Lars Riedel

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Medal record
Lars Riedel
Men’s Athletics
Competitor for Germany
Olympic Games
Gold	1996 Atlanta	Discus
Silver	2000 Sydney	Discus
World Championships
Gold	1991 Tokyo	Discus
Gold	1993 Stuttgart	Discus
Gold	1995 Gothenburg	Discus
Gold	1997 Athens	Discus
Gold	2001 Edmonton	Discus
Bronze	1999 Seville	Discus
European Championships
Gold	1998 Budapest	Discus

Lars Riedel (born June 28, 1967 in Zwickau) is a successful German discus thrower. He ranks sixth in all-time longest discus throw distances with a personal best of 71.50m.

Riedel began his discus career in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR). He grew up in Thurn which is next to Zwickau. In 1983 he went to join SC Karl-Marx-Stadt. His first important competitions were the junior world championship in 1986 and the European Championship in 1990 but without much success. When the GDR went down he lost his coach and Lars Riedel stopped training regularly. When he met his new coach Karlheiz Steinmetz from USC Mainz he continued his sport career. In the 90s 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 – the gold medal. Furthermore he won the world championship five times.

To help his body recover from the hard workouts, Riedel has daily physical therapy to improve his mobility, administered by his new girlfriend, Katja, working as a physiotherapist. He is separated from his wife Kerstin, with whom he has a son, Robert.

Lately his name was involved in a few scandals including doping missed tests administered by the German athletics association and IAAF.

[edit] Achievements

Olympic title 1996 in Atlanta (invalid – invalid – 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