Word: javeline
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...phrase was heard less often when it came to the men's events. In the 24 track-and-field events, the Soviet-bloc men outdid their hypothetical Olympic rivals in nine. Power, not speed, was their forte. In the brawny field events-hammer, javelin, discus and shotput-three Soviet athletes and one East German exceeded the winning distances in Los Angeles. In the pole vault, the high-flying Konstantin Volkov of the the U.S.S.R. cleared 19 ft. ¼in., two inches higher than the winning Olympic vault. Five world records were achieved in the pool. "The water is fast...
...like to be with them?" she asked. "I envy them. Don't you?" "Yes," she said. "I've always wanted to be a javelin thrower...
...suspect we were not alone in wondering wistfully if there was not perhaps one Olympic event (after all there are 220 of them) perfectly suited to our athletic abilities. It was only a question of knowing-that if she had picked up a javelin, say, just by chance, and thrown it, through some perfect and startling alchemic convulsion of muscles the thing would have sailed a quarter of a mile. Astonished observers in Central Park-the kind of place one would find a javelin or two lying around untended-would ask to see it done again. Why not? After...
Hingsen knew it was over. He managed a javelin throw of only 198 ft. 3 in., 23 ft. short of his best. After several awkward practice heaves, Thompson launched a toss of 214 ft., followed by the obligatory grin. In the final event, the 1,500 meters, Thompson could have changed his shirt while racing and still won the gold. But he had to run at least 4:34.8 to break Hingsen's decathlon record of 8,798 points. Seemingly easing up at the end, however, Thompson trudged across the finish line in 4:35, two-tenths...
...glaring controversy was the javelin competition, which began a little after 5 p.m., when the spear throwers complained that a fellow could lose his Olympics in the sun. Duncan Atwood noted, "It was sort of like having a flash go off in your face just as you released." Mel Durslag, a Los Angeles historian for the Herald Examiner, recalled that similar worries were heard in 1958 when the Dodgers wanted to put home plate in the Coliseum's east end. A man from nearby Arcadia proposed floating a giant balloon over the west rim, thereby shading the batter...