Betty Heidler

Betty Heidler is a German hammer thrower, born in East Berlin on 14 October 1983 and a four-time Olympian. She finished fourth at the 2004 Athens Games, seventh at Beijing in 2008 and fourth again at Rio de Janeiro in 2016. Her best-known Olympic result came in London in 2012, where she took the bronze medal in the women's hammer throw; four years later it was upgraded to silver after Russia's Tatyana Lysenko was disqualified following a positive doping test and failed re-tests of the 2012 samples. Heidler won the 2007 World Championships gold medal, added world silver medals in 2009 and 2011, won the 2010 European title and took European silver in 2016. Her personal best of 79.42 metres, set in 2011, makes her the best German female hammer thrower of all time, and she won eight consecutive German titles between 2005 and 2012. Away from the circle she studied law and worked as a policewoman with the Federal Police.