Maintaining the family tradition, Alekna closes in on big catch

Following in the footsteps of a legendary parent into the same sport is never easy. The extra burden of expectation comes with the territory for those who inherit gold medal-winning genes. 

However, this unique pressure doesn’t seem to have effected Mykolas Alekna, son of two-time Olympic and two-time world champion discus thrower Virgilijus Alekna. 

Alekna senior won his Olympic titles in Sydney in 2000 and Athens in 2004, and clinched gold at the World Athletics Championships in Paris in 2003 and Helsinki in 2005. With a monster personal best of 73.88m from 2000, he is still second on the all-time list, just 20cm behind Jurgen Schult’s world record from 1986. He remains one of Lithuania’s sporting greats. 

They are quite some boots to fill. 

But Alekna junior has already emulated one of his father’s achievements, by winning the European Championships in Munich last year when aged only 19. It meant he was the youngest ever European champion in the discus, and it followed his silver at the World Athletics Championships in Oregon, where he was also the youngest ever discus medallist.  

Earlier this year, aged 20, he set another first. Competing at a meeting in Berkley, California, he became the youngest athlete ever to throw the men’s discus over 70 metres, when he threw 71.00m to go 18th on the all-time list.  

In an event in which athletes traditionally peak later, Mykolas has quickly found his feet. And rather than feeling the strain of expectation, his father’s achievements are a source of inspiration.  

“My father is my big idol,” says the younger Alekna. “He’s a legendary thrower, I want to be like him one day. Maybe even be better than him? We will see what happens.” 

Mykolas also has an older brother, Martynas, who is also a mighty talent in the discus circle having set a new personal best of 67.23m in Jelgava, Latvia, in June. 

From the outside, it might look like they were channelled towards the discus as children. But Mykolas had not picked up a discus until deep into his teenage years.   

“I was 16 years old,” he said. “Before that I used to do football, I used to do high jump. I was a striker. I was pretty good when I was young. But I grew a lot, my feet got bigger. I was slower and that’s when I transitioned to discus. I was pretty late, I suppose. My parents only wanted me to do sports. It didn’t matter what sports, just to do something.” 

By only his second year, he was representing Lithuania at the European Youth Olympics Festival, placing ninth in Baku and winning gold at the Baltic Championships in his home city, Vilnius. In 2021, just short of his 19th birthday, he became both world U20 and European U20 champion, announcing a new Alekna to a global audience. 

It secured him a scholarship to California State University, and the upwards trajectory continued in 2022 as he muscled his way on to senior podiums at the World and European Championships, respectively.  

But Mykolas does not take success for granted. With Olympic champion Daniel Stahl of Sweden, world champion Kristjan Ceh of Slovenia, improving Samoan Alex Rose and Olympic, world and European bronze medallist Lukas Weisshaidinger all performing at or near to their peak, the event is one of the hardest fought in global track and field. 

“It’s very strong this year,” he acknowledges. “It’s the strongest it has ever been, (with) five guys over 70 metres. It’s a very good competition, I am glad I can just be in the field with all the other guys. It’s my second year with the big guys, so I’m a new guy. I just say ‘hi’. We are not friends or anything, but we are good colleagues.” 

In the lead up to the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23, he was pleased to bank another international title, winning at the European U23 Championships in Espoo, Finland.   

“I think it’s a very good experience. It’s very valuable for me. It’ll help me to do better in Budapest. I just need to get used to the competition, to compete more and gain experience. I do pretty well in practice, and I just have to do better in the competition,” he says, in what could be an ominous threat to his rivals, that there is still plenty more to come from the 20-year-old. 

Away from competition, Mykolas enjoys retreating to the lakes outside of Vilnius. “I go fishing in Lithuania,” he says. “In the lakes, not in the sea. I fish for lake fish, pikes and things like that. It helps me to relax after training. I think about discus all the time. But when I start fishing, I forget about everything.” 

For Mykolas though, there is a parallel between his fishing abilities and his prodigious talents in the discus circle. He has already been able to reel in the big prizes and the Lithuanian is not one to let the big ones get away.

Chris Broadbent for World Athletics