Editing Javelin throw (section)

==History==
{{See also|History of physical training and fitness}}
[[File:Javelin throwers Ancient Greece.png|thumb|A scene depicting javelin throwers and other [[Pentathlete|pentathletes]]. Originally found on a [[Panathenaic amphora]] from [[Ancient Greece]], circa 525 B.C. British Museum.]]
The javelin throw was added to the [[Ancient Olympic Games]] as part of the [[pentathlon]] in 708&nbsp;BC.<ref>{{Cite web |date=July 11, 2022 |title=From weapon of war to Olympic sport: A glance at javelin throw's history |url=https://olympics.com/en/news/javelin-throw-history |access-date=February 26, 2024 |website=Olympics.com}}</ref> It included two events, one for distance and the other for accuracy in hitting a target. The javelin was thrown with the aid of a thong (''[[Amentum|ankyle]]'' in Greek) that was wound around the middle of the shaft. Athletes held the javelin by the ''ankyle'', a leather strap around the shaft, so when they released the javelin, the unwinding of the thong gave the javelin a spiral trajectory.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Greek Javelin |url=https://healthandfitnesshistory.com/ancient-fitness-tools/greek-javelin/ |access-date=2024-02-26 |website=Health and Fitness History |language=en-US}}</ref>

Throwing javelin-like poles into targets was revived in [[Germany]] and [[Sweden]] in the early 1870s. In Sweden, these poles developed into the modern javelin, and throwing them for distance became a common event there and in [[Finland]] in the 1880s. The rules continued to evolve over the next decades; originally, javelins were thrown with no run-up, and holding them by the grip at the center of gravity was not always mandatory. Limited run-ups were introduced in the late 1890s, and soon developed into the modern unlimited run-up.<ref name="jukola">{{cite book |title=Huippu-urheilun historia |year=1935 |publisher=[[Werner Söderström Osakeyhtiö]] |author=Jukola, Martti |language=fi}}</ref>{{rp|435–436}}

Sweden's [[Eric Lemming]], who threw his first world best (49.32 metres) in 1899 and ruled the event from 1902 to 1912, was the first dominant javelin thrower.<ref name="jukola"/>{{rp|436,441}}<ref name="synty">{{cite book |title=Urheilulajien synty |author1=Kanerva, Juha |author2=Tikander, Vesa |isbn=9789518513455 |publisher=Teos |language=fi}}</ref>{{rp|478}} When the men's javelin was introduced as an Olympic discipline at the [[Athletics at the 1906 Intercalated Games|1906 Intercalated Games]], Lemming won by almost nine metres and broke his own world record; Sweden swept the first four places, as Finland's best throwers were absent and the event had yet to become popular in any other country.<ref name="jukola"/>{{rp|437}} Though challenged by younger talents, Lemming repeated as Olympic champion in 1908 and 1912; his eventual best mark (62.32&nbsp;m, thrown after the 1912 Olympics) was the first javelin world record to be officially ratified by the [[International Association of Athletics Federations]].<ref name="jukola"/>{{rp|436–441}}<ref name=iaaf>
{{cite web
 |title       = 12th IAAF World Championships In Athletics: IAAF Statistics Handbook. Berlin 2009.
 |url         = http://www.iaaf.org/mm/document/competitions/competition/05/15/63/20090706014834_httppostedfile_p345-688_11303.pdf
 |publisher   = IAAF Media & Public Relations Department
 |location    = Monte Carlo
 |pages       = Pages 546, 559
 |year        = 2009
 |access-date  = 5 August 2009
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20110629134819/http://www.iaaf.org/mm/document/competitions/competition/05/15/63/20090706014834_httppostedfile_p345-688_11303.pdf
 |archive-date=29 June 2011 }}
</ref>
[[File:Julius Saaristo 1912b.jpg|thumb|upright=.6|[[Julius Saaristo]] in [[1912 Summer Olympics]]]]
In the late 19th and early 20th century, most javelin competitions were two-handed; the implement was thrown with the right hand and separately with the left hand, and the best marks for each hand were added together. Competitions for the better hand only were less common, though not unknown.<ref name="synty" /> At the Olympics, a both-hands contest was held only once, in [[Athletics at the 1912 Summer Olympics – Men's two handed javelin throw|1912]]; Finland swept the medals, ahead of Lemming.<ref name="jukola"/>{{rp|441}} After that, this version of the javelin rapidly faded into obscurity, together with similar variations of the shot and the discus; Sweden's [[Yngve Häckner]], with his total of 114.28&nbsp;m from 1917, was the last official both-hands world record holder.<ref name="cat">{{cite web|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402182341/http://www.fcatletisme.cat/Ctecnic/documentacio/modelstecnics/12_JAVELINA_2011.pdf |archive-date= 2 April 2015 |url=http://www.fcatletisme.cat/Ctecnic/documentacio/modelstecnics/12_JAVELINA_2011.pdf |title=Part III: Llançaments – Tema 12 Javelina |author=Vélez Blasco, Miguel |language=ca |publisher=Institut Nacional d'Educació Física de Catalunya / Federació Catalana d'Atletisme |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Another early variant was the freestyle javelin, in which holding the javelin by the grip at the center of gravity was not mandatory; such a [[Athletics at the 1908 Summer Olympics – Men's freestyle javelin throw|freestyle competition]] was held at the 1908 Olympics, but it was dropped from the program after that.<ref name="synty"/>{{rp|478}} Hungary's [[Mór Kóczán]] used a freestyle end grip to break the 60-metre barrier in 1911, a year before Lemming and [[Julius Saaristo]] first did so with a regular grip.<ref name="jukola"/>{{rp|440}}<ref name="wrp">{{cite web |url=http://iaaf-ebooks.s3.amazonaws.com/2015/Progression-of-IAAF-World-Records-2015/projet/IAAF-WRPB-2015.pdf |title=IAAF World Records Progression |edition=2015 |author1=Hymans, Richard |author2=Matrahazi, Imre |publisher=[[International Association of Athletics Federations]] |access-date=20 October 2015}}</ref>{{rp|214}}

