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When Saatara speaks of “they,” he refers as much to Mantas Jusis, Mykolas’ coach in Lithuania, as to his father. He understands things that more experienced throwers do not.” He understands what needs to be done so it’s been great. He was very accurate in training, and very, very coachable. “Once we got going, he was very focused and dialed in. “They did a magnificent job preparing him as a young athlete so it’s been a pretty seamless transition,” said Mohamad Saatara, the throws coach at UC Berkeley. He traveled from Nairobi to Northern California after that meet and was in class for the first day of school at UC Berkeley. He threw a 1.75-kilogram (3.9 pounds) close to 62 meters (203-5) the following season before setting a meet record of 69.81 (229-0) in winning the World U20 (under 20) Championships in Nairobi last August. He said he threw about 50 meters (164 feet) with a 1.5-kilogram (3.3 pounds) discus during his first season, and improved to 58 meters (190-3) during his second year. Mykolas enjoyed the training and spending time with his brother, but he was not an overnight sensation in his mind.
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That prompted his dad to ask if he would like to start throwing the discus with his brother Martynas, who was two years older than him. Soccer was Mykolas’ passion when he was younger, but a growth spurt in his early teens led to him being unable to find a pair of size 14 “soccer boots” when he was 14. I just wanted to be a successful athlete.” At the time, it didn’t matter if I was a soccer player or in the discus.
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It was inspiring so I started to do sports because I wanted to be like my dad. “I always saw him competing when I was young. “I started to do sports because of him,” Mykolas said of his father, who has been a member of Lithuania’s parliament since 2016. On top of that, his personal best of 73.88 meters (242 feet 5 inches) ranks second on the all-time world performer list behind Jurgen Schult, who set the world record of 74.08 (243-0) for East Germany in 1986. The magazine also selected him as its male athlete of the year for 2000. He had an unprecedented 17-year run from 1996-2012 when he was annually ranked no worse than sixth in the world by Track & Field News, including seven No. He won an Olympic bronze medal and two World Championship silver medals in addition to the previously mentioned gold medals from the 20 Olympics and the 20 World title meets. While Mykolas began throwing the discus five years ago, his dad was a five-time Olympian who competed in 10 World Championships. You move your legs and your upper body and your arm is like a whip. For discus throw, we don’t even use our arms. This doesn’t mean all elite throwers have above-average wing span, but those that do can use it to their advantage.Īs Mykolas explained about throwing the discus: “Lower body is very important. In simple terms, an athlete with long arms has a longer lever with which to launch a discus than someone with shorter arms. Having a great wing span – or longer than normal arms for someone his size – was advantageous for Virgilijus Alekna in the discus, and the same is true for Mykolas. “So I think I still need to improve my strength.” “Other throwers are stronger than me,” said Mykolas, who will compete in the discus this afternoon on the final day of the Pacific 12 Conference track and field championships at the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field. In contrast, Mykolas is a smaller 6-foot-5, 240-pound thrower and former striker on the soccer field who uses speed, explosiveness, and superb coordination to outthrow opponents who can outlift him in the weight room. Virgilijus was a 6-foot-8, 287-pound mountain of a man who towered over most of his opponents both literally and figuratively during an illustrious career. So far Mykolas is doing it his own way-and already throwing out stats better than what his legendary dad was doing with the discus at age 23. The 19-year-old has a similarly mild-mannered assessment of his own emerging greatness in the ancient field event dominated for many years by his father – Virgilijus Alekna – who used great size and strength to win a pair of gold medals in both the Olympic Games and World Championships. He paused to consider his answer in a recent telephone interview, then showed he takes in stride his father’s status as a giant of athletics in his native Lithuania. Being asked if your dad is a national hero might have a heady effect on the average college freshman.īut Mykolas Alekna of UC Berkeley is not average-he is the top-ranked men’s collegiate discus thrower in the U.S.