Aigars Fadejevs (27 December 1975 – 17 December 2024) was a Latvian athlete, competing in 20 km, 50 km walk, and marathon running, and a physiotherapist for sprinters and other athletes. He won a silver medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics in the 50 km race walk, and was named the Latvian Sportsperson of the Year in 2000.
Biography
Aigars Fadejevs was born 27 December 1975 in Valka, Latvia. He was a champion junior race walker, winning the European U23 Championships in 1997.
Fadejevs holds the unofficial world record of 58:23 in the rare 15 km walk distance.
Fadejevs quit race walking in 2004 and competed as a marathon runner. He almost qualified for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. He worked as a sports therapist, working with Latvian Olympians and international athletes from other disciplines including Kobe Bryant.
In 2017, he revealed in an interview that he had experienced depression and fell into alcoholism at the end of his career, but was working to overcome these challenges.
Fadejevs died suddenly on 17 December 2024, at the age of 48 of unknown causes.
Achievements
{|
|-
!colspan="6"|Representing
|-
|rowspan=2|1994
|World Junior Championships
|Lisbon, Portugal
| —
|10,000m
|DQ
|-
|European Championships
|Helsinki, Finland
|17th
|20 km
|1:26.06
|-
|1996
|Olympic Games
|Atlanta, United States
|6th
|20 km
|1:20:47
|-
|1997
|European U23 Championships
|Turku, Finland
|bgcolor="gold" | 1st
|20 km
|1:19:58
|-
|rowspan=2|1998
|European Race Walking Cup
|Dudince, Slovakia
|bgcolor="cc9966" | 3rd
|20 km
|1:20:44
|-
|European Championships
|Budapest, Hungary
|bgcolor="silver" | 2nd
|20 km
|1:21:25
|-
|rowspan=3|2000
|European Race Walking Cup
|Eisenhüttenstadt, Germany
|6th
|20 km
|1:20:18
|-
|rowspan=2|Olympic Games
|rowspan=2|Sydney, Australia
|14th
|20 km
|1:22:43
|-
|bgcolor="silver" | 2nd
|50 km
|3:43:40
|-
|rowspan=2|2001
|European Race Walking Cup
|Dudince, Slovakia
|8th
|20 km
|1:20:51
|-
|World Championships
|Edmonton, Canada
| —
|20 km
|DNF
|-
|2008
|Valmiera Marathon
|Valmiera, Latvia
|bgcolor="gold"| 1st
|Marathon
|2:19:57
|}