Athletics of To-Day 1929

Throwing the Discus 279 movement, as shown in No. 2, Plate 45, which is a main feature of the modern and logical method of slinging the missile out from under the hand in what is known as the free style. The Olympic Games, after remaining uncelebrated for up– wards of fifteen hundred years, were revived at Athens in r8g6 and a Free Style Discus Throwing event was included in the programme. To this, however, I will revert a little further on. Between the revival of the Games in r8g6 and the holding of an intercalated series, also at Athens, ten years later, anti– quaries and others had been worrying away at the history of the sport, and in rgo6 there was added to the Olympic pro– gramme an event in the Classical, or Hellenic, style. For this competition a rectangular pedestal3rl ins. long and 27! ins. broad, with a height of 6 ins. at the back and 2 ins. at the front (towards the direction of the throw) was provided for the athlete to throw from. The thrower took his stand upon this pedestal, with feet separated, right foot in advance, and the discus held between his hands. The discus was then raised straight above the head by both hands, as shown in picture No. 3, Plate 45, of Martin Sheridan, U.S.A. When the arms were at full stretch above the head the whole trunk was turned to the right, without, however, altering the position of the feet, save for a lifting of the left heel. The body was then bent sharply forward, the left hand releasing its hold as it reached the right knee and the right hand swinging the discus up as far to the rear as the build of the shoulder would permit, all exactly as shown in Myron's Discobolus statue (No. r, Plate 45). The rules, still adhering faithfully to the statue, required that at the moment above mentioned, tl the right foot should be fonvard and both legs bent, the right foot resting full on the sole and the left on the toes only.'' From this pose the thrower delivered the missile forward by a sharp and simultaneous extension of his whole body. Sheridan is seen in the execution of this action in picture No. 4, Plate 45· The thrower was permitted to leave the pedestal at the moment of throwing. This reads, no doubt, like the description of a very simple series of evolutions; but, in practice, it proved about as difficult