whatilearned
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athletics_at_the_1896_Summer_Olympics_%E2%80%93_Men%27s_discus_throw
TIL that during the 1896 Olympics, nobody knew how to throw a discus because it was the first international discus competition ever. Greek competitors tried to imitate Myron’s ancient greek discobolus statue, but the imitation was not required.
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Stories of people showing up without ever doing something, or with the completely inappropriate shoes or clothes, and winning always amuse me. I wish that could happen now.
Also the Americans did well because they copied a discus from a statue. So they trained with a discus that was twice the size as the competition version. -Watched that in some TV movie from the 1984 Olympics.
Oof, winning result was the default world record at 29 meters. For context the current world record is 74 meters. I wonder if by percentage this is the most improved record on the books.
I guess they didn’t discus it before they left.