Jan Železný (; born 16 June 1966) is a Czech former track and field athlete who competed in the javelin throw. He is a World and Olympic champion and holds the world record with a throw of . Widely considered the greatest javelin thrower of the modern era, he also has the fourth, fifth, and sixth best performances of all time. He broke the world record a total of four times.
Biography Železný was born in Mladá Boleslav, Czechoslovakia. He won the silver medal in the 1988 Olympics and the gold medal at the 1992, 1996 and 2000 Summer Olympic Games. He won World Championship titles in 1993, 1995 and 2001.
Železný holds the world record of , set in 1996, and the World Championships record of , set in 2001. On 26 March 1997, in Stellenbosch, South Africa, he threw over the 90-metre barrier five times in a single meet. Until September 2020, he was also the only athlete to throw more than 95 metres with the new type of javelin, something he achieved three times.
During his career, Železný had many great battles against the likes of Steve Backley, Sergey Makarov, Boris Henry, Seppo Räty, Raymond Hecht and Aki Parviainen.
Železný planned to retire after the 2006 European Championships in Gothenburg, where he won the bronze medal with a throw of . He took leave of his career on 19 September 2006 on exhibition in Mladá Boleslav, the place where he started with athletics.
Železný coaches Vítězslav Veselý and is the former coach of Barbora Špotáková.
Four days after winning a gold medal at the 1996 Olympics, Železný had a tryout as a baseball pitcher with the Atlanta Braves at Fulton County Stadium. Both Železný and the Braves treated the tryout seriously and not as a "publicity stunt" or "sideshow", though Železný had no baseball experience beyond throwing a ball at home with his young son.
International competitions Representing 1983European Junior ChampionshipsSchwechat, Austria6thJavelin (old)71.26 m1985European Junior ChampionshipsCottbus, East Germany4thJavelin (old)75.10 m1986European ChampionshipsStuttgart, West Germany18th ()Javelin75.90 m1987World ChampionshipsRome, Italy3rdJavelin82.20 m1988Olympic GamesSeoul, South Korea2ndJavelin84.12 m1990European ChampionshipsSplit, Yugoslavia13th ()Javelin77.64 m1991World ChampionshipsTokyo, Japan18th ()Javelin76.26 m1992Olympic GamesBarcelona, Spain1stJavelin89.66 mRepresenting the 1993World ChampionshipsStuttgart, Germany1stJavelin85.98 m1994European ChampionshipsHelsinki, Finland3rdJavelin82.58 m1995World ChampionshipsGothenburg, Sweden1stJavelin89.58 m1996Olympic GamesAtlanta, United States1stJavelin88.16 m1997World ChampionshipsAthens, Greece9thJavelin82.04 m1999World ChampionshipsSeville, Spain3rdJavelin87.67 m2000Olympic GamesSydney, Australia1stJavelin90.17 m2001World ChampionshipsEdmonton, Canada1stJavelin92.80 mGoodwill GamesBrisbane, Australia1stJavelin87.52 m2002European ChampionshipsMunich, Germany11thJavelin2003World ChampionshipsParis, France4thJavelin84.09 m2004Olympic GamesAthens, Greece9thJavelin80.59 m2006European ChampionshipsGothenburg, Sweden3rdJavelin85.92 m
See also List of multiple Olympic gold medalists in one event List of European records in athletics
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