Austra Skujyte: Olympic medalist and record-breaking athlete
Austra Skujyte (born 12 August 1979 in Biržai, Lithuania) is a retired Lithuanian athlete who competed in both the heptathlon and the decathlon. On 15 April 2005, in Columbia, Missouri, she broke the women's decathlon world record with a score of 8358. She won a silver medal in the heptathlon at the 2004 Athens Olympics and was later awarded a bronze medal in the 2012 London Olympics heptathlon after the disqualification of original medalist Tatyana Chernova in 2016 for doping violations.
Her personal best in the 7-event heptathlon, 6599 points, was achieved on 4 August 2012, during the London Olympics. In that competition, she set the World Heptathlon Best in the Shot Put with a throw of 17.31 m (56 ft 9+1⁄4 in). Skujyte was an eight-time Lithuanian national champion in the shot put and also claimed national titles in the discus throw, 100 meters hurdles (twice), and long jump (three times). She retired from athletics in 2017.
Austra Skujyte earned a degree in kinesiology from Kansas State University, where she became the first woman in the school's history to win multiple NCAA championships. She won titles in the heptathlon in both 2001 and 2002 and placed second in the NCAA shot put competition in 2002.
Currently, Austra Skujyte works as a coach for children and is pursuing a doctorate at the Lithuanian Sports University.
Olympic achievements
- 2000 Sydney Olympics: 12th place
- 2004 Athens Olympics: 2nd place (Silver)
- 2008 Beijing Olympics: Did Not Finish (DNF)
- 2012 London Olympics: 3rd place (Bronze, awarded retrospectively)
Authors: LSU
Featured image taken from: Ian Patterson, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons