Al Oerter- 74.68 VIDEO!!!

Historical throw when filming for a TV segment by quadruple Olympic Champion in discus throw.


"The Story"

Born in Astoria, Queens, New York City, Al Oerter grew up in New Hyde Park and attended Sewanhaka High School in Floral Park. He began his career at the age of 15 when a discus landed at his feet and he threw it back past the crowd of throwers. Oerter continued throwing and eventually earned a scholarship to the University of Kansas in 1954 where he became a member of Delta Tau Delta Fraternity. A large man at 6'4" (193 cm) and 280 pounds (127 kg), Oerter was a natural thrower.

Oerter began his Olympic career at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne. He was not considered the favorite but he felt a rush during the competition and he unleashed a throw of 184'11" (56.36 m) - which, at the time, was a career best. The throw was good enough to win the competition by more than 5'.

It appeared Oerter's career would be over at the age of 20, when in 1957, an automobile accident nearly killed him. He did recover in time to compete at the 1960 Summer Olympics at Rome, where Oerter was the slight favorite over teammate and world record holder Rink Babka.

Babka was in the lead for the first four of the six rounds. He gave Oerter advice before his fifth throw and Oerter threw his discus 194'2" (59.18 m), setting an Olympic record. Babka was not able to beat Oerter's throw and finished with the silver.

During the early 1960s, Oerter continued to have success, setting his first world record in 1962. In the process, he was the first to break 200 feet in the discus. He was considered a heavy favorite to win a third gold medal at Tokyo in 1964.

Injuries again seemed to have felled Oerter before the Games. He was bothered by a neck injury then he tore cartilage in his ribs shortly before the competition. Competing in great pain, Oerter set a new Olympic standard and won a third Olympic gold medal despite not being able to take his last throw due to the pain from his ribs. As before, he bettered his own record with a throw of 61.00 meters.

Oerter returned to the Olympics in 1968 at Mexico City but he had yielded the position of favorite to teammate Jay Silvester. Many felt that Oerter, at 32, was finished since Oerter had never thrown as far as Silvester did on his average throws. At the Olympics, however, Oerter released another Olympic record throw of 64.78 meters on his third throw. His record held and he became the first track and field athlete to win four consecutive gold medals.

Oerter retired from athletics after the 1968 Olympics. He did make an attempt to qualify for the American team in 1980 but he finished fourth. He nonetheless set his overall personal record of 69.46 meters that year at the age of 43.

In 1984, at the age of 47, he was involved in a project when they recorded him and other throwers with a high speed camera, while they were throwing. It was in Coto De Caza, California, and they were throwing on a tennis court that was surrounded by small hills. However, the film kept breaking and Oerter had to take throw after throw to satisfy the camera man.

”It was very hot and I started to get more and more angry because of all problems with the camera. I pushed harder and harder for every throw and started landing the discus on the hill and then on the other side. They tried to measure it and found that it was 217 feet (66 m) to the base of the hill, which was 15 feet high (about 4.5 m), and finally measured the throw to be around 245 feet (74.68) long!”

Here´s the video, enjoy!

Flash pleier ei ole installeeritud.

Links about Al Oerter:

Al Oerter Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Al Oeter´s webpage
IAAF article about Al Oerter