Javelin throw

• 1. Introduction

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  The javelin throw asks a simple question with a complicated answer. How far can a person hurl a spear about 2.5 m long? In the Ancient Olympic Games, the answer mattered enough to add the event to the pentathlon in 708 BC. The throwers there wound a leather strap called the ankyle around the shaft, holding the javelin by that strap so the unwinding gave the flying spear a spiral. Centuries later the question would push throws past 100 metres, far enough that the spear stopped being safe inside a stadium. So the people who govern the sport did something unusual. They redesigned the weapon to make it fly less far. Why would a sport deliberately shorten its own records? Why is the javelin the one throw where the technique itself is written into the rulebook? And how did three small northern countries come to dominate an event born in ancient Greece? The answers run through a leather thong, a hollow aerodynamic spear, and a throw so wild that officials banned it on the spot.

• 2. From Thong To Runway

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  Throwing javelin-like poles into targets came back to life in Germany and Sweden in the early 1870s. In Sweden, those poles became the modern javelin, and throwing them for distance spread there and in Finland through the 1880s. The earliest rules look strange now. Javelins were thrown with no run-up at all, and holding the spear by the grip at its center of gravity was not always required. Limited run-ups arrived in the late 1890s, and from those grew the unlimited run-up the sport uses today.

  Sweden's Eric Lemming was the first thrower to tower over everyone. He threw his first world best of 49.32 metres in 1899, then ruled the event from 1902 to 1912. When the men's javelin entered the Olympics at the 1906 Intercalated Games, Lemming won by almost nine metres and broke his own world record. Sweden swept the first four places, helped by absent Finnish rivals and an event still unknown elsewhere. Lemming won again in 1908 and 1912. His best mark of 62.32 m, thrown after the 1912 Olympics, became the first javelin world record officially ratified by the International Association of Athletics Federations.

• 3. Both Hands And Free Style

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  Two-handed javelin was the common form in the late 19th and early 20th century. An athlete threw with the right hand, then separately with the left, and the two best marks were added together. Contests for the better hand only happened, but less often. The Olympics held a both-hands contest exactly once, in 1912, where Finland swept the medals ahead of Lemming. The format then faded fast, along with two-handed versions of the shot and the discus. Sweden's Yngve Häckner held the last official both-hands world record, a total of 114.28 m from 1917.

  Another early variant was the freestyle javelin, where holding the spear by its center-of-gravity grip was not required. A freestyle competition appeared at the 1908 Olympics and was dropped afterward. Hungary's Mór Kóczán used a freestyle end grip to break the 60-metre barrier in 1911. That was a full year before Lemming and Julius Saaristo first crossed 60 metres with a regular grip. The first known women's javelin marks were recorded in Finland in 1909. Women threw the same implement as men until a lighter, shorter javelin arrived in the 1920s. The women's event joined the Olympic program in 1932, and Mildred "Babe" Didrikson of the United States became its first champion.

• 4. The Spear That Flew Too Far

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  Javelins were made of solid wood for a long time, usually birch, tipped with steel. That changed with the hollow, highly aerodynamic Held javelin, invented by American thrower Bud Held and developed and manufactured by his brother Dick. It arrived in the 1950s. The first Held javelins were still wooden with steel tips, but later models were all metal. These spears flew further, yet they were also less likely to land neatly point first. Flat or ambiguously flat landings became a constant source of disputes.

  Uwe Hohn pushed the old men's record to 104.80 m, a distance that turned into a safety problem. With throws topping 100 metres, staging a competition inside a stadium infield grew difficult. On the 1st of April 1986, the IAAF Technical Committee redesigned the men's 800 g javelin. They moved the center of gravity 4 cm forward, reduced the surface area in front of it, and increased the surface area behind it. The effect resembles the feathers on an arrow. The javelin turns into the relative wind, which as it descends seems to rise from the ground, so the tip turns to face the earth. Less lift means roughly 10% less distance, but far more consistent point-first landings. The women's 600 g javelin was redesigned the same way in 1999. When the men's change took effect, both world records were reset. Today Jan Železný holds the men's record at 98.48 m, thrown in Jena on the 25th of May 1996, and Barbora Špotáková holds the women's record at 72.28 m from 2008. Manufacturers tried to recover the lost distance with holes, rough paint, and dimples to increase tail drag. Those tricks were forbidden at the end of 1991. Seppo Räty had thrown 96.96 m in 1991 with such a design, and that record was nullified.

