50 Fun Facts About Javelin Throw

The javelin was added to the Ancient Olympic Games as part of the pentathlon in which year?

There were two versions: one for distance and one for accuracy at a target.

Ancient Greek throwers used an 'amentum' (ankyle) to add spin to the javelin. What was it?

As the strap unwound on release it gave the javelin axial spin, stabilising its flight like a rifle bullet.

Javelin great Eric Lemming, Olympic champion in 1908 and 1912, represented which country?

His 62.32 m from 1912 was the first javelin world record officially ratified by the IAAF.

A 'both-hands' javelin contest, adding the best right- and left-handed throws together, was held at the Olympics only once. In which year?

The last official both-hands world record was Yngve Häckner's 114.28 m total from 1917.

Which Hungarian became the first man to break the 60-metre barrier in 1911, using a freestyle end grip?

Lemming and Saaristo did it with a regular grip a year later; the freestyle event was dropped after the 1908 Games.

Who became the first women's Olympic javelin champion when the event was added in 1932?

The first women's marks had been recorded in Finland in 1909, and a lighter javelin for women arrived in the 1920s.

For decades javelins were solid wood with a steel tip. Which timber was typical?

The hollow, aerodynamic Held javelin of the 1950s was also wooden at first before all-metal models took over.

The hollow, aerodynamic javelin of the 1950s was named after which American thrower who invented it?

His brother Dick developed and manufactured it; the new javelins flew further but landed flat far more often.

Who is the only athlete ever to throw a javelin 100 metres or more?

His 104.80 m in East Berlin in July 1984 became an 'eternal world record' when the javelin was redesigned two years later.

Uwe Hohn's 1984 record shattered the previous mark of 99.72 m set the year before by which American?

Hohn missed the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics because of the East German boycott and won the rival Friendship Games instead.

In the 1986 redesign, the men's javelin's centre of gravity was moved forward by how much?

The tail surface was also enlarged, so the javelin noses into the wind and sticks in the ground rather than landing flat.

By roughly what percentage did the 1986 redesign reduce the javelin's flight distance?

The change was as much about safety and clear landings as distance; 100-metre throws were outgrowing stadium infields.

Seppo Räty's 96.96 m from 1991 was struck from the records for what banned javelin feature?

Manufacturers had added holes, rough paint or dimples to recover lost distance; all such marks were nullified from 20 September 1991.

What is the men's javelin world record, set by Jan Železný in 1996?

He also owns the fourth, fifth and sixth best throws of all time and broke the record four times.

How many Olympic gold medals did Jan Železný win?

Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000, after a silver in Seoul in 1988.

Four days after his 1996 Olympic gold, Jan Železný had a tryout as a pitcher with which baseball team?

The tryout took place at Fulton County Stadium in the host city of the Games.

How many times did Železný throw beyond 90 metres in a single 1997 meet at Stellenbosch?

Until 2020 he was also the only man to pass 95 m with the new-model javelin, a feat he managed three times.

Who holds the women's world record of 72.28 m?

She threw it in the first round of the 2008 IAAF World Athletics Final, weeks after taking Olympic gold with her last throw in Beijing.

The women's javelin world record holder finished fourth at the 2000 World Juniors in which discipline?

She even set a Czech record in the women's decathlon in 2004 before her javelin career took off.

Which Cuban held the women's world record from 2001 to 2008?

Her 71.70 m to win the 2005 world title in Helsinki still ranks second on the all-time list.

Which East German threw exactly 80.00 m in 1988, the old-model women's javelin record retired in 1999?

The women's records were reset in April 1999, thirteen years after the men's.

Which Briton threw a world-record 77.44 m in qualifying at the 1986 European Championships?

She went on to win the 1987 world title and was BBC Sports Personality of the Year that year.

Steve Backley set his first world record, 89.58 m, in July 1990 in which city?

His 91.46 m from 1992 remains the British record.

Which rival beat Steve Backley's Olympic record javelin throw of 89.95 m in round three of the Sydney 2000 final?

The two-time champion answered with 90.17 m for his third straight Olympic title.

Which Norwegian won Olympic javelin gold in both 2004 and 2008?

