Here is a nice look at the technique common among female German throwers.
Notice how Franka sets up to kick her way out of the back (photo 3), how she how she turns her right foot like crazy even before it lands in the middle (photos 4 and 5) and how far she gets her right knee ahead of the disc as she drives into the throw (photo 8).
Here is Lars displaying those same technical points:
So there it is.
Both have cranked their right heel/knee/hip hard into the throw, which is great, but both have pulled away with their head, which is not so great.
I suspect that the pulling away of the head can be traced back to the beginning of the throw, when both seemed to lead into the middle of the ring with their upper body and then sort of chase their head through the rest of the throw.
As previously mentioned, Lars and Franka share eight World Championship golds between them, so I don’t mean to suggest that they have lousy form.
But, if Torsten Schmidt is correct, they both use a style of throwing that is most suitable to very strong women throwing a very light disc.
The fact that Lars was able to effectively use such a technique with the 2k shows what an amazing athlete he is.
In my last post, I suggested that Franz Kruger’s technique was an excellent example of the “German style” of discus throwing for men,
I also suggested that Lars Riedel did not adhere to the German template for men but instead used a style common among German women.
Allow me to elaborate.
Here are Lars and Franka Dietszch set up to run the ring:
I put those blue marks on there to emphasize the position of their feet. Pretty similar, eh?
Torsten Schmidt told me that it is advisable for women throwers to use a kicking action out of the back, and you can see that Franka is set up to do just that. As is Lars.
A quick note of caution to those of you who coach athletes slightly less gifted than these two (between them they won 8 World Championship gold medals). The placement of the left shoulder out past the left hip can cause balance problems that the average athlete will not be able to overcome. Franz provides a better model for getting out of the back on balance. (See my last post).
Here are Lars and Franka beginning to run the ring:
Do you ever read People Magazine? They have a feature in there every week where they print two versions of the same photograph, one of which has been slightly altered and you are supposed to find the alterations. I can never do it. Both photos always look the same to me.
As is the case above.
Both have turned their left foot really far. So far that by the time they
get off it…
…it is just about perpendicular to the direction of the throw and the right foot has almost touched down in the middle of the ring.
They both clearly emphasize an aggressive turning of the right foot and knee, although Lars has maintained a taller posture.
Here they are at right foot touch down:
Again, Lars stays taller, but check out the angle of the right foot. It is turning like crazy as it lands. According to Torsten, This extreme turning of the right foot and hip does not work for most men as it is too hard to keep the 2k discus back while doing so. Clearly, then, Lars is not like “most men.”
Now for the final phase of the throw:
It seems to me that the emphasis here is getting as much distance as possible between the disc and the right heel/knee/hip. It is as if the disc is an arrow and their bodies are bows and they are trying to create massive tension in the bow before launching the arrow. I know how important this phase of the throw was to Lars, as I had the pleasure of seeing him compete in person a couple of times and during warmups he practiced this right knee/hip action over and over.
Okay, due to technical difficulties, I can’t get the final photo that I wanted to use to load.
Stay tuned, for the final proof that Lars Riedel, uber mensch, did in fact throw like a girl.
Why, yes he did.
I had a great time in Berlin talking about throwing with Torsten Schmidt. My sister-in-law Gay and I joined him for lunch at what the Germans call a “doner” restaurant. On Torsten’s recommendation, I ordered something that looked like a gyro and came with “double meat.”
It was excellent, and I powered it down. It would take Torsten about three hours to get through his, though, because it is hard to eat while being interrogated by a crazy American.
I had my ipad, and he patiently went over a bunch of film clips with me while Gay helped translate any difficult terms. I believe “hard ass” and “thigh” gave us the most trouble.
One idea that came up was that there is a certain style of throwing that works for women and not men. Women, according to Torsten, can do things with the 1k disc that men cannot with the 2k.
Most men, that is.
Torsten said that Lars Riedel is the only man he has seen successfully employ the “women’s” technique.
Let’s take a look.
