Al Oerter

1936-

American discus thrower

One of the great figures in Olympic track and field history, Al Oerter was the first athlete to win gold medals in four consecutive Olympic competitions. Between 1956 and 1968, Oerter dominated the discus event at the Olympics, and he continued to maintain his high level of competition into the 1980s—as he approached his fiftieth birthday and long after he had been inducted into various halls of fame.

Alfred Oerter was born in Astoria, New York (a neighborhood in the borough of Queens) on August 19, 1936. His discus career had an almost mythical beginning: while running on his high school track (Oerter began his high school track and field career as a miler), an errant discus, which weighs two kilograms or nearly four and-a-half pounds, fell at his feet. When Oerter threw it back his toss went so far that the coach immediately talked him into competing as a discus thrower. In those days before video, or even readily available film of competitions, Oerter refined his technique in perhaps the most unusual way of all: he studied a flip book of a discus thrower. In 1954 Oerter set the U.S. high school record for the discus. Oerter's career blossomed at the University of Kansas under legendary track and field coach Bill Easton. Easton guided Oerter in his early amateur career that included making the United States Olympic team in 1956.

First Olympic Success

The Olympics transformed Oerter into an athlete of international stature. In The Olympics: 80 Years of People, Events and Records, edited by Lord Killanin and John Rodda, it was acknowledged that Oerter has been "often cited as the Supreme Olympic athletics competitor…" (Here the term "athletics" refers to track and field events.) In 1956 the summer Olympics were held in Melbourne, Australia. Down through the years the United States had always fielded a strong discus team and that year Oerter's colleagues in the event included Fortune Gordien and Desmond Koch. Gordien had won the bronze medal in the 1948 Olympics and was the world record holder. The twenty-year-old Oerter stunned the world when he not only won the gold medal, but in doing so set a new Olympic record with a throw of 56.36 meters (184 feet, 10¹/₂ inches). The U.S. swept the discus competition that year: Fortune won the silver medal and Koch the bronze. Oerter would improve on his winning distance in each of the three succeeding Olympics.

Sets World Records

Oerter was just hitting his stride. In the years between the Melbourne Olympics and the 1960 Olympics in Rome he captured the U.S. national championship for discus three times: 1957, 1959, and 1960. In 1959 Oerter also won the gold medal in the Pan-American Games.

Although he again wasn't necessarily the favorite, nor the world record holder (Poland's Edmund Piatkowski had set the new mark of 59.91 meters in 1959), Oerter easily defended his gold medal in the 1960 Rome Olympics with a winning throw of 59.18 meters (194 feet, 1¹/₂ inches) as the United States once again swept the discus competition: Richard Babka won the silver medal and Dick Cochran the bronze.

Having established his Olympic credentials once and for all, Oerter dominated the sport of discus throwing on the international scene over the next four years. In a flurry of amazing competitiveness, beginning with a meet in Los Angeles in May 1962, Oerter accomplished the one goal in his sport that had eluded him—he set the world record with a throw of 61.10 meters (200 feet, 5¹/₂ inches); Oerter was the first person to throw the discus 200 feet. Oerter's record was short-lived. Two and a half weeks later Vladimir Trusenyov set the new standard (61.64 meters) in a meet in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), Russia. Oerter recaptured the world record with a throw of 62.44 meters in July 1962 in Chicago. In April 1963 he bettered his mark with a throw of 62.62 meters (205 feet, 5¹/₂ inches). Almost exactly a year later, in April 1964, he set the mark again with a throw of 62.94 meters (206 feet, 6 inches). However, by the time the 1964 Olympics came around Oerter's record had been shattered by Ludvik Danek of Czechoslovakia, who, in a meet in August 1964, threw the discus 64.55 meters.

Pain and Triumph

When the 1964 Olympics took place in October in Tokyo, Oerter, the two-time reigning Olympic discus champion, was once again not the favorite. Not only was Danek the world record holder, but he had won an incredible forty-five consecutive competitions. To make matters worse for Oerter he was forced to wear a neck brace because of what was described as a "chronic cervical disk injury." That injury was far from the extent of Oerter's physical woes that season. About a week before the start of the Olympics, Oerter slipped and fell while practicing on a wet field. He tore cartilage in his rib cage. As he recounted to Bud Greenspan in 100 Greatest Moments in Olympic History, "I was bleeding internally, I couldn't move, I couldn't sleep and I consumed bottles of aspirin to alleviate the pain. I went through ice treatments to minimize the bleeding and the doctors ordered me not to compete. But these are the Olympics and you die before you don't compete in the Olympics."

