At The 1912 Olympics, We Would Have Found Out
Many people feel that our sport needs to innovate to gain the attention of more sports fans. Apparently back in 1912 the leaders of the sport had a similar thought. Crazy idea or sheer genius? You be the judge.
In the 1912 Stockholm Olympics (and ONLY at the 1912 Olympics) they held “best-hand” AND “two-hand” competitions in the Shot Put, Discus, and Javelin. Yes, the top throwers in the world first battled for medals in the traditional way and then got a second chance at glory based on the combined distance they could achieve throwing with each hand.
The format of the two-handed Javelin, Discus, and Shot Put was that each thrower got three attempts with their right hand and then three attempts with their left hand. The best distance with each hand was summed to give a total. The top three combined-distance athletes were then given three additional throws with each hand.
I’m very curious about how much advance notice the athletes received that these unique events would be held, but my guess is they knew far enough ahead to practice a bit with their weaker hand, since, for the most part, the same athletes rose to the top – with a few notable exceptions.
Armas Taipale of Holland won the Best Hand Discus and the Both Hands Discus (44.7 meters with his right hand and 38.2 meters with his left hand).
USA’s Patrick McDonald won Gold in the Best Hand Shot Put but lost the Both Hands version to countryman and Best Hand Silver medalist Ralph Roe (15.2 meters with his right hand and 12.45 with his left hand).
Sweden’s Eric Lemming won the Best Hand Javelin but Finland must have it as a training camp priority to practice with their weaker hand. The Finn’s dominated the Both Hands Javelin, sweeping the medals.
Here’s the only video footage I could find. Gold Medalist Julius Saaristo is seen here throwing right handed (61 meters) and left handed (48.4 meters), just a 21% drop. Whereas Eric Lemming had a 31% drop in distance left-handed.
Note that since the hammer throw is already two-handed their only option would have been spin in the opposite direction – an idea that was probably scrapped out of fear that errant throws might have resulted in some spectator fatalities!
