Julian Weber (born 29 August 1994) is a German

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

athlete who competes in the

javelin throw The javelin throw is a track and field event where the javelin, a spear about in length, is thrown as far as possible. The javelin thrower gains momentum by running within a predetermined area. Javelin throwing is an event of both the men's de ...

. He won the European Junior Championship in 2013.

Biography

Weber was born in

Mainz Mainz (; #Names and etymology, see below) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, and with around 223,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 35th-largest city. It lies in ...

on 29 August 1994. He showed early promise as a thrower, but dropped athletics as a 12-year-old to concentrate on

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball, Olympic handball or indoor handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of thr ...

, the sport of his elder brother Patrick. He returned to the javelin four years later, immediately qualifying for the 2011 German youth championships; coached by Stephan Kallenberg, Weber developed rapidly as a thrower, but quit handball only after injuring himself in a game in 2012. At the 2013 European Junior Championships in

Rieti Rieti (; , Sabino: ) is a town and ''comune'' in Lazio, central Italy, with a population of 47,700. It is the administrative seat of the province of Rieti and see of the diocese of Rieti, as well as the modern capital of the Sabina region. T ...

Weber took gold with a fifth-round throw of 79.68 m, a personal best and the best in the world by a junior that year; he narrowly defeated Ukraine's Maksym Bohdan, who also threw beyond the previous world junior leading mark. Weber broke 80 meters for the first time in 2014 (80.72 m), winning silver behind

Thomas Röhler Thomas Röhler (born 30 September 1991) is a German track and field athlete who competes in the javelin throw. He is the Athletics at the 2016 Summer Olympics – Men's javelin throw, 2016 Olympic Champion and 2018 European Athletics Championship ...

at that year's national championships. In 2015 he improved his best to 81.15 m and placed fifth at the European U23 Championships in Tallinn. Weber reached a new level in 2016, throwing beyond 82 meters in four spring meets; at the national championships he again placed second behind Röhler (with a personal best 83.79 m), but was still left out of the German team for the

European Athletics Championships The European Athletics Championships is a biennial (from 2010) athletics event organised by the European Athletic Association and is recognised as the elite continental outdoor athletics championships for Europe. Editions First held, for me ...

in Amsterdam. Weber broke his personal best twice more on 29 June 2016 with throws of 84.45 m and 86.83 m at the Paavo Nurmi Games in Turku; the three-meter improvement marked his breakthrough to the world elite, though he was still overshadowed by Röhler, who won the competition with a world-leading 91.28 m and also had a second throw beyond 91 meters. A week and a half later Weber threw 88.04 m in Offenburg, moving him to fourth place on the 2016 world list. He was selected to represent Germany at the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

in Rio de Janeiro, together with Röhler and Johannes Vetter.

Seasonal bests by year

*2012 - 71.12 m *2013 - 79.68 m *2014 - 80.72 m *2015 - 81.15 m *2016 - 88.29 m *2017 - 85.85 m *2018 - 86.63 m *2019 - 86.86 m *2021 - 87.03 m *2022 - 89.54 m *2023 - 88.72 m *2025 - 91.06 m

References

External links

* * * *
Julian Weber
at the ''

Deutscher Leichtathletik Verband The German Athletics Association (German: ''Deutscher Leichtathletik-Verband''; DLV) is the governing body for the sport of athletics in Germany. Since 2010, Germany's kits are supplied by Nike. See also * German Athletics Championships *East G ...

''
Julian Weber, USC Mainz
at ''Leichtathletik-Datenbank.de'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Weber, Julian 1994 births Living people German male javelin throwers Sportspeople from Mainz Athletes from Rhineland-Palatinate Olympic athletes for Germany Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2020 Summer Olympics European Athletics Championships winners Athletes (track and field) at the 2023 European Games European Games gold medalists for Germany European Games medalists in athletics Athletes (track and field) at the 2024 Summer Olympics 21st-century German sportsmen Diamond League winners