Light men throwing

Four years ago I published an article entitled "Heavy men running". At that time I had a subscription to D. Harder's "Speed and Strength" newsletter and I had stumbled upon an interesting list of records by bodyweight. I analysed Dale's data and presented my conclusions. A surprising (at least to me) fact was that even overweight men could complete a marathon. If you are intrigued by this I recommend that you go back to that post of mine and get the details.

Since Harder is presenting data not only for track but also for field events I was planning to write an article on them but I was holding back because of the imperial measures. Harder, as most Americans, is working with inches, feet, yards, and pounds, things that are so 19th century. And while I understand that the US do not wish to spend the money and energy in order to switch to the metric system I do not get the use of imperial units in sport. I was dispirited by the idea of having to do the conversions but recently, while tidying up my files, I found the newsletter and decided to stop procrastinating.

I opted to focus on the shot put where the range of thrower weights was substantial: over a factor of 2 between the heavier and the lighter. The results are shown in the figure below. 

The continuous line corresponds to an exponential fit. From the values of the fit parameters one can infer that the gains in the throw length with increasing body mass are minimal for the elite throwers, the longest estimated throw being around 24 m. At the other end of the spectrum, one finds that the throw length goes to zero for a body mass around 35 kg. I don't know if there are adult men, of normal stature, with such a light weight (some women do exist though, weighing even below 30 kg). But situating the zero-throw capability at around that low a body mass is not unreasonable. 

There was one list that kindled my interest, that of the decathlon. Here is the figure of performance versus body mass obtained from Harder's data. 

In the upper part of the graph one finds the various elite decathletes with performances over 8000 points. However there exist also three points, spanning the domain of 6000-4000 points. They are due to L. Riedel, B. Oldfield and O. Buder, respectively olympic and world discus throw champion, shot put world record thrower (whose records were, alas, not homologated) and european shot put silver medalist. If one tries to extrapolate from these three last points one obtains a maximum body mass of around 160-170 kg. This is really absurd since there are shot putters in that weight range who can definitely score some points in the decathlon. The name I have in mind is that of I. Ivanov from Kazachstan, medalist at the Asian games and a 20+ m thrower who weighs upwards to 160 kg. He should definitely be able to obtain some score in the decathlon even scoring a zero in the hurdles and pole vault. 

Speaking of which, reminds me of something I read in the 50s. As I have explained I was already interested in the decatlhon and was not missing even the most trifling news. So I remember having seen in a greek sports' newspaper a short paragraph on S. Meconi (European shot put record holder) who had completed a decathlon and obtained something around 2500 points.

Of course it might have been a decathlon disputed as a joke, but still I found it rather shocking that he could not do better than that. Meconi was a 120 kg athlete and it is most probable that at that time the throwers were not working on their speed but just tried to capitalise on their strength. Things have changed since then.

The scabrous story of Sebastian Coe's wild card

This is a story I had somehow missed when it happened (many years ago). I discovered it recently in an article in Inside the Games. Since the story is not quite flattering for Lord Sebastian, I suspect that the publication was encouraged by one of the other candidates for the IOC presidency. 

But let's start at the beginning. Coe, who at that time was simply Sebastian Coe and not a Lord, went to the Moscow, 1980, Olympics as the big favourite in the 800 m (he was already world recordman with 1:42.33) and then, to the surprise of everybody,  was beaten by Ovett. But he took his revenge in the 1500 m adding gold to his silver. 

Coe had broken Bayi's World record wit 3:32.1 (in fact, 3:32.03), but in 1980 Ovett had equalled it just before the Games, with 3:32.1 (slightly slower than Coe's at 3:32.09).  In case you wonder, the current timing rules, stipulating a hundredth of a second precision, were introduced in 1981. Ovett broke the tie with 3:31.36 just after the Olympics (and further improved that with  3:30.77 in 1983).

In 1981 Coe improved the 800 m world record, with 1:41.73, a record that stood for 16 years. He went to the Los Angeles, 1984, Olympics again as the 800 m favourite. And again he lost, this time to Joaquim Cruz. And again he went on to win the 1500 m. In fact Coe's only victory over 800 m in a major championship was his European title, won in Stuttgart in 1986.

In 1988 Coe tried to obtain a third olympic selection. Up to 1984, the selection was done by a panel of selectors but in 1988 the system had changed. The first two slots were given to the winners of trials and only the third was discretionary. Coe, hoping to obtain the discretionary slot in the 800 m, participated in the 1500 m of the UK trials, but did not manage to qualify for the final. And then the third position in the 800 m was given, by the British Amateur Athletic Board in a tight 11 to 10 vote, to P. Elliott (he was the only briton who in the end made the final in Seoul, finishing fourth). Coe responded graciously, but his father and coach called the decision political. 

Coe on the right with Samaranch in the middle

The then IOC president, Marqués Juan Antonio Samaranch, tried to have the decision reconsidered, claiming that many people would like to see Coe running in Seoul. (It is also rumoured that India was willing to include Coe in its national team, given that his mother was of indian origin, her father being punjabi). The answer of the British Amateur Athletic Board to Samaranch was that if he wished to give a wild card to Coe, violating the three-person limit per nation fixed by the Olympic Charter, he could to do so himself. The reactions did not take long to arrive. Everybody knew that Coe was a personal favourite of Samaranch, groomed for a position in the IOC. And S. Cram, a miler rival of Coe, did not mince his words: "it is wrong for the IOC to be playing the old pals act". So Samaranch back-pedalled and telephoned Coe to announce him that he could not be seen breaking the rules. The olympic adventure of S. Coe was over.

He put an end to his competitive carreer in 1990, after having finished 6th in the 800 m of the Auckland,1990, Commonwealth Games. He went on to become a Life Peer, as Baron Coe of Ranmore, in 2000 (hence my referring to him a Lord Sebastian). He retired from the House of Lords in 2022. He now hopes to follow in the steps of another Olympic Baron and all the olympic nobility, acceding to the presidency of the IOC. 

And, to be fair, despite myself often criticising Coe's actions, I am in favour of his candidacy given his unambiguous pro-women stance. If Coe is elected at the presidency of the IOC, all those men who declare themselves to be women will not be allowed to poison our sports. 

PS. While I am invoking a possible conspiracy concerning the publication of the article of Inside the Games, the article may be motivated by something  totally different. Ukrainian sabre fencer O. Kharlan was disqualified when, at the world championships that were the qualifiers for the Paris Olympics, she did not shake hands with her russian opponent. And the IOC president T. Bach took action immediately promising Kharlan that she was being guaranteed a spot in the Olympics. Kharlan competed in Paris, winning an individual bronze and a team gold. And Bach has thus created a precedent where his predecessor, Samaranch, had not dared take the plunge.