The Diamond League made the announcement last week that several events would no longer be contested in their program for the 2020 season: the 200m, the 3000m steeple chase, the triple jump, and the discus. You read that right… the discus. There is some primal human instinct we have in our very soul to want to throw stuff. The discus is a tool gifted to us by the ancient Greeks to liberate that instinct. It is poetry in motion. A symbol of strength and power, yet also finesse and artistry. The Diamond League’s decision is an affront to our human nature.

Even though I love the throws, I enjoy and appreciate that there’s a certain kind of beauty in any event in track and field. When I’m not watching the throws, I particularly enjoy the pole vault and the high jump. As I see it, the high jump and the pole vault have two big positives that make the events notably fan-friendly:

1. Binary, immediate result – Either the bar stays up, or it falls down. Simple.
2. Progressively more exciting – The bar keeps getting raised. The most exciting attempts will always happen at the end of the competition.

The format of these events lends itself to being able to anticipate when the most exciting moments will happen. Because the events eliminate competitors as a competition progresses, duels between evenly matched athletes can create an intense atmosphere for the last few bars. In the greater throwing world, we have two competitions that follow a very similar format to this, and both come from the Highland Games: the weight over bar and the sheaf toss.

I suppose my main thought is this – why did an event like the weight over bar or the sheaf toss never make its way from the highland games into the sport of track and field? The shot put and the hammer throw originated from events in the highland games. The 56 pound weight for distance was an event at the 1904 and 1924 Olympics, and the 35 pound weight throw is an event that is contested in the NCAA indoor season. But why did an elimination-style throwing for height event never make its way into track and field? If an elimination-style throwing for height event was in track and field, would the format of the event popularize and save it, or would the powers that be still want to marginalize and push the big guys to the side?

I don’t know or have any of the answers to those questions, but while organizing bodies want to change the sport of track and field through elimination, I can’t help but think that throwing will find a way to innovate, move on, and even grow. It feels like the throws have an incredible amount of momentum in the USA and globally at the moment. There was a group for discus throwers in the early days of Facebook called “Fluat ventus ob vultum,” which translates from Latin as “May the wind flow into your face.” Well, the IAAF seems to be trying to deliver the discus community a strong headwind going into the future. I’m hoping the throws community figures out some way to use it. RH