We will start by comparing Lars with Franz Kruger, the great South African thrower who was trained to throw with a technique common to German male throwers.
This first photo shows them in pretty similar positions at the point where their left foot has turned 90 degrees as they unwind at the back of the ring:
In this next photo, the left foot has continue to turn and the right foot has just left the ground:
Now we start to see differences. Franz has been more patient with his head, which allows him to keep the disc back farther.
Differences are apparent in the following photo as well. Lars has turned his left foot much father than Franz, and his aggressiveness with his head has caused his shoulders to tip towards the center of the ring:
As the left foot leaves the back of the ring, you can see that Lars continues to lead with his head while his hips turn so aggressively that he appears to be backing into the power position:
Franz seems to be using a focal point to slow down his head and shoulders as he sprints to the center. His hips have not turned as violently as those of Lars, but slowing the rotation of his upper body allows Franz to keep the disc way back.
Here they are as the right foot touches down in the center:
The angle of the right foot is similar, but Franz is still focused on his focal point, so his disc stays waaaay back.
Next, the moment the left foot touches down at the front of the ring:
Both throwers have done a great job of keeping their weight back over the right foot, but look at the difference in the position of that foot. Lars has his heel up and turning like crazy.
Franz’s right foot points almost directly towards the back of the ring.
Here they are at the moment of release:
Lars has done an amazing job of cranking his right heel in an effort to get separation between his right hip and the disc, but I feel like his head betrays him once again as it pulls off to the left at the very moment when it should be tipped slightly to the right to help elongate the path of the discus.
Franz has not turned his heel nearly as much, but his hips reach a similar position to those of Lars and his head, tipped slightly to the right, allows him to maximize the path of the disc (as does the slight bend in the knee of his blocking leg).
So, if we accept that Franz’s style provides a sound example of German “male” discus technique, we can see that Lars did not adhere to that template.
Next up, we compare Lars to Franka Dietzsch.
When I was in high school during the 1970’s, Oak Lawn (in the south suburbs of Chicago) had a powerhouse throwing program under Coach George Dunn.
I’ve never forgotten my first look at the Oak Lawn throwers. It came during an indoor meet my freshman year. I was six feet tall and weighed 150 pounds. Approximately ten of that was hair.
My PR was in the neighborhood of twenty-four feet. I wanted desperately to hit thirty feet one day, but at the time that seemed like a long way to throw a twelve-pound shot put.
Imagine my astonishment, then, when one of the Oak Lawn varsity kids (I believe his name was John Marks) bombed one out past the sixty-foot line.
That was the beginning of a long run of great putters at Oak Lawn, and also the beginning of my fascination with the German approach to throwing.
You see, Coach Dunn had somehow struck up a friendship with an East German throwing coach whose name was…Peter Tscheine. I think.
Aided by his German friend, Coach Dunn taught his putters a German-style short/long glide. I remember that one of the Oak Lawn throwers, Mike Lehmann, looked in terms of throwing technique exactly like the East German Hartmut Briesenick. Mike, by the way, ended up competing internationally and throwing over twenty-one meters.
Anyway, this German connection intrigued me and when I became a throwing coach in the early 1990’s, I tried to learn as much as possible about the German style of throwing.
Unfortunately, my sources of information were quite limited.
My first year of coaching, I brought several of my guys to Oak Lawn to have Coach Dunn take a look at them, but shortly thereafter he retired to Florida, partly I suspect because he was tired of me bombarding him with questions.
In the mid-1990’s, I met current Southern Illinois University throws coach John Smith at a big coaches clinic put on by Marty Schnorf at Eastern Illinois University. Coach Smith helped me toward what I think is a pretty good understanding of the German short/long glide, and has been a helpful advisor ever since.
Around that same time, a colleague of mine in the English department at Wheaton North High School hosted a visitor from Germany–a sixteen-year-old girl who competed in the shot and disc for her local track club.
She practiced with us for the couple of weeks that she was in town, and it was really interesting to study her glide technique–a superfast fixed feet short/long.