He became the first male thrower to hold the European, World and Olympic titles at the same time.

At a 2007 meet in Rome, Tero Pitkämäki's wayward throw struck a French athlete competing in which event?

Salim Sdiri was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries; Pitkämäki won the world title in Osaka weeks later.

Kenya's Julius Yego, world champion in 2015, earned what nickname for the way he taught himself to throw?

He studied videos of Železný and Thorkildsen online and became the first Kenyan to win a world title in a field event.

Neeraj Chopra's Tokyo 2020 gold made him India's second individual Olympic champion, after which shooter?

Chopra was also the first Asian athlete to win an Olympic javelin gold.

Neeraj Chopra was born in the Panipat district of which Indian state?

He took up sport after being teased about his weight and joined a gym in Panipat as a boy.

Arshad Nadeem's Olympic record javelin throw at Paris 2024 won which country its first individual gold?

It was also the first Olympic athletics medal of any colour for his country.

At which event did Arshad Nadeem become the first South Asian to throw beyond 90 metres?

His 90.18 m in Birmingham was a Games record; he took world silver the following year in Budapest.

Anderson Peters, world champion in 2019 and 2022, represents which Caribbean nation?

He added Olympic bronze in Paris in 2024 and won his country's first Pan American Games gold in 2019.

Matti Järvinen's 1932 gold-winning javelin distance, 72.71 m, was reused as the height of which structure?

Four of his five other throws in that final would also have won gold, and the three Finnish medallists never removed their tracksuit trousers.

Between 1930 and 1936, how many consecutive times did Matti Järvinen break the world record?

During the Winter War he and fellow thrower Yrjö Nikkanen trained soldiers to throw hand grenades on the Karelian Isthmus.

Which nation swept all three men's Olympic javelin medals in both 1920 and 1932?

In 1920 it took the first four places, something no longer possible with three entrants per country.

How much does a men's competition javelin weigh?

The women's implement is 600 g and about 40 cm shorter; under-20 athletes throw the senior weights.

How long is a men's competition javelin?

The cord grip is about 150 mm wide and sits at the centre of gravity, roughly a metre from the tip.

The javelin landing sector is how many degrees wide?

The odd figure was chosen because it makes sector lines easy to construct and lay out on a field.

Unlike the shot, hammer and discus circles, javelin throwers use a runway. How wide is it?

It is at least 30 m long and ends in an arc of 8 m radius from which throws are measured.

Officials outlawed the spinning 'free style' technique after Pentti Saarikoski threw roughly how far in 1956?

The rules now require an overhand throw from the grip; the athlete may not turn fully around before release.

At release, a javelin can reach speeds approaching what?

That is about 70 mph, which is why throwers train more like sprinters than like shot putters.

The rarely contested indoor javelin world record of 85.78 m (1996) is held by which Finn?

The event is almost never held indoors for obvious reasons.

Michael Torke's 1994 orchestral piece 'Javelin' was commissioned in conjunction with which Olympic Games?

The Atlanta Committee ordered it to mark the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra's 50th season.

The men's javelin was the last of the current throwing events to join the Olympics, debuting in which year?

The shot, discus and hammer all came earlier; a freestyle javelin had featured at the 1906 Intercalated Games in Athens.

How much does a women's competition javelin weigh?

It is 2.2 to 2.3 metres long, against 2.6 to 2.7 metres for the men's implement.

Roughly how wide is the cord grip wrapped around a javelin's centre of gravity?

On the men's javelin the grip sits 0.9 to 1.06 metres back from the tip.

What is the radius of the throwing arc at the end of the javelin runway?

The runway itself is 4 metres wide and at least 30 metres long, and throws are measured from the arc.

In which country did throwing javelin-like poles for distance develop into the modern event in the 1870s?

Germany revived target throwing at the same time, but it was the Swedes who made distance the goal.

Eric Lemming's 62.32 m, thrown after the 1912 Olympics, was the first javelin mark to be what?

The Swede had thrown his first world best of 49.32 m back in 1899.

Which Swede set the last official 'both-hands' javelin world record, 114.28 m in 1917?

The right- and left-hand marks were added together; the format soon faded along with two-handed shot and discus.