Daniel Ståhl

Swedish discus thrower

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Daniel Ståhl (born 27 August 1992) is a Swedish athlete specialising in the discus throw. He is an Olympic gold medalist (2020 Tokyo) and a three-time world champion (2019 Doha, 2023 Budapest, 2025 Tokyo), setting the new championships record (71.46 m; 234 ft 5 in) in Budapest.

Career

He competed at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing finishing fifth.

In 2016, he competed at the European Championships, where he finished fifth. Ståhl also competed at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro the same year, where he failed to qualify for the final. Just a couple of weeks following his failure in Rio, Ståhl competed at the Swedish Championships in Sollentuna. Not only did he win the discus throw on a new personal best 68.72 metres, it was also the new world leading throw of 2016, surpassing Christoph Harting's 68.37 metres from the Rio Olympics final. By the end of the year, it remained the number one throw in 2016. The day before, Ståhl had also won the shot put on a new personal best 19.38 metres.

In June 2017, Ståhl managed a throw of 71.29 metres in Sollentuna, setting a new personal best and improving the Swedish record set in 1984 by Ricky Bruch by three centimetres. Ståhl's throw was farther than any discus throw in the world since 2013.

At the 2017 World Championships in Athletics, Ståhl won the silver medal in the discus throw event, throwing 69.19 meters. He was beaten by Lithuanian Andrius Gudžius by 2 centimeters.

He won the silver medal at the 2018 European Championships where he was beaten again by Andrius Gudžius. Ståhl came back in the 2019 World Championships in Doha, Qatar and was crowned World Champion with a winning throw of 67.59 ahead of competitor Federick Dacres.

He won the gold medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics with a throw of 68.90 metres, ahead of his fellow countryman Simon Pettersson.

Daniel Ståhl was awarded the Svenska Dagbladet Gold Medal on 5 December 2023.

Ståhl won the gold medal with a throw of 70.47m at the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.

Competition record

Personal bests

Outdoor

Shot put – 19.38 m ( Sollentuna, 27 August 2016)
Discus throw: 71.86 m ( Bottnaryd, 29 June 2019)

Indoor

Shot put – 18.29 m ( Gothenburg, 2015)

Personal life

Ståhl is of partial Finnish descent as his mother is Finnish. His mother Taina Ståhl (née Laakso) is a former discus thrower. Ståhl himself is a fluent Finnish speaker.