Claudia Heill (24 January 1982 – 31 March 2011) was an

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

judoka is an unarmed gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art, combat sport, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyc ...

best known for winning the silver medal in the half-middleweight (63 kg) division at the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...

Biography

In addition to her success at the

, Heill won silver medals at the

European Championships A European Championship is the top level international sports competition between European athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports clubs. In the plural, the European Championships also refers t ...

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

and

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

and bronze medals in

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

and

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

. She placed fifth at the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...

and retired one year later. After retiring from competition, she began coaching junior judoka. Heill in 1998 aged 16 won the 63 kg category at the Senior Austrian National Championships. Later that same year Heill won silver at the Junior World Championships (Cali) where she lost to the Japanese Keiko Maeda. Within a month Heill took the gold medal at the Junior European Championships (Bucharest). Heill’s position as a world-class judoka in the 63 kg category was developing quickly. In 2000, at the Junior World Championships (Nabul) she won bronze and at the Junior European Championships (Nicosia) she won silver. By 2001, Heill began concentrating on her senior career and she took a silver medal in the European Championships (Paris) and placed fifth at the World Championships (Munich). Heill spent the next seven years competing internationally. She was one of four Austrians (

Sabrina Filzmoser Sabrina Filzmoser (born 12 June 1980 in Wels) is an Austrian retired judoka. She is a two-time bronze medalist at the World Judo Championships and she has also won medals, including two golds, in her event at the European Judo Championships. She ...

Ludwig Paischer Ludwig Paischer (born 28 November 1981 in Oberndorf bei Salzburg) is an Austrian judoka is an unarmed gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art, combat sport, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling compe ...

and Andreas Mitterfellner making up the quartet) to take gold medals at the World Military Championships in 2006 helping her country top the medal table. Her finest hour was her silver medal-winning performance at the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004. “This had been her dream even as she began practicing her first judo attacks as a seven-year-old,” said her longtime coach Hubert Rohrauer. Heill was part of the organizing committee at the European Championships in Vienna in 2010. Heill committed suicide by jumping to her death from a 6th-story window in Vienna on 31 March 2011. Shortly before her death, Heill was a commentator on JudoTV at the Judo World Cup in Oberwart. Her former teammate Ludwig Paischer was stunned by her tragic death, saying, "She was such a fun-loving, friendly person."

External links

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Heill, Claudia 1982 births 2011 suicides 2011 deaths Suicides by jumping in Austria Austrian female judoka Judoka at the 2004 Summer Olympics Judoka at the 2008 Summer Olympics Olympic judoka for Austria Olympic silver medalists for Austria Olympic medalists in judo Martial artists from Vienna Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics 20th-century Austrian women 21st-century Austrian sportswomen