The first known women's javelin marks were recorded in Finland in 1909.<ref name="iaaf9427"/> Originally, women threw the same implement as men; a lighter, shorter javelin for women was introduced in the 1920s. Women's javelin throw was added to the Olympic program in 1932; [[Babe Didrikson Zaharias|Mildred "Babe" Didrikson]] of the United States became the first champion.<ref name="synty"/>{{rp|479}}

For a long time, javelins were made of solid wood, typically birch, with a steel tip. The hollow, highly aerodynamic Held javelin, invented by American thrower [[Bud Held]] and developed and manufactured by his brother Dick, was introduced in the 1950s; the first Held javelins were also wooden with steel tips, but later models were made entirely of metal.<ref name="synty"/>{{rp|478–479}}<ref name="iaaf9427">{{cite web|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120606232418/http://www.iaaf.org/community/athletics/trackfield/newsid%3D9427.html |url=http://www.iaaf.org/community/athletics/trackfield/newsid=9427.html |archive-date= 6 June 2012 |publisher=IAAF |title=Javelin Throw – Introduction |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.si.com/vault/1955/06/06/602157/track |magazine=[[Sports Illustrated]] |date=6 June 1955 |title=Track: A Salute to the Javelin And Its Practitioners—One of Whom, Bud Held, Is Showing Those Finns A Thing Or Two |access-date=8 March 2017}}</ref> These new javelins flew further, but were also less likely to land neatly point first; as a response to the increasingly frequent flat or ambiguously flat landings, experiments with modified javelins started in the early 1980s. The resulting designs, which made flat landings much less common and reduced the distances thrown, became official for men starting in April 1986 and for women in April 1999, and the world records (then 104.80&nbsp;m by [[Uwe Hohn]], and 80.00&nbsp;m by [[Petra Felke]]) were reset.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.coachr.org/javrevision.htm |title=Why did the senior javelin specification have to be changed? |author=Bremicher, Erick |access-date=22 May 2015 |archive-date=23 September 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180923001604/http://www.coachr.org/javrevision.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> The current ({{as of|2017|lc=y}}) men's world record is held by [[Jan Železný]] at 98.48&nbsp;m (1996); [[Barbora Špotáková]] holds the women's world record at 72.28&nbsp;m (2008).

Of the 69 Olympic medals that have been awarded in the men's javelin, 32 have gone to competitors from Norway, Sweden or Finland. Finland is the only nation to have swept the medals at a currently recognized official Olympics, and has done so twice, in 1920 and 1932, in addition to its 1912 sweep in the two-handed javelin; in 1920 Finland swept the first four places, which is no longer possible as only three entrants per country are allowed. Finland has, however, never been nearly as successful in the women's javelin.<ref name="synty"/>{{rp|479}}

The javelin throw has been part of the [[decathlon]] since the decathlon was introduced in the early 1910s; the all-around, an earlier ten-event contest of American origin, did not include the javelin throw. The javelin was also part of some (though not all) of the many early forms of women's pentathlon and has always been included in the [[heptathlon]] after it replaced the pentathlon in 1981.<ref name="iaafst7">IAAF Scoring Tables for Combined Events, pp. 7–10.</ref>