I didn’t learn much about the discus from her though, as she was struggling with her technique to the point where she caged most of her throws. I did, however, pick up a few German cuss words.
Also around this time, I did the smartest thing I’ve ever done and married my wife.
Before I met her, I had no one to make me laugh all the time or to rub my hair while I fell asleep on the couch at 7:30 each night.
Nor had I ever been to Europe.
But that changed quickly, as Alice (my wife) had and has a brother who lives in southern Germany and a sister who lives in Berlin. The brother, Larry, lives very close to the site of a throwers only meet called Weltklasse am Rhein that used to be held each summer near the Swiss/German border.
The final edition of this meet was held in 2001, and I attended it along with my friends and fellow throws coaches Shawn Schleizer and Jim Aikens.
At that meet, we enjoyed a nice conversation with the fine South African discus thrower Franz Kruger and his coach. The coach (his name escapes me) told us that he used a German technical model when training Franz, and gave us his email address in case we wanted to ask him more questions.
I sure as heck did, but for whatever reason we could not get in touch with him after we had returned home, so my search for a German discus mentor continued.
Meanwhile, the Germans dominated international competition.
Jurgen Schult…
…gave way to Lars Riedel…
…who gave way to Robert Harting.
By my count, the German men and women discus throwers have won 27 medals at Olympic Games and World Championships since 1987.
Americans have won 3.
I know, I know. There are a lot of reasons for this. For one, there is no NFL in Germany, so 6’6″ guys who run like deer are more likely to take up discus throwing as a career.
But there is no NFL for women, and…27-3? Doesn’t that make you wonder?
It sure made me wonder.
Finally, two years ago my sister-in-law Gay (the one who lives in Berlin) found Jurgen Schult’s email address for me. I had met him briefly at the Weltklasse am Rhein, and he seemed like a friendly guy so I figured I’d see if I could strike up an acquaintance with him and maybe get some insight into German throwing.
It turns out he is a very nice guy, and he replied right away to my email. Unfortunately, he said that he didn’t think there was such a thing as a “German” discus technique. Every thrower has to find their own style.
(It is hard to argue with that, but…27-3?)
Even more unfortunately, Jurgen said that it was not possible to have an intelligent conversation about technique via email, especially with the language barrier. He grew up in the East, and before the wall came down they did not hear much English.
So, that was that.
Until…
My lovely wife and I hopped across the pond last August to visit Larry, and I got a chance to attend the European Championships in Zurich.
In a previous post I described my stalking of Harting’s coach at the German hotel in Zurich. Due to my panther-like quickness, he could not avoid me.
His name is Torsten Schmidt…
…and he competed for Germany in the Athens Olympics.
He is 39 years old and grew up in the DDR.
At the age of twelve, Torsten and his schoolmates were tested for athletic potential and because he was tall and explosive he was sent to a sports school in Rostock.
His career lasted until 2007, and in 2009 he became a coach in the German national system.
He has worked with young German standouts such as 2013 World Youth shot put champion Patrick Muller, and the Prufer brothers, Henning and Clemens.
Currently, Torsten trains Robert Harting, Cristoph Harting, and Julia Fischer in Berlin.
And that is where I sat down with him last Wednesday for a chat about German discus throwing.
So they hand over my passport just in time for me to catch the subway to O’Hare, and I make it to the gate of the Frankfort flight just as they are about to start boarding. It is the same gate that my wife and I flew out of in August when we got bumped up to first class, so my memories of it are, to say the least, fond. This time they call me up and hand me a ticket for a seat in economy, which was fine by me–I just wanted to get to Germany.
Turns out I got a seat in a row all by myself with plenty of leg room. Just as I was settling in, a voice comes over the intercom.
“Passenger Dan McQuaid, please come forward.”
I was none too happy to hear that, but come forward I did, only to be met by a guy from the ticket counter who was now standing just inside the entrance to the plane.
“You’re Dan McQuaid?”
“Yes.”
