Heli Rantanen (born 26 February 1970) is a retired Finnish track and field athlete who competed in the javelin throw. She was an Olympic Champion, having won gold in 1996. Her winning throw of 67.94 m was more than two metres ahead of the silver medalist. She was the first Nordic woman to become an Olympic Champion in athletics.
| Year | Competition | Venue | Position | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Representing  Finland | ||||
| 1990 | European Championships | Split, Yugoslavia | 19th | 54.02 m |
| 1992 | Olympic Games | Barcelona, Spain | 6th | 62.34 m |
| 1993 | World Championships | Stuttgart, Germany | 11th | 53.14 m |
| 1995 | World Championships | Gothenburg, Sweden | 4th | 65.04 m |
| 1996 | Olympic Games | Atlanta, United States | 1st | 67.94 m |
| 1997 | World Championships | Athens, Greece | 10th | 62.64 m |
| 1998 | European Championships | Budapest, Hungary | 5th | 62.34 m |
Dana Zátopková was a Czech javelin thrower. She won the gold medal for javelin at the 1952 Summer Olympics, and the silver medal in the 1960 Summer Olympics. She was the European champion in 1954 and 1958. She also set a world record in 1958 when she was 35, making her the oldest woman to break one in an outdoor athletics event.
Olga Sergeyevna Kuzenkova is a Russian track and field athlete, the first woman to throw the hammer more than 70 meters. She has tested positive for doping.
Christina Obergföll is a retired German track and field athlete who competed in the javelin throw. She was World Champion in 2013. Her personal best throw of 70.20 m is the German record. It also ranks her fifth on the overall list.
Elvīra Anatoļjevna Ozoliņa is a retired Soviet javelin thrower. In 1960 she won gold medal with an Olympic Record of 55.98 m and was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labour. Between 1960 and 1963 she set three world records. In 1964 she became the first woman to surpass 60 m, but this result was not ratified as a world record by IAAF. In the 1964 Olympic final she fouled her last four attempts and finished in a disappointing fifth place. Domestically she won the national title in 1959, 1961–62, 1964, 1966, and 1973.
Dame Valerie Kasanita Adams is a retired New Zealand shot putter. She is a four-time World champion, four-time World Indoor champion, two-time Olympic, three-time Commonwealth Games champion and twice IAAF Continental Cup winner. She has a personal best throw of 21.24 metres outdoors and 20.98 m indoors. These marks are Oceanian, Commonwealth and New Zealand national records. She also holds the Oceanian junior record (18.93 m) and the Oceanian youth record (17.54 m), as well as the World Championships record, World Indoor Championships record and Commonwealth Games record.
Mihaela Melinte is a Romanian hammer thrower. She holds the world junior record, and with 76.07 metres she held the world record until Tatyana Lysenko beat it in July 2005. The twelve-time Romanian national champion, Melinte is also a former European and World champion, but has never participated in the Olympics.
Tsvetanka Pavlova Khristova was a Bulgarian discus thrower. She won gold at the 1991 World Championships and the 1982 European Championships. She also won two Olympic medals, with bronze at the 1988 Seoul Olympics and silver at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Her best throw of 73.22 metres in 1987, ranks her eighth on the world all-time list.
Kristin L. Heaston is a female shot putter from the United States.
Inese Jaunzeme was a Latvian javelin thrower who won a gold medal at the 1956 Olympics.
Olga Fikotová is a Czechoslovak and later American discus thrower. She is best known for winning gold at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics and for her romance across Cold War barriers with American hammer gold medalist Hal Connolly.
Barbora Špotáková is a former Czech track and field athlete who competed in the javelin throw. She is a two-time Olympic Champion and three-time World Champion, as well as the current world record holder with a throw of 72.28 m.
Lacy Barnes is a former track and field athlete. She was the United States women's discus throw track and field champion in 1988 and 1991 and the top U.S. finisher in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
Suzanne "Suzy" Powell-Roos is an American discus thrower. She competed at the 1996, 2000 and 2008 Olympics with the best result of 15th place in 2000.
Kimberly "Kim" A. Kreiner is a female javelin thrower from the United States. Her personal best throw is 64.19 meters, achieved in May 2007 in Fortaleza.
Loree Smith is an American hammer thrower.
Kirsten Louise Hellier is a former javelin thrower, who represented New Zealand at the Commonwealth and the Olympic Games. She set her personal best in 1994 with the old javelin type. Hellier was the coach of World Champion shot putter Valerie Adams from 1998 until 2010.
Katharina Molitor is a German sportswoman who competes as a javelin thrower and volleyball player. As a javelin thrower, she is a World Champion, having won gold in 2015, and her personal best throw is 67.69 m. As a volleyball player, she represents Bayer Leverkusen in the Erste Volleyball-Bundesliga, the highest tier of German volleyball.
Yaime Pérez Tellez is a Cuban athlete specialising in the discus throw. In 2022, she defected to the United States.
Gwendolyn Denise Berry is an American track and field athlete who specializes in the hammer throw. Her mark of 77.78 m on June 8, 2018, ranks her #7 on the all time list. She also holds the world record in the weight throw with a mark of 25.60 m set in March 2017. She is a three-time national champion in the weight throw at the USA Indoor Track and Field Championships. She was the gold medalist in the hammer at the 2014 Pan American Sports Festival. She is also the 2019 Pan American Games Champion.
Marjorie Lea Larney (born January 4, 1937, in Brooklyn, New York is a retired American track and field athlete known for throwing events. She represented the United States in the javelin throw at the 1952 Olympics, finishing 13th after being in 8th place after the qualifying round. She was only 15 years old at the time. She returned to the Olympics in 1956 to place 11th. Later she attended Queens College. She won the National Championships in the javelin five times, in 1952 and 1957–60, as well as the 1952 Olympic Trials, by almost 3 meters. She also won the National Championships in the discus throw in 1954 and was the first American in 1955. She represented the Queens Mercurettes for most of her career. She won a silver medal in the javelin and a bronze medal in the discus at the 1959 Pan American Games. She had finished out of the medals at the 1955 Pan American Games.
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