Andreas Thorkildsen (born 1 April 1982) is a retired Norwegian track and field athlete who competed in the javelin throw.

[9] In 2007, Thorkildsen performed as a fashion model for former footballer Martin Dahlin, fronting his winter and autumn collections.

In October he participated at the World Junior Championships and received a silver medal behind winner Gerhardus Pienaar from South Africa.

In 2001 Thorkildsen moved to Oslo and started competing for the club SK Vidar under coach Åsmund Martinsen,[13] a former javelin thrower who won the bronze medal at the 1994 Norwegian Championships,[12] and had a career best throw of 68.12 metres.

Both competed at the World Championships in Edmonton, but while Ivanov managed to reach the final, Thorkildsen finished last in the entire competition with only 68.41 metres.

[18] Although Thorkildsen only managed to take silver at the Norwegian championships behind Pål Arne Fagernes,[12] his result of 83.43 metres was enough to front the national top list in javelin throw for the first time.

[25] Thorkildsen threw 81.74 m in the qualification round, barely earning a mention in the event report as he safely passed the automatic qualifier mark of 81 metres to go through to the final.

Vadims Vasiļevskis of Latvia had thrown a personal best of 84.95 m to earn a surprising lead ahead of reigning World champion Sergey Makarov.

Thorkildsen became the second Norwegian man to win the Olympic gold medal in javelin throw, after Egil Danielsen in 1956.

The preparations for this event looked promising for Thorkildsen as he improved his personal best to 86.82 metres in Kuortane in June, beating the Norwegian record of Pål Arne Fagernes.

[28] In 2006 Thorkildsen returned to his original club Kristiansands IF, having represented SK Vidar in competitions the five previous seasons.

[33] As no one managed to top his 91.59 metre result, he entered the 2006 European Championships as a favorite, together with Tero Pitkämäki who had won the IAAF Golden League meet in Paris.

[36] Thorkildsen's main goals for the 2007 season were the Bislett Games and the 2007 World Championships in Osaka,[37] as well as winning the Golden League jackpot.

In 2008 Thorkildsen won the Golden League event at Bislett in Oslo, his main goal besides the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

[44] De Zordo got his revenge next year when he won World Championship on 3 September at Daegu with Thorkildsen finishing second with a throw of 84.78.

[45] In 2012 Thorkildsen finished fourth at European Championships in Helsinki only managing three throws with the best result of 81.55 metres after picking up an injury during warm-up.

At the 2012 Summer Olympics in London he threw 82.63 and finished sixth which became fifth several years later after disqualification of the original silver medalist Oleksandr Pyatnytsya for doping offence.

[55] The Association cited Thorkildsen's success at the Beijing Olympics and his breaching of the 90-metre barrier as part of their reasoning for the award.