“Grab your stuff. We just had an opening in first class.”
He didn’t have to tell me twice.
I spent the next three hours stuffing my face, then watched a little TV, took a nice snooze, watched a little more TV and next thing I know, we are in Germany!
So, suck it Air Berlin. It’s going to be a short trip because they still won’t give me credit for the flight I missed or let me switch to a Saturday return flight, but at least I got here!
And apropos of nothing, I’d have to say that having gone through security twice at O’Hare, twice at the Federal Building, and once in Frankfort (I ended up taking Luftansa from there to Berlin) Frankfort has by far the friendliest and most thorough security. They even gave me a little extra feel because I accidentally left a pen in my shirt pocket.
It seemed like the perfect plan. My wife’s sister who lives in Berlin recently had a hip replacement. My wife wanted someone to go and stay with her for a few days to make sure she’s doing okay.
Chivalrous bastard that I am, I volunteered.
My school has the entire week off. I got a great fare on Air Berlin. I made a lunch date with Torsten Schmidt, the coach of Robert Harting, so that I could continue to badger him into helping me understand why the Germans consistently produce great discus throwers.
My wife and mother-in-law dropped me at the airport on Saturday and then headed to the outlet mall while I breezed through security.
Got a couple of magazines. A nice iced tea. A rather excellent gyro.
They begin to call out group numbers. I heard mine, stepped up and handed over my boarding pass and passport, the guy takes a look at it, then looks at me and says “Please step over to the counter.”
As I do, he yells to the counter person “Check his passport!”
At this point, I imagine everyone in the vicinity figured they had just nabbed a terrorist trying to board with a fake passport. I could not imagine what was the deal. Then they told me.
“Sir, your passport expires in two months. You cannot travel to Germany within three months of your passport expiring.”
Imagine my vexation.
I stood there probably looking a bit stunned and watched the plane fly away without me.
After a while, the gate supervisor explained to me that this was a fairly new regulation and that I might be able to get an expedited passport on Monday and they would put me on their next flight, which would not be until Tuesday.
My immensely patient wife came back to the airport to get me and immediately upon our arrival home started working the phone to make sure Air Berlin was going to honor the supervisor’s promise that I would get on the Tuesday flight.
Long story short, they were less than keen about doing that in spite of my wife’s pointing out that that they ought to let a guy know there might be a problem with his passport before he is ten feet from boarding the plane.
The last person she spoke to in Berlin finally told her that I should show up for the Tuesday flight and basically throw myself on the mercy of the ticket agent.
At that point we had no idea if they’d let me on the flight or if they’d say “tough luck” and make us eat the cost of the ticket.
Luckily, we had one other option. If I could get a new passport on Monday and get to O’Hare by 4:00ish I might be able to use a buddy pass on United (another of my wife’s sisters is a stew) that would at least get me to Frankfort. From there I could figure out how to get to Berlin and then come home on the return portion of my Air Berlin ticket.
If you can’t tell by now that my wife is a saint, just know that she spent about seven hours at the passport bureau with me on Monday and if you think that was a barrel of laughs…try it some time.
Got to go. I’ll finish the story later!
Is anyone else astonished that the IAAF chose Qatar to host the 2019 World Championships?
Let’s see…Qatar has been strongly suspected of bribing their way into hosting the soccer world cup in 2022, they have been accused of badly mistreating the foreign workers that they import for construction projects, and the competition will have to be delayed until late September/early October to avoid the insane summer temperatures in that region.
Great call IAAF!
Here are a couple of excellent articles on this matter:
Any thoughts? I just don’t know what to think other than to wonder if the IAAF is as corrupt as FIFA.
–McQ
More details at:
The Wilkins Review
MacWilkins.com
Mac Wilkins Throws Channel
Part 3 Rotational Continuity into the Block
The Right Leg drives around into the throw, rotating the Right Hip WITH LITTLE OR NO PAUSE (even before the left foot is grounded) into the left side block.
