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The women's event was first contested at the 1928 Olympics, being one of the five athletics events in the inaugural Olympic women's programme. The Olympic records are 69.89 m ( 229 ft 31⁄2 in) for men, set by Virgilijus Alekna in 2004, and 72.30 m ( 237 ft 21⁄4 in) for women, set by Martina Hellmann in 1988.
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The sport of throwing the discus traces back to it being an event in the original Olympic Games of Ancient Greece. The discus as a sport was resurrected in Magdeburg, Germany, by gymnastics teacher Christian Georg Kohlrausch and his students in the 1870s.
Jul 12, 2024 · The discus throw, where a competitor hurls a heavy disc, was one of the events at the Ancient Olympics. It was introduced in the ancient Greek pentathlon event -- running, long jump, discus throw, javelin throw and wrestling -- and can be dated back to 708 BC.
- The early days of discus throwing. Discus throwing dates back to the ancient Greek Olympic Games, as depicted in this Fifth Century B.C. statue from the British Museum, "Discobolus," by the sculptor Myron.
- Modern Olympic Discus. Fittingly, the first modern Olympics in 1896 included the discus throw event, which was won by American Robert Garrett.
- Women join Olympics. When women entered Olympic track and field competition in 1928, discus was their lone throwing event. American Lillian Copeland, shown above in an illustration depicting her gold medal-winning performance, earned a silver medal in 1928 before striking gold in 1932.
- Four-time champ. American Al Oerter dominated Olympic discus from 1956-68, winning four consecutive gold medals while setting new Olympic records each time.
Jul 19, 2024 · Throwing the discus was introduced as an event in modern athletics when the Olympic Games were revived at Athens in 1896. Early modern athletes threw the discus from an inclined pedestal, using an exaggerated style derived from ancient representations of the sport.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
The first men’s discus thrower to achieve a distance of more than 60m was US athlete Jay Silvester with 60,56m in August 1961. Over the next 24 years, the record was broken 18 times. Then, in June 1986, German athlete Jurgen Schult set a world record of 74.08m (243ft 1⁄2in).
May 14, 2018 · The discus was a men's event at the first modern Olympic Games in 1896; a women's discus event was added in 1928. In addition to its place as a freestanding Olympic sport, the discus is one of the events that comprise the decathlon.
