Anita Włodarczyk

Anita Włodarczyk is a Polish hammer thrower, born on 8 August 1985, who is widely regarded as the greatest woman ever to compete in her event. She won the Olympic hammer throw title in 2012, 2016 and 2020, and she is the only woman to have taken that event three Games in a row. Her 2012 victory came retroactively: she finished second in London, then was awarded the gold in 2016 after the original winner was stripped of the medal following a reanalysis of stored doping samples. In August 2015 she became the first woman to throw the hammer beyond 80 metres, and in August 2016 she set the current women's world record of 82.98 metres in Warsaw. She also won world and European championship titles and was voted Polish Sports Personality of the Year for 2016. The state honoured her with the Order of Polonia Restituta, most recently the Commander's Cross with Star in 2021.