These three high level concepts will work well as a tune up before the big meets in May and June. You won’t get bogged down with complex details and “forget how to throw”. They are also foundation concepts that can and should be mastered from the beginning of your throwing career.
Each of these three concepts have many sub parts or details that can be explored and I will list a few of them. Primarily, though, I am looking at them as “Big Picture” movements, positions and rhythm that can be approached with the end result in mind. They are “End Result” concepts. Don’t worry about the details of how to get there, as much as just making the end result happen. There is room for personal style in the throw but these concepts are universally applied by top throwers.
1. See the Horizon to the Target (throw direction)
Slow Down, see the horizon to the target. Let the left side: eyes, arm, knee and foot lead the body to the target.
2. Work a Wide Right Leg from the Back of the circle to the Middle
The Right Leg is your engine for the throw. The wide right leg shortens and accelerates/works ahead of the paused or slowed left side to create torque.
3. Rotational Continuity into the Block with little or no pause. The Right Leg drives forward rotating the right hip into the left side block.
The goal is to minimize or eliminate any pause or delay in turning the right hip into the block or even around past the block! At first, you may have to exaggerate the turn in the air to get the right foot around and into the throw. The right foot should touch down pointing to the back of the circle (12 o’clock). However, where it is pointing on touch down is not as important as making sure that you are getting the right hip to turn ALL THE WAY into the block without a pause or delay. Don’t let the right foot impede the hip rotation by grounding the heel.
The Right Leg is the initiator, not the right foot. You don’t want to “pre-turn” the right foot ahead of the knee.
You can’t make this rotation happen starting from a dead stop, with all your weight on the right foot as the “Wheel Drill” practitioners seem to believe. Logon to The Wilkins Review and click on Training Resources; Drills and watch The False Wheel Drill October 2009 in for a more complete explanation of why the Wheel Drill teaches incorrect technique.
Work the right thigh forward and bring the foot under the knee to shorten the leg/lever for acceleration. Your skill at doing this will determine how fast you can spin your hips (how far you can throw).
If your right foot is not “back under” the right knee you are probably not shortening enough thus not creating enough rotary momentum.
Although it feels like a linear right leg drive into the throw, it’s the rotary momentum created during the left leg pivot that creates the power.
If you land heavily on the right foot this rotation won’t happen. You must be on balance from left to right and back to front for a quick and timely right foot rotation. Don’t let the right heel touch down and impede the hip rotation.
Check the Bend in the Right Leg on these throws.
In this video look for the long to short right leg creating torque and then the immediate transfer from right to left in the power position with upper body being dragged into block. The “walking torque” drill at the start seems simple but must be done like a martial arts movement for maximal rotational speed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsfG8EyaLoo
If you can feel the Right Leg Engine work twice, once at the back and again leading the upper body into the delivery, you are making progress. The next step is to feel the right leg work to the middle and without pause, turn into the block. The goal is to “be surprised” at how soon the right hip delivers into the block, not unlike a good javelin throw.
www.thewilkinsreview.com Over 110 instructional Videos
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The discus qualification rounds were held during the evening session of the first day of competition (Tuesday, August 12) and the weather was excellent, as was my view of the cage:
Those photographers did not linger very long, and I was able to take some nice vids from my seat, which was in the last row–a testament to the intimate layout at Letzigrund.
Here, by the way, is a link to those vids:
I was especially jacked up about the prospect of seeing two of the all-time greats appearing in this competition, one–Robert Harting–still at his peak, the other–Virgilius Alekna–nearing the end of the road.
I had the pleasure of seeing Alekna compete four times in the old Letzigrund Stadium when he was in his prime. Here is a link to a vid I made of the 2000 competition when he hit 70 meters on four of six throws:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iF_ez98mpC0
And here is a link to an article I wrote about the 2005 Zurich meeting and a rather humorous encounter I had with Alekna the next day:
Suffice it to say, I am a big fan of that man. He always carried himself with great dignity. After those 70-meter throws he might raise an arm to acknowledge the crowd, but at the same time he’d smile sheepishly, seeming almost embarrassed by the attention.
