 20 June 2010. 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 20 ...

and recorded a mark of 68.67 m the following month at the 2010 German Athletics Championships to take the national title. He threw 68.47 m in the final of 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, C ...

but this was not enough to beat Malachowski. Still, the silver medal was his first at the primary continental championships. He competed in the

2010 IAAF Diamond League The 2010 Diamond League season was the first season of the Diamond League, an annual series of fourteen one-day track and field meetings. The series began on 14 May in Doha, Qatar and ended on 27 August in Brussels, Belgium. Superseding the Europ ...

and won at the Weltklasse Zurich, but it was Malachowski who won the overall Diamond Race Trophy. He improved his personal best in Neubrandenburg in a one-on-one competition against Malachowski, taking the win with a throw of 69.69 m. He defended his world title 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 ...

with a winning mark of 68.97 m. In May 2012, Harting threw a personal best of 70.31 m at the Hallesche Werfertage Meeting, clearing seventy metres for the first time. At the 2012 European Athletics Championships in

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

, Finland, Harting won the Gold medal by throwing 68.30 m. In the 2012 London Olympics, he won the gold medal in discus throwing. He won his third straight world championship title at the 2013 World Championships in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

. In 2014, he retained the European title. Harting is known for exuberant victory celebrations, including ripping the shirt off his chest, running with a German flag over the hurdles from the hurdles race, placing

mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name. Mascots are also used as ...

s on his shoulders and jogging on the track.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Harting, Robert 1984 births Living people Sportspeople from Cottbus German male discus throwers German national athletics champions 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 Olympic athletes of Germany Olympic gold medalists for Germany World Athletics Championships medalists European Athletics Championships medalists Medalists at the 2012 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists in athletics (track and field) IAAF Continental Cup winners World Athletics Championships winners Recipients of the Order of Merit of Berlin