Cal's Mykolas Alekna Easily Qualifies for Discus Final at Paris Olympics

The 21-year-old Lithuanian world-recordholder will chase a gold medal on Wednesday

Mykolas Alekna / Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Updated

World-recordholder Mykolas Alekna needed just two throws in the men's discus qualifying on Monday to lock up a spot in the Paris Olympics final.

After fouling on his first attempt, the Cal junior from Lithuania uncorked a throw of 221 feet, 4 inches (67.47 meters) to achieve the automatic qualifying standard of 66 meters.

Alekna had the top mark of the day and will throw in the finals on Wednesday at 11:25 a.m. PDT.

The 21-year-old, who earned a silver medal at the 2022 World Championships and a bronze at the same meet in 2023, hopes to join his father atop the Olympic medal stand.

Virgilijus Alekna won two gold medals in the discus and owns the Olympic record with his winning throw of 229-3 (69.89) at the 2004 Athens Games.

Mykolas Alekna took this collegiate season off to prepare for the Olympics, and he got the full attention of the track and field world when he unleashed a throw of 243-11 (74.35 meters) on April 13 at Ramona, Okla. That eclipsed the 38-year-old world record of 243-0 (74.08) set by East Germany’s Jurgen Schult in 1986 — 16 years before Alekna was born.

Alekna is the choice of Track and Field News, Sports Illustrated and USA Today to win gold at Paris, although Athletics Weekly gave the nod to 2022 world champion Kristjan Ceh of Slovenia. 

The only other automatic qualifiers to the finals out of the first group were Australia’s Matthew Denny (219-3/66.83) and Austria’s Lukas Weisshaidinger (218-11/66.72).

Sweden’s Daniel Stahl, the defending world champion and gold medalist at the Tokyo Games, threw 213-9 (65.16) and advanced as the eighth of 12 qualifiers to the final.

Germany’s Clemons Pruefer was the only automatic qualifier in the second flight, throwing 217-8 (66.36) on his first attempt. Ceh moved through with a best of 212-7 (64.80) and Samoa’s Alex Rose, who has thrown 70 meters this season, grabbed the final qualifying spot at 206-3 (62.88).

Alekna’s older brother, Martynas, also representing Lithuania, finished 15th in the first group with a best of 192-5(58.66).