I’ve always wondered if he felt like murdering Robert Fazekas in 2004. If you recall, Fazekas prevented Alekna from enjoying a well-deserved victory lap celebrating his second Olympic gold. Fazekas defeated Alekna but not the drug testers in Athens, so Alekna received his medal in a delayed ceremony. Fazekas also kept Alekna from collecting a share of that year’s Golden League grand prize money by handing the large Lithuanian his only Golden League loss that season (athletes had to go undefeated to get a piece of the big prize).
But to be honest, it is difficult to imagine Alekna getting really cheesed off about anything. He reminds me of the ancient Roman hero Cincinnatus, who in times of war would set aside his plow, lead the Romans to victory, then quietly return to his fields caring nothing for glory or acclaim.
Harting, on the other hand, is more like Achilles. He carries himself with an undeniable air of superiority. And, like Achilles, he has earned the right to do that by defeating all challengers. In The Iliad, the Trojans are full of piss and vinegar as long as Achilles is away from the battlefield. But the minute he shows up looking to avenge the death of his friend Patroclus, they know it is all over for them.
So it is with the world’s best discus throwers. When I ran into Piotr Malachowski, the Polish record holder and this season’s world leader with a throw of 69.28m, in New York last June the first thing I said to him was “It is great to meet you. You are a fantastic thrower!”
His reply?
“Yes, but Harting always beats me.”
What makes Harting an interesting character, though, is that in conversation he is very self-deprecating. I ran into him in that same hotel lobby in New York where I had spoken to Malachowski, and he was extremely gracious. He had just arrived from the airport after a trans-Atlantic flight but he patiently answered my questions, and then answered some more following his win the next day at the Adidas Grand Prix meeting. Here are links to those two interviews:
Anyway, it turned out to be an interesting juxtaposition watching these two great champions, both competing in flight one of the prelims in Zurich. Alekna looked as smooth as he ever did, but simply could not generate the power necessary to reach the 64-meter automatic qualifier mark. The best he could muster was a first-round 59.35m.
Harting, flush with power, qualified easily by hitting 67.01m on his first attempt.
Gerd Kanter also looked sharp in the prelims, throwing 65.79m to go one-and-done.
Malachowski ended up taking all three of his attempts, ultimately reaching 64.98m.
I left the stadium that night thinking that we might see a pretty good battle between those three in the next day’s final.
As mentioned in my last post, I headed over to the Hilton Hotel early the next morning in order to attend a German team press conference. Afterwards, I sat down in the lobby to make some notes and eventually looked up to see a very tall man ambling past the front desk. It was Torsten Schmidt, a 2004 Olympian and, since last November, the coach of Robert Harting.
From what I understand, Germans, unlike Americans, are not comfortable with casual friendliness. My brother-in-law has told me that when a German meets another German he must speak to that person in a formal way until given permission to switch over to a more familiar style of address. In the press conference I had just attended, for example, I noticed that at least one of the German reporters had addressed David Storl as “Herr Storl” even though the reporter was much older than the shot putter.
I was a worried then, that I might cause offense by springing upon the unsuspecting Coach Schmidt and interrupting a heretofore peaceful morning stroll.
But doggonit, a fellow only lives once, and how often do you see the coach of the world’s best discus thrower wandering through a hotel lobby?
So, I pounced.
And it turns out he is a really nice man. I think he spent the first couple of minutes of our conversation wondering who in the hell I was and why in God’s name I was asking him questions, but eventually he understood that I was a fellow discus geek and we had a very nice chat.
He told me that he had retired from competition in 2007, and by 2009 was coaching young throwers at the German training center in Berlin.
I asked him if he felt a lot of pressure going from coaching teenagers to coaching the defending Olympic champion, but he said no because Harting has such a clear idea of what he needs to do to perform well, and that even when his form is a bit off he is strong enough to throw far.
In fact, according to Coach Schmidt, Harting’s entry was flawed on his qualifier, but he was able to muscle it 67 meters.