• 5. A Rulebook For The Arm

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  The javelin is the one throw where the rules dictate technique, and "non-orthodox" methods are simply not allowed. The spear must be held at its grip and thrown overhand, over the shoulder or upper arm. An athlete may not turn completely around or start with their back to the throwing direction. The point is to stop anyone from spinning and flinging the javelin sidearm like a discus.

  The ban traces to a specific moment. A group of athletes began experimenting with a spin technique they called "free style". On the 24th of October 1956, Pentti Saarikoski threw while holding the end of the javelin. Officials were so alarmed by how out of control the method looked that they wrote the rule specifications to outlaw it. Distances depend on more than the rulebook, though. The javelin's size, shape, minimum weight, and center of gravity are all defined by World Athletics. Men throw a javelin between 2.6 and 2.7 m long weighing 800 g, women one between 2.2 and 2.3 m weighing 600 g. The grip, about 150 mm wide and made of cord, sits at the center of gravity, 0.9 to 1.06 m from the tip on the men's spear and 0.8 to 0.92 m on the women's.

• 6. The Runway And The Sector

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  Instead of a circle, the javelin thrower gets a runway 4 m wide and at least 30 m long. It ends in an 8 m radius throwing arc, the line from which every throw is measured. Athletes use that distance to build a run-up and gather momentum. Like the other throws, the competitor cannot leave the runway until the implement lands. The need to stop behind the arc caps both how close an athlete gets to the line and the speed reached at release.

  The javelin is thrown toward a circular sector of 28.96 degrees, centered on the middle of the throwing arc. That odd-looking angle was chosen because it produces sector boundaries easy to construct and lay out on a field. A throw counts only if the tip lands inside the sector and strikes the ground first. Distance runs from the throwing arc to the landing point of the tip, rounded down to the nearest centimetre. A round is one attempt by each competitor in turn, and competitions usually run three to six rounds. The longest single legal throw wins, with the second-longest breaking ties. Large fields use a cut after three rounds, keeping the top eight for additional attempts. The event is almost always outdoors. Matti Närhi set the men's indoor world record of 85.78 m in 1996.

• 7. The Nordic Grip On Glory

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  Of the 69 Olympic medals awarded in the men's javelin, 32 have gone to throwers from Norway, Sweden, or Finland. Finland stands alone as the only nation to sweep the medals at a currently recognized official Olympics, and it did so twice, in 1920 and 1932. That is on top of its 1912 sweep in the two-handed javelin. In 1920 Finland swept the first four places, something now impossible since only three entrants per country are allowed. Finland's grip never extended to the women's event, where it has never been nearly as successful.

  The javelin has belonged to the decathlon since that ten-event contest was introduced in the early 1910s. The all-around, an earlier American ten-event contest, left the javelin out. The spear also appeared in some of the many early forms of women's pentathlon. It has always been part of the heptathlon, which replaced the pentathlon in 1981. The throw demands an unusual blend of bodies. A javelin can leave the hand at speeds approaching 113 km/h, or 70 mph, so throwers share more with sprinters than with heavier throwing athletes, while still needing real throwing skill.

• 8. Three Phases And A Song

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  The javelin throw breaks into three phases: the run-up, the transition, and the delivery. In the run-up, as author Luann Voza describes, "your arm is bent and kept close to your head, keeping the javelin in alignment with little to no arm movement". The bicep contracts to flex the elbow, and the deltoid flexes to keep the spear high. In the transition the back muscles contract as "the javelin is brought back in alignment with the shoulder with the thrower's palm up". That motion stretches the chest, and a stretch reflex, what Voza calls "an involuntary contraction of your chest", helps drive the throwing arm forward with more force. In the delivery, the shoulders rotate to start the release, which "transfers movement through the triceps muscles, wrists and fingers to extend the throwing arm forward to release the javelin".

  The event has reached beyond the field. In 1994, Michael Torke composed Javelin, commissioned by the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games to celebrate the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra's 50th anniversary season, tied to the 1996 Summer Olympics. Throwers have also become a favorite motif on collectors' coins. The 5 euro Finnish coin minted in 2005 for the 10th IAAF World Championships shows a javelin thrower on its face. On its reverse sit the legs of hurdle runners, with the Helsinki Olympic Stadium tower rising behind them.