To be fair: an athlete holding the spear by the end and hurling it… somewhere by accelerating it through rotating the body like a hammer thrower does sound slightly dangerous.
Also, the farthest throw was actually 104.8 meters.
But… weren’t javelins originally designed to be dangerous?
True, but even the earliest commanders usually frowned on spears coming their way which were meant for the enemy.
You were also supposed to be able to hit your target.
Yeah… but it might have been a good tactic for the really shitty javelin-throwers, so they could make up in range what they lacked in accuracy.
Much like guns, so the Olympic sports of shooting has very little with most guns the average gun owner would have.
This is true. That’s why you rarely see hunters use the hammer throw spinning technique used in Olympic shooting.
the technique:
using the technique holding the end of the javelin. Officials were so afraid of the out of control nature of the technique that the practice was banned through these rule specifications.
I’ve spent some time reading the Wikipedia article looking for the relevant part, I guess I was 10 mins early (didn’t get the chance to see your comment before that). Here’s the (probably) corresponding video, the first video result when searching for the freestyle javelin technique, in case it helps anyone: https://youtu.be/52rvqtiBoow?si=RiLjhJG2ttv-0s1W
found another one that includes some history 🙂
i was just curious about how many techniques could there be?! apparently lots!
sharp things really bother me, so watching that video was kinda painful
Interesante, gracias
The back end or the front end?
back.
it apparently requires some finesse like throwing an american football… there is a spiral technique employed for accuracy.
imagine throwing a football by pushing its long end.
Look at the videos posted above. They don’t hold it on the end like the OP claims. They hold it on the grip but spin and release like throwing a discus.
the correct technique is what i mention above, holding it in the middle and spiraling it. like a football.
i mention throwing the football by its end as an example of why you lose all control of the stick using that technique, and hence, why its illegal.
Longest throw, huh?
The javelin was officially redesigned in 1986 to limit its distance to keep it in the field, and to ensure it doesn’t land flat. They are likely only counting post-redesign throws.
It was in 1956 though, why would they count post-redesign throws?
It’s just a badly quoted fact.
Still the throw listed in the title is less than the one listed here. If it was broken before the change then it’s not the longest throw of the old generation as the title says.
Doesn’t count if not American.
I found the video!!!
Ah the eighties! Most of these kids have never seen RotN… It’s pretty offensive so hasn’t been shown in decades.
And nothing of value was lost, except perhaps the musical backing track to that one rap song.
…invented by American thrower Bud Held and developed and manufactured by his brother Dick…
Are we… are we just ignoring the fact that the guy making these was named “dick held”?
I find it more impressive that someone decided to name their sons dick and butt
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Leave Richard and Mary-Jane alone! The Held brothers don’t deserve the ridicule!
I’m not, I’m also imagining an alternate timeline where their last name was Holder instead of Held
According to Wiki, the modern javelin event has an “unlimited runup”. I, for one, would like to test that wording of the rules
iirc, they also moved the center of gravity so it couldn’t fly as far
People are too fast these days, I vote for Olympic runners having to wear weights
How about:
If they manage to become too fast again, we can maybe hold the event in a pool filled with 1m of water.
I’d love to see water sprints of various depths.
Excellent, I hear France already has one
Ooh, pool depth diss!
Instead of a parachute at the end of the line, hook them up to generators and let them power the lights in the cafeteria.
Javelin needs to be safe and stick within a reasonable field size to be an Olympic event. If runners were so fast they were tearing up the track and tossing debris into the audience, we would slow them down.
I vote for 200M exclusion circles where the Javelin throwers stand in the middle so they can throw using any method with no outside risk
One thrower inside the circle, another thrower outside the circle. Last man standing. Now I’m paying attention.
I say we bring back team sports - two or more groups throwing javelins at each other.
It can be payed either turn based or in real time.
… now that I think about it, with hammers & some body armour would be
even betternot as good but still fun.Uwe Hohn (East Germany) 1984, 104.8m throw:
Petra Felke (East Germany) 1988, 80.0m throw:
The Revenge of the Nerds technique?
Yeah, lots of movies from that era are problematic now. I’m not going to apologize for them, trivialize the problematic parts, or forget about them. All of those characters were gross parodies of stereotypes and that type of humor is no longer palatable to many people. But, this particular scene felt relatively devoid of any actual malice.
