The grapes are high

Weißhaidinger: “But I’m capable of a top 3!”

Lukas Weißhaidinger

(Bild: Thomas Windestam)

For Austria's record-breaking discus thrower Lukas Weißhaidinger, the stakes are extremely high at the European Championships in Rome (June 7-12). The standard in the most classic of all athletics disciplines has risen significantly once again in the 2024 Olympic year.

The "Krone" reports from Rome

"Discus is one of the strongest competitions in the world this year. You have to throw at the very highest level to make it into the top 3. But I've got what it takes," says the 32-year-old, "and to stay with the image of the grapes: I'll find a ladder to climb another rung higher." To perhaps be able to reach for a European Championship medal on Friday...

Lukas Weißhaidinger with World Championship bronze in 2019

(Bild: Olaf Brockmann)

Lukas Weißhaidinger's performance so far this season has given him a boost. A change in technique has been promising. His sensational series in Eisenstadt, crowned with 69.04 m, then a fourth place in the Diamond League in Oslo and a fifth place in Stockholm show that he is right up there with Europe's best. He is a great fourth in the entry list for Rome. Only the Lithuanian Mykolas Alekna, who set a world record of 74.35 m this year and is still undefeated in 2024, seems to be a gold medal contender. However, there have already been enough falls of the favorites in the history of the European Championships. The Upper Austrian doesn't need to hide from world champion Kristjan Ceh (Slo/Heuer 70.48), Clemens Prüfer (D/69.09) and even Olympic champion Daniel Stahl (Sd/even behind him in the annual ranking with 68.99). Luki: "Everything is possible..."

Proud of continuity
"It makes me proud that I've been competing at the top for years now. We've already done something right," Weißhaidinger can rightly claim. He has won successive bronze medals at the European Championships, World Championships and Olympics. This makes him the most successful Austrian men's athlete of all time. This year he can add further top placings in Rome and at the Games in Paris.

Lukas Weißhaidinger with European Championship bronze in 2018

(Bild: Olaf Brockmann)

"Clash of the titans"
Experience speaks for him. "I'm very confident going into the start in Rome." He has fond memories of the Italian capital anyway. Two years ago, he finished second in the Diamond League there with 68.30 m. So Rome suits him. He is already looking forward to the "Stadio dei Marmi". This facility, surrounded by 59 colossal marble statues, is "the most beautiful warm-up stadium in the world" for Lukas Weißhaidinger. In the Olympic Stadium, he is then cheered on by his mother, brother, niece and his wife Hanna and her family. So he has no shortage of support for long throws - in a competition that has been stylized in advance as a "clash of the titans".

Simulating a double burden
The fact that the qualification and the final are taking place on the same day for the first time in the tightly packed schedule (due to the EURO soccer tournament) doesn't bother him. It doesn't matter to him whether he throws in the first or second qualifying group in the morning (9.35 or 10.55 a.m.). "I'll take it as it comes." 66.00 m is required to advance directly to the final. But there will be enough time to relax before the final at 21 o'clock in the evening. He has also simulated the double load in training. Coach Gregor Högler: "We are prepared. The tougher it gets, the better Lukas does."

Lukas Weißhaidinger

(Bild: Urbantschitsch Mario/Mario Urbantschitsch)

Everything has been there before
For Weißhaidinger, it is a novelty that the qualifiers and final are taking place on the same day. But this is not the first time this has happened. It's all been done before. Even at European Championships. At the premiere in Turin in 1934, when the Austrian Emil Janusch came eighth, and in Oslo in 1946, when the legendary Italian Adolfo Consolini won the title, the qualifying and final also took place on the same day. Incidentally, this was the case ten times at the Olympics - most recently in 1964.