Andrei Mikhnevich - Career

Career

He made his first major championships appearance at the 1999 IAAF World Indoor Championships and he finished eighth overall. He also attended the 1999 World Championships in Athletics that year but did not reach the final. His first Olympics soon followed at the 2000 Sydney Games where he finished ninth in the shot put final.

He received a two-year suspension for a doping offence on 7 August 2001. Only 17 days after his suspension ended he became world champion in Paris with a personal best throw of 21.69 metres. He also won the Universiade the same year. His best performance in the following two years was a fifth place at the 2004 Summer Olympics.

In 2006 he finished second both at the World Indoor Championships in Moscow, with a new personal indoor best throw of 21.37 metres, and the 2006 European Championships with 21.11. He followed this with a bronze medal at the 2007 World Championships.

He finished fifth at the 2008 IAAF World Indoor Championships but rebounded to peak with a 22.00 m personal best in July and taking his first Olympic medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics in the form of a bronze. He sank back down the rankings at the 2009 World Championships, finishing seventh, but he gained his second indoor silver at the 2010 World Indoors a few months later. He set a national indoor record of 21.81 m in Mogilev, Belarus, and continued his good form with a win at the 2010 European Cup Winter Throwing meeting. He followed that victory by winning the 2010 European Championships in Barcelona.

His wife is fellow shot-putter Natallia Mikhnevich, who won a silver medal at the 2008 Olympic Games.