Lars Riedel

Lars Riedel (born June 28, 1967 in Zwickau) a former German discus thrower. Riedel has the sixth longest discus throw of all-time with a personal best of 71.50m.

Riedel began his discus career in GDR the former German Democratic Republic. He grew up in Thurm which is next to Zwickau. In 1983 he went to join SC Karl-Marx-Stadt. His first important competitions were the IAAF World Junior Championship in 1986 and the European Championship in 1990. When the GDR went down Riedel stopped training regularly. Soon after Riedel met his coach Karlheinz Steinmetz from USC Mainz he began training once again his sport career. In the 90's he became a dominating figure on the German discus scene. With his good physical constitution (1.99 m, 115 kg) he took part in the Olympic Games of Atlanta. There he won his only Olympic title. Furthermore he won the IAAF World Championship five times.

He is separated from his wife Kerstin, with whom they had a son, Robert.

Achievements

*Olympic title 1996 in Atlanta (Foul – Foul – 65,40m – 63,10m – 69,40m – 69,24m)
*5 times world champion (1991, 1993, 1995, 1997, 2001)
*European champion 1998
*3rd Place World championship 1999
*2nd Place Olympic Games in Sydney 2000
*10 times German champion

References

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