Gerd Kanter, Olympic gold medallist

Denomination: 5.50
Date: 25.09.2008
Print: ofset
Designer: Lembit Lõhmus
Perforation: 13½ : 13½
Sheets: 2 x 5
Quantity issued: 300 000
Printing house: AS Vaba Maa

After the issue of the first Estonian postage stamp dedicated to an Olympic winner (Erki Nool in decathlon in Sydney, 2000) we had to wait eight long years before the next stamp devoted to an Estonian winner of Olympic summer games could be brought out. In the intervening years the skiers Andrus Veerpalu and Kristina ©migun brought honour and fame to Estonia and earned the issue of one stamp in 2002 and three in 2006. From the discus final taking place in front of the full house of the Beijing Olympic stadium on August 19, 2008 Estonian sports fans expected a medal from the previous year's world champion, Gerd Kanter and Gerd didn't disappoint them, sending his discus one meter farther in the fourth round than his main rivals Piotr Malachowski from Poland and Virgilijus Alekna from Lithuania. Before the Games the Lithuanian was regarded as one of Kanter's most serious rivals. By his feat he took his place in the line of such legendary discus-throwers as Al Oerter, Jürgen Schult, Lars Riedel and Virgilijus Alekna.