Vadims Vasiļevskis

Vadims Vasiļevskis (born January 5, 1982 in Riga) is a Latvian javelin thrower, a silver medalist of 2004 Summer Olympics. Vasiļevskis achieved his best result of 90.73m on July 22, 2007 in Tallinn, Estonia, becoming the tenth longest javelin thrower of all times.

In his early career he finished eighth at the 2000 World Junior Championships and competed at the 2002 European Championships without reaching the final.

Vasiļevskis was the Latvian flag bearer at the 2004 Summer Olympics. He was the biggest surprise among Latvia's medal winners in 2004 Olympics. Latvia had three competitors in javelin throw: Vasiļevskis, Ēriks Rags and Voldemārs Lūsis, with Vasiļevskis being the youngest and the least known of the three. In Olympics, Vasiļevskis was the best of the three, throwing for 84.95 metres, two and a half meters further than his previous personal best and good enough to win a silver medal.

After the Olympic silver he finished eighth at the 2004 World Athletics Final. After an unsuccessful 2005 World Championships where he did not reach the final round, he got fourth places at the 2006 European Championships, the 2006 World Athletics Final and the 2007 World Championships. He won the gold medal at the 2007 Summer Universiade, and finished ninth at the 2008 Olympic Games. He was the Latvian flag bearer at the 2008 Summer Olympics as well.

He finished 4th at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics, which was held at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, with the result of 82.37m, after winning the qualifying round with a mark of 86.69m.

He took the 25th place at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics in Daegu with the result of 75.23m.

He finished 38th at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London after throwing only 72.81m in the qualifying round.

source: Wikipedia