After a few minutes, I wished Coach Schmidt good luck in that night’s final, and headed off to the stadium to watch the women’s hammer qualifying.
It rained throughout the entire hammer competition, but the sun reappeared as I made my way towards the train station with the idea of heading back to Winterthur to relax for a couple of hours before returning to Letzigrund for the evening session.
On the way, I stopped at a plaza in downtown Zurich stocked full of track-related activities and displays, and dominated by this temporary wooden structure:
The reason that all of the table umbrellas are tied up is that the wind was really whipping, and eventually blew so strong that the start of the evening session was delayed some 90 minutes.
After a nice nap back at my brother-in-law’s apartment, I saw news of the delay on Twitter but wasn’t sure how it would affect the start of the discus final, so I headed over to the Winterthur train station in plenty of time to get back to Letzigrund in case it proceeded on schedule.
And who should I run into on the train platform, but the fine Dutch discus thrower Eric Cadee and his girlfriend Kai Kand, the former heptathlete from Estonia.
I met Eric last June when I retrieved his shoe on Randall’s Island in New York. It was the day before the Diamond League meeting, and I had headed over to Icahn Stadium to see if any of the throwers were practicing. Eric was there with 2012 Olympic silver medalist Ehsan Hadadi, and they wanted to try out the ring but it was entirely filled with water from a morning shower.
I quickly snapped into Coach McQuaid mode, rounded up a broom and some towels, and cleaned up the ring. Eric just wanted to take some easy shoe tosses, and I shagged for him so that he didn’t have to keep walking through the wet grass. He and Ehsan were both very pleasant to talk to, and after they were done practicing I taped a quick interview with each. You can find those interviews here:
Unfortunately, Eric did not throw well in the qualifying in Zurich, so he was on his way to attend the discus final as a spectator.
It was great fun talking to Eric and Kai on the journey to the stadium, and I couldn’t help but fantasize about some day coaching their children. They are smart and friendly and just happen to be world class athletes. Eric and Kai, if you read this just know that the Chicago suburbs have lots of parks and excellent schools.
I mentioned that Malachowski seemed not to be at his best, and Eric said that he (Malachowski) was struggling with his timing and confidence. “I told him, just remember you are the defending European champion. You’ve thrown 71 meters!”
When we arrived at the stadium, the wind was swirling, the temperature was dropping, and the decathlon javelin was just getting underway. This meant that the discus final would not begin for another two hours.
Always one to make the best of a bad situation, I filled the time by eating brats and pretending to be interested in the decathlon.
Finally, the javelin sector lines were removed, the discus sector lines were set out, and the finalists were ushered into the stadium.
I had paid 140 francs for a second row seat hoping to be close to the cage for the final, and I was definitely close:
The problem was that Harting’s presence made the discus a marquee event, and in order to give the folks watching at home a great view…
…they totally blocked mine.
See that giant camera pointed at the stands? That was there to film the reaction of the coaches throughout the competition.
It is probably good that they did not point that camera at me, because while I do not speak German, I do know a universal hand signal that would have expressed my feelings precisely.
Ah well, it was still fun to be that close.
Shortly before they opened the ring for warmups, it began to rain.
The Zurich ring has a good reputation. In New York, Harting told me he really likes throwing at Letzigrund, and Sondra Perkovic has said the same thing.
But there was something about the combination of the misting rain and the cool temperature that made the surface almost unmanageable.
Harting actually fell down performing an imitation.
And I don’t care how confident you are, that has got to shake you up a bit.
Throughout the competition, Harting took frequent strolls across the track to check in with Torsten.
Most of the competitors did the same. Here is Martin Wierig conversing with his coach, world record holder Jurgen Schult:
Here is Robert Urbanek with his coach:
Malachowski had several animated conversations with the Olympic shot champion, Tomasz Majewski.
Malachowski had told me that he and Majewski were best friends, and they acted like it. I do not speak Polish, but based on their gestures and facial expressions it seemed like their interactions went something like this:
“Throw farther, you idiot!”
