Strange But True: Record Breaker

31/1/21 butcherbakertoiletrymaker 1

Of all the Olympic athletes in history, Al Oerter of the United States was the most consistent. Nobody could beat him in the discus throw.

Oerter entered the 1956 Olympics and won the event with a record-breaking throw of 184 feet, 10 1/2 inches. After that he won in the 1960, 1964 and 1968 Olympics. Each time he set a record, but the last three records he broke were his own.

From The Giant Book of More Strange But True Sports Stories by Howard Liss. Illustrations by Joe Mathieu.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Oerter

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1 Comment

  1. Funny thing about Al Oerter is that he also tried out for the 1980 Olympic team but came in 4th place during the trials…then Carter boycotted the Moscow games and he wound up on the boycott team in Philadelphia where he won a silver medal.
     
    While filming a piece for TV, he threw a discus 245 feet.  It was not an official record, because it wasn’t during a sanctioned competition, but if it had been it would still stand as a world record today.  The current Olympic record is 229.3  feet, set in 2004.  The official world record, set in 1986, is 243.5 feet.

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