The javelin was redesigned because it flew too far
In 1984 the East German thrower Uwe Hohn threw the JAVELIN 104.80 metres. That is so far it risked landing on the running TRACK on the other side of the arena, and javelins were also often landing flat, making it hard to judge where they had touched down. In 1986 the men's javelin was redesigned, with its centre of balance moved forward, so it would nose down sooner and stick point-first. Distances dropped by about ten metres, and the records started again.
The other throws in the FIELD events include the DISCUS and the SHOT PUT, in which men throw a metal ball weighing 7.26 kilograms and women one weighing four.
The flop that changed high jumping
Until the 1960s, high jumpers went over the bar facing it or rolling sideways across it, and they landed in sandpits or low piles of sawdust. When soft foam landing mats arrived, an American student called Dick Fosbury began going over head first and backwards, curving his body over the bar. People laughed. Then he won the Olympic gold medal in Mexico City in 1968, and within a few years almost every high jumper had copied the Fosbury Flop.
The POLE VAULT changed with its equipment too. Poles went from bamboo to metal and then, in the 1960s, to bendy fibreglass, which stores energy like a spring and flings the vaulter upwards. Records shot up. The LONG JUMP and TRIPLE JUMP are measured from the front edge of the take-off board.
One false start and you are out
A SPRINTER starts from BLOCKS, which the feet push against. Starting before the gun is a false start, and since 2010 a single false start means disqualification. Sensors in the blocks detect any runner who reacts faster than a tenth of a second after the gun, because that is thought to be too fast for a human to hear and respond.
In a RELAY each RUNNER must hand the BATON to the next inside a thirty-metre zone, and dropping it usually ends the race. The HURDLES are set at heights and distances that make three strides between them the fastest pattern.
Under four minutes for the mile
For years people wondered whether anyone could run a mile in under four minutes. On 6 May 1954, at the Iffley Road track in Oxford, a medical student called Roger Bannister did it in 3 minutes 59.4 seconds. Two friends, Chris Brasher and Chris Chataway, ran in front of him for most of the race to set the pace.
His record lasted just 46 days before the Australian John Landy beat it. Since then more than a thousand runners have broken four minutes, and the barrier that seemed impossible now separates good milers from very good ones.
The marathon and the rest of the grid
The MARATHON, the longest standard race, is run on roads rather than in the STADIUM. Its story is told on our ancient Greece page, including where its odd distance of 42.195 kilometres came from.
The DECATHLON combines ten events over two days, and every athlete in the grid is chasing the same things: a fast SPRINT, the FINISH line, a place in the right LANE, and a MEDAL.