Lars Riedel

Four time Olympian (1992-2004) Lars Riedel was one of the world’s best discus throwers in the 1990s and 2000s. He won the gold medal at the Atlanta Games in 1996 and the silver medal four years later in Sydney. Riedel was a five-time World Champion, winning in 1991, 1993, 1995, 1997, and 2001, and placing third in 1999. Riedel was also 1998 European Champion. In 1991, 1993, 1995, 1997, and 1999 he won the Grand Prix Title, in 1996 the Golden Four, and he won European Cups in 1993, 1995, 1997, 2000, and 2001. Riedel retired in 2008 due to back trouble.

Domestically Riedel won the last East German title in 1990 before reunification, then was German Champion in 1992-98, 2000, 2001, 2003, and 2006. He made headlines in July 1996 when presenting himself as a naked discus thrower in the yellow press magazine Bunte. Riedel was runner-up for 1998 German “Sportsman of the Year”; was “2002 Athlete of the Year”; received the Rudolf Harbig Memorial Award in 2003; and came in 41st at the ZDF-choice “Sportsman of the Century” in November 2004. During the 2009 World Championships in Berlin he was a color commentator for the German TV channel ARD.

Riedel stopped training after German reunification and started working as a concrete worker in the construction industry when his coach lost his job. His new coach Karlheinz Steinmetz motivated him to come back and he became one of Germany’s dominant athletes.

Personal Best: DT – 71.50 (1997).