“I can’t! The ring is a mess!”
“I don’t care! Just find a way!”
That photo above was taken after the competition though, and you can see that Majewski was genuinely pained when his friend was unable to defend his title.
Harting opened with 63.94m, followed by a foul when the discus slipped out of his hand, followed by one of those throws that he always seems to come up with: 66.07m in round three.
He passed in round four, hoping that the rain might let up a bit and let him extend his lead…
…then fouled both of his final attempts. On his sixth throw, his right foot landed on the rubberized surface surrounding the ring and I thought he was going to do the splits.
Kanter, who had spent time between throws performing imitations on the track right in front of me…
…finished second with a 64.75m toss, followed by a very happy Robert Urbanik…
…whose second round toss of 63.81m held up for the bronze.
You will notice that Harting is shirtless here, and that he is surrounded by a bunch of photographers.
After his final throw, the whole stadium was ready to see him rip his shirt off–his usual mode of celebration following a big win.
Harting, though, decided to have some fun with those expectations and performed a couple of fake shirt rips…
…before peeling it off and pretending to take a nap on the track.
His was not the only ecstatic celebration of the night, as French decathlete Florian Geffrouais seemed at one point about to jump on me:
One last observation regarding the men’s discus. The Germans are huge! Harting is a big man. Wierig is bigger. Fellow finalist Daniel Jasinski is even bigger. And Jasinski’s coach is the biggest dude I’ve ever seen!
Do you see Majewski there talking to Malachowski? The guy in the red jacket next to Tomasz is Jasinski’s coach, and he…is…bigger…than…Majewski! Bet he doesn’t have any trouble getting his athletes to listen to him.
So, a couple of days later, Saturday morning to be exact, I headed back to the Hilton for another German press conference. This one mainly concerned the women’s hammer, which I will post about later, but afterwards I walked out into the lobby and who should meander by but Torsten Schmidt.
The poor guy must have wondered what he had to do to make it through the lobby without some idiot American jumping out from behind a potted plant.
But we had another really nice conversation! He said that prior to the competition the discus throwers had been told three times in the holding area that they would be taken to the ring in “10 minutes.” Somehow, ten minutes stretched into an hour and then nearly two hours before they were actually brought out for warmups.
Then, as mentioned above, it was very difficult to find comfort with the throwing surface.
Most of the throwers also quickly gave up trying to perform imitations between attempts due to the slickness of the rubberized surface around the cage. That is why Kanter came over to the track to work on his steps, apparently finding a dry patch just in front of the stands.
It all added up to a potential disaster for Harting,the prohibitive favorite, and for Torsten who must have felt the weight of expectations as well.
One thing that I was struck by throughout my week in Zurich was how much it meant for these athletes to medal at this meet. Obviously, the Olympics and World Championships are a bigger deal, but based on the reactions of the winners and losers, I’d say not by much.
I got the sense, especially from the Germans, that they felt great pride in representing their country. Each time I passed through the Hilton lobby, I noticed several German athletes watching the live feed from the stadium and cheering loudly when their compatriots performed well.
So it could not have been easy for Torsten to have watched Harting bite the dust during an imitation and then struggle mightily to find a semblance of rhythm.
“So,” I finally asked, “what did you say to help get him through it?”
“We decided that he needed to keep more bend in his knees so he could keep his balance. Fortunately, that was enough.”
Just then, Harting showed up. He looked at Torsten and then at me and then his eyes widened and he exclaimed, “You again!”
I held out my hand.
“Hello, Robert. Dan McQuaid. Congratulations on your victory!”
As we shook, he looked again at Torsten and said, “This guy is always hanging around asking questions!”
“Yes,” I replied. “Your coach is telling me all of your secrets.”
“Secrets?” he shot back. “There is no such thing as secrets!”
“Secrets,” he continued, tapping a long finger against his temple, “are only doubts!”
And with that he turned and strode confidently away looking fit and ready to storm the walls of Troy.