Less than a month later, on 1 July, Oerter reclaimed it with 62.45m at the USA v Poland meet at Stagg Field, Chicago. On 4 June 1962, just 17 days after the Coliseum Relays, Vladimir Trusenyev of the Soviet Union eclipsed that 61.10m with 61.64m in Leningrad. Oerter’s officially recognised record did not last long. Oerter himself threw 202ft 6in, 61.72m, at the Arkansas Relays in Fayetteville in April 1958, but the field sloped 2.5%, too steep for ratification. US discus thrower Al Oerter (© Getty Images) At 60.60m, that would have eclipsed US thrower Fortune Gordien’s five-year-old world record mark of 59.28m but the fact that the circle was painted on to the concrete surface, though acceptable under NCAA rules at the time, was not permitted by the AAU or IAAF. The official distance was adjusted by head judge Jim Reinhard to 198ft 10in. Competing in the Apple Valley Relays at Victorville, California in March 1958, Babka had a throw measured at 201ft 0in but his discus landed in a drainage ditch 5.9 inches below level of the throwing area, 5.5 inches beyond the legal sloping limit. The first to do so was Richard ‘Rink’ Babka, the US thrower who ended up second to Oerter at the 1962 Coliseum Relays with 59.05m. It had been surpassed in competition twice before, but on both occasions in circumstances that rendered the marks invalid. The quest to breach the 200-foot discus barrier had been regarded in the United States as a field event version of the four-minute mile run. In a country where the customary system of measurement historically favours feet and inches, Oerter’s throw of 200ft 5.5 inches was hailed as a landmark track and field accomplishment. “Some 58 years later, I still recall the excitement watching that throw land past the chalk line at 200ft.” “I was at the LA Coliseum that night,” veteran coach Jack Hayes posted on in 2020. With his fourth effort, though, the sandy-haired 1.93m (6ft 4in) 134kg (295lb) bear of a man hurled his discus out to 61.10m. In round two at the LA Coliseum, where John Anderson won home gold for the US at the 1932 Olympic Games, Oerter had come close with a throw of 60.54m.

Jay Silvester had thrown 60.72m at the International Military Championships at the Heysel Stadion in Brussels the previous August. The global mark belonged to one of his rivals in the Coliseum Relays field. The colossus of the discus throw had yet, however, to etch his name into the world record books. He had also survived a car crash that almost ended his life. Al Oerter was already halfway towards becoming an Olympic track and field legend when he stepped into the discus circle for his fourth-round throw at the Coliseum Relays in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on the evening of – 60 years ago.Īt 25, the native New Yorker had won the first two of his unprecedented four successive Olympic titles, both against the odds and the challenges of the current world record-holder.

Discus olympics