But when us ex-college or ex-high school athletes watch technique-based Olympic events seemingly mastered by time and practice (think fencing or hammer throw), part of us wonders, "If I had worked on throwing a hammer when I was 12, instead of hitting a curveball, would I have made it to Team USA?”
Chances are, probably not. But out of curiosity, Men’s Fitness scoped out the swords, hurdles, hammers, and other objects featured in the Olympics. We rounded up their world-approved specs on length, weight, or height. So if you still haven’t given up on the Olympic dream, at least you’ll know what you’re up against as you vie towards Rio de Janeiro’s 2016 Games.
Standard Hurdles
Height: .914 meters (just under 3 feet, used in events longer than 110 meters)
Weight: 22 pounds
On television, these hurdles seem like mere annoyances for runners, but up close, they're three-foot tall barriers designed to be a huge pain in the ass to anyone who isn't trained to leap over them. Try jumping over the back of your neighbor’s Great Dane at full speed. Then do it ten times in a row for a quarter of a mile. That’s what racing hurdles is like. And these aren’t even the tallest hurdles used in the Olympics.
High Hurdles
Height:1.067 meters high (about 3.5 feet, used in 110 meter)
The hurdles used in the 110 high hurdles are higher than standard hurdles by about six inches, making each hurdle the height of an average 4-year-old. The caveat here is that they cram all 10 hurdles into 110 meters, leaving only 30 feet between them. Think you can leap over 10 preschoolers spaced 10 yards apart running at full speed?
Steeplechase Set-Up
Steeplechase Hurdle: 91.4cm high (3 feet)
Water Jump Length: 3.66 x 3.66 (12 feet x 12 feet)
Water Depth:70 cm gradient (over 2 feet closest to the hurdle, gradually leveling off)
The steeplechase looks more like a competition from a Real World/Road Rules Challenge than a bona fide Olympic event. It’s as if two stoners were watching the hurdles a long time ago and they thought, "Wouldn't it be awesome if after they jumped a three-foot hurdle they had to clear a three-foot long puddle?" And then that became an Olympic event and nobody ever questioned it.
Pole Vaulting Poles
Pole: Up to 17 feet long, must be made of one continuous piece of construction (usually fiberglass)
Pre-Olympics, pole vaulting was a mode of transportation used to jump fences and un-bridged rivers during farming, travel, and warfare. Now, it’s an Olympic sport and rightly so. It takes combined precision, speed, and agility to sprint down the runway hauling 17-feet of fiberglass at full speed. Athletes then jam the fiberglass pole into a tiny divot and catapult themselves 20 feet in the air. If they judged right, they spring off the pole at the precise moment they clear the near 20-foot high bar. Now picture doing that over a castle wall with a wooden pole in metal armor. Not simple. Our take? We’re just glad someone invented bridges.
Shot Put
Shot Put: 16 pounds, must be a smooth sphere made of iron, brass, or metal not softer than brass
Next time you’re at your local bowling alley grab yourself one of the heavy 16-pound balls with the gigantic finger holes and hold it up to your shoulder. Then look at the end of the lane and imagine yourself trying to throw it over the pins. Does that feel possible? Because that’s only 60 feet away – and to compete for an Olympic medal, you’d have to heave a 16-pound shot over 70 feet.
Hammer Throw
Weight: 16 pounds
Head: Solid iron or metal no softer than brass
Wire: Single, unbroken length of string-wire no less than 3 mm
Handle: Symmetric design, rigid, without hinges
This isn't a hammer that you can buy at your local Home Depot. In fact, the hammer looks nothing like a hammer at all. It looks like a weapon one of the Starks will eventually use to slay a dragon on Game of Thrones. There’s no real world comparison to this thing, but the fact that you can decapitate yourself if your form isn’t correct certainly adds to the degree of difficulty.
Discus
Weight: 2 kgs (4 lbs)
Edges: 25-28 mm thick, 219-221 mm diameter (about 1.10 inches x 8 inches)
Do you think you can throw a Frisbee the length of a football field? What if that Frisbee weighed four pounds? We’re only asking because that’s what Olympic discus throwers do, and it’ll take a throw over 80 yards to win the gold in London.
Javelin
Weight: 800 grams (almost 2lbs)
Length: between 2600 – 2700 mm (about 8.5 feet)
Maybe it’s due to our primitive relationship with spears (or Gerard Butler’s performance in 300) but we tend to think javelins couldn’t be that hard to throw. Reality check—consider this: If you’re standing on home plate at Fenway Park, the Green Monster is 310 feet away. In order to compete for a javelin gold medal, you’d have to fling the 8.5-foot spear from home plate and stick it somewhere in the middle of the scoreboard to win.
Skeet Shooting
Clay Frisbee: 110 mm diameter
Who ever thought they would turn the old Duck Hunt Nintendo game into an Olympic sport? Just kidding, Olympic shooters—don't go pointing those guns at us. Two throwing machines launch 25 clay Frisbees, sometimes releasing two at a time. Athletes stand at a fixed point between the two throwing machines and unload over the course of five series of 25 to total 125 clay Frisbees. If shooters make it to the top six, they hit a final round of 25 powder filled clay Frisbees (to show hits most clearly). And you thought the video game was tough.
Fencing Swords
Fencing Foil: 17 5/8 oz. (about 1.15 lbs) with maximum length of 3' 6"
Fencing Épée (similar to Sabre): 27 1/8 oz. (about 1.70 lbs) with maximum length of 3' 6"
No matter how you slice it, sword fighting is pretty cool. Each sword is designed with a different specialty in mind: stabbing, slicing, and cutting. The goofy outfits and lack of physical danger probably keep fencing interests niche, but for people into duels, Olympic fencing brings the best swordsmen together in gripping match lineups. Something tells us this event would get a higher thrill rating if fencers weren't allowed to wear protective gear, though.