Oerter competed with his rib cage heavily taped and packed with ice, and not even three shots of Novocain could dull the pain. After four rounds (each competitor gets six throws or rounds) Oerter was in third place-a remarkable enough achievement given the circumstances, but still more than seven feet short of Danek's best throw. Acknowledging he was in too much pain to try a sixth toss, Oerter decided to go for broke in the fifth round. His throw of sixty-one meters (200 feet, 1¹/₃ inches) was a new Olympic record and nearly half a meter better than Danek's best toss. Oerter never saw the discus land. He was lying on the ground, doubled up in pain.

Oerter continued competing; for him the intervening years were primarily warm-ups for the Olympics. However he did win his sixth U.S. National championship in 1966 (besides the aforementioned three national championships, Oereter was also national champion in 1962, 1964).

By the time 1968 Olympics, held in Mexico City, rolled around, the world record holder was fellow American, Jay Sylvester, who had topped Danek's mark with a toss of 66.54 meters in May of that year. Sylvester extended his record in September with a throw of 68.4 meters.

But it was Oerter who once again made the Olympics his special stage. His throw of 64.78 (212 feet, 6 inches) was good enough to win his fourth consecutive Olympic gold medal; Lothar Milde of the German Democratic Republic took the silver medal while Danek captured the bronze medal. Oerter's winning throw was a personal best, but more important, his four consecutive gold medals in the same event was a feat no other track and field athlete had ever duplicated. However, it was overshadowed by the controversial "black power salute" by African American track stars Tommie Smith and John Carlos who were protesting against racism in the United States. Smith and Carlos took the gold and bronze medals, respectively, in the 200 meter event.

The Later Years

Although he had hoped to win five consecutive gold medals for discus Oerter decided to retire after the 1968 Olympics. Injuries were taking their toll on him, and at that time track and field was far less lucrative. Oerter earned his living as a computer engineer. In 1976 Oerter had a change of heart, he came out of retirement and began training for the 1980 Olympics. He freely admitted that that year (1976), he tried steroids to bulk up but quickly gave up on the experiment when his blood pressure rose too high. He afterward became a vocal opponent of steroids and drugs. In 1976 Oerter set his own personal record discus throw of 227 feet, 10³/₄ inches. In 1980 the 44-year-old Oerter finished fourth in the Olympic trials, but the United States boycotted the summer Olympics that year (held in Moscow), so it was all a moot point.

In 1996 Oerter was further honored for his Olympic feats as the final torch bearer in Atlanta.

Oerter continued to compete until the mid-1980s, long after his legacy as one of the great discus throwers of all time was secured, courtesy of his four Olympic gold medals and his four world records. In addition, there was the Pan-American championship and the five U.S. records that he held. In 1974 Oerter was inducted into the USA Track & Field Hall of Fame and in 1983 he was inducted in the Olympic Hall of Fame.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Books

Greenspan, Bud. 100 Greatest Moments in Olympic History. Los Angeles: General Publishing Group, 1995.

Killanin, Lord, and John Rodda, eds. The Olympic Games: 80 Years of People, Events and Records. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., 1976.

Laing, Jane, Ed., et al. Chronicle of the Olympics, 1896-1996. New York: Dorling Kindersley, 1996.

Periodicals

Associated Press (July 17, 1996).

Christian Science Monitor (April 2, 1990).

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (May 27, 1996).

Other

"Al Oerter." USA Track & Field. http://www.usatf.org/athletes/hof/oerter.shtml (January 9, 2003).

"Al Oerter." http://vm.mtsac.edu/relays/HallFame/Oerter.html (January 8, 2003).

"Millard 'Bill' Easton." USA Track & Field. http://www.usatf.org/athletes/hof/easton.shtml (January 21, 2003).

"M.E. 'Bill' Easton." Kansas Sports Hall of Fame. http://www.kshof.org/inductees/easton.html (January 21, 2003).

"World Record Progression-Throwing." Sportsfacts.net. http://www.geocities.com/loki314285/history/athletics/world_records/throwing_world_records.html (January 13, 2003).

Sketch by F. Caso