Al Oerter

Discus Thrower

• Born: September 19, 1936
• Birthplace: Astoria, New York
• Died: October 1, 2007
• Place of death: Fort Myers, Florida

Sport: Track and field (discus throw)

Early Life

Alfred Adolph (Al) Oerter, Jr., was born on September 19, 1936, in Astoria, New York. His parents were of German and Czech descent. His father, Alfred Oerter, Sr., had been a nine-sport letterman in high school; it seemed only natural for Al, Jr., to have a desire to be an athlete also.

As a boy, young Al was slightly built. Even when he began growing, he remained thin into his teen years, “broomstick thin,” as he described himself. Nevertheless, with his father’s encouragement, he began to build himself up by lifting weights and running. He really wanted to be a good athlete; from age twelve to sixteen, becoming a good athlete was his main goal.

By the time Al was a sophomore at Sewanhaka High School in Hyde Park, New York, his hard physical training had begun to pay off. He was a sprinter on the school track team and was making his name known in football.

The Road to Excellence

One day during track practice, Al spotted a discus lying on the grass. Almost as a joke, he decided to see how far he could throw it. Without knowing how to hold it properly, he sailed it farther than anyone else on the team. By accident, Al had found the event that one day would make him famous.

According to his high school coach Jim Fraley, Al was willing to work harder than anyone else on the team at perfecting his technique and acquiring the ever-increasing strength needed to fully utilize that technique. In his senior year, 1954, Al set a national high school record with the discus. The University of Kansas offered him a scholarship, and he accepted.

The Emerging Champion

Al was only nineteen years old and had just completed his sophomore year at Kansas when he began preparing for the 1956 Olympic Games. By then, he had developed a solid 6-foot 3-inch and 220-pound physique but was still a growing boy compared to others in the discus competition at Melbourne that year. His most formidable competition, Adolfo Consolini of Italy, Ferenc Klics of Hungary, and fellow American Fortune Gordien, were all in their thirties and had been winning Olympic medals and setting world records while Oerter was still in high school. However, these great athletes, along with others to follow, learned that Al had the ability to excel under pressure. When the competition was strongest and when conditions were most difficult, Al performed at his best.

At the Games in Melbourne, officials had set out a flag 180 feet 6 1/2 inches from the throwing circle—the Olympic record. Al coiled into his spin, straightened out of it, and sailed his discus 184 feet 10 1/2 inches, more than 4 feet beyond the flag. On his first throw in Olympic competition, he had bettered the Olympic record and won his first of four gold medals.

Al qualified for the U.S. team in the Rome Olympic Games in 1960, but was the underdog again; a fellow American was favored to win. Powerful Rink Babka had beaten Al in the Olympic trials and had thrown beyond the 200-foot mark in practice. Once again, however, Al answered the pressure with increased concentration and effort. He was down to his fifth throw before he managed to come from behind and clinch first place with a mighty toss of 194 feet 2 inches. The gold medal was his for the second time.

Four years later, in Tokyo, Al’s courage and determination were put to their severest test. Already wearing a surgical collar because of cervical disc problems in his neck, he tore cartilage in his lower ribs while preparing for the 1964 Games. Even without the injury, sportswriters had concluded he had little chance to win. He was up against world-record-holder Ludvig Danek of Czechoslovakia, who had forty-five consecutive wins behind him going into the 1964 Olympic Games.

Although doubling over in pain after each throw, Al managed to whip the discus out an inch and a half beyond the 200-foot mark. He became the first man to reach that distance in Olympic history and collected his third gold medal in the process.

By the 1968 Games in Mexico City, Al was bigger and stronger (260 pounds), but he was also thirty-one years old. Once more he was up against the holder of the world record, fellow American Jay Silvester. Al did it again, nevertheless. His throw of 212 feet 6 1/2 inches set another Olympic record as he won his fourth gold medal in a row.

Continuing the Story

After winning gold medals in four consecutive Olympics, Al’s retirement from competition would not have been unexpected. However, Al kept working at his specialty. The combination of power and the grace and beauty of a discus in flight still held great appeal to him.

By 1980, he still found time to work out while holding down a job as a data communications engineer and raising two daughters at home. Although forty-three years old at the time, Al placed fourth in the Olympic trials with a lifetime best throw of 227 feet 11 inches. That performance qualified him for a position as alternate on the Olympic team; however, President Jimmy Carter ordered a U.S. boycott of the Moscow Olympics.

Six years later, at the age of forty-nine, Al could still sail his discus beyond the 200-foot mark; he remains the oldest man in history ever to accomplish that feat. Al was inducted into the USA Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1974 and the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1983. In retirement, Al became an abstract painter. He died in 2007.

Summary

From a spindly youth, Al Oerter built himself into a strong and quick athlete. He always did his best when facing the stiffest competition. He did what no other athlete had done: He won four consecutive Olympic gold medals in the same event and set Olympic records each time.

Bibliography

Conner, Floyd. The Olympics’ Most Wanted: The Top Ten Book of the Olympic’s Gold Medal Gaffes, Improbable Triumphs and Other Oddities. Washington, D.C.: Brassey’s, 2002.

Fry, Mary D. “Al Oerter: An Olympian’s Views as Seen from a Sport Psychology Perspective.” Strength and Conditioning: The Professional Journal of the National Strength and Conditioning Association 20, no. 1 (1998): 7.

Holst, Don, and Marcia S. Popp. American Men of Olympic Track and Field: Interviews with Athletes and Coaches. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2005.

Nolan, Timothy. “In the Center of the Ring.” Coach and Athletic Director 65, no. 10 (May/June, 1996): 46-47.

Olson, Leonard T. Masters Track and Field: A History. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2001.

Rogoff, Daniel. One Toss Farther. Elizabethtown, Pa.: Continental Press, 1988.