A Look at How Far the History of Javelin Has Come

The History of the Javelin in the Olympics

The Olympic Games were first held in Ancient Greece in 776 B.C. The games were held every four years until about A.D. 393 when they were banned by the Roman emperor Theodosius I. The Olympic Games resumed again in 1896. The javelin throw was one of the original Olympic events, but for almost a thousand years there were no javelins used in the Olympics. Javelin throwers had to use traditional javelins from ancient Greece. Javelins were thrown from a stand called a skamma, which was usually around 23 meters high. A skamma was usually a wooden stand that was built on a hill to increase the distance of the throw. Traders in Ancient Greece would come to the Olympics, and they would sell their wares to the athletes, who were looking for new javelins.

Why Were There No Javelins in the Olympics for Over 9 Centuries?

There are many reasons why there were no javelins used in the Olympics for almost a thousand years. The main reason is that people did not know how to make them. But there are other reasons, too. The ancient Greeks did not know how to make a wooden javelin with a metal tip on it like the javelin throwers use today. They also did not know how to make a javelin with a steel tip. Instead, the ancient Greeks made their javelins out of a type of wood called cornel. Cornel is a hard wood, but it is very brittle. If a cornel javelin was thrown into something hard like a stone wall, it would most likely break the javelin and injure the thrower. The ancient Greeks also threw the cornel javelin at a lower angle. They threw it more like a dart than a spear. The cornel javelin was not good for long distance throws because it would fall to the ground before it got there.

The Shorter Ancient Greek Javelin

The ancient Greeks also made their javelins shorter than the modern javelin thrower uses today. The ancient Greek javelin was about 1.3 meters long. The modern javelin is about 2.4 meters long. That is about 1.1 meters longer than the ancient Greek javelin. There are many reasons why the ancient Greeks made their javelins shorter than the modern javelin. First, they did not have a stadium like we have today with very high walls to protect people from the javelin throw. Ancient Greeks had small stadiums, and the walls were not very high. The ancient Greeks also did not have athletics shoes like we have today. They only had sandals. Athletes wore sandals because they did not have any money to buy athletic shoes. Sandals are good for running, but they are not good for stopping a javelin.

Why Did Traders Replace the Javelin?

Another reason why traders replaced the javelin is because sports traders wanted to make money. People were throwing the cornel javelins at a very low angle and breaking them when they hit the wall. This meant that the throwers were going through many javelins. Sports traders knew that if they could find a better javelin, people would not break as many and they would make more money. The traders started making their own javelins to sell to the athletes. The traders made their javelins out of a new material called steel. Steel is much stronger than cornel. It does not break when you hit something hard with it. Traders also made their javelins longer than the ancient Greek javelin.

Summary

The history of the javelin in the Olympics is interesting. There are many reasons why there were no javelins used in the Olympics for almost a thousand years. The main reason is that people did not know how to make them. Traders replaced the javelin because they wanted to make more money. The traders also used the new javelin as another new weapon they made called the short spear because it was easy to throw in the small stadiums. The ancient Greeks also had a longer javelin called a pike, but they did not use it as a javelin. The Olympics have been around for a long time, and they have changed over time since the very beginning.