#except me who is the gay bookworm of the family who’s biggest athetic achievement is perfect attendance at orienteering

[jethroq]

speaking of athletic world records, javelin is just insane. the world record for javelin doesn’t improve, not because we have reached the limit of pointy stick throw far, but because for some stupid sense of tradition javelin is still thrown on the middle of the track, and the hard limit for the record is the end of the lawn and when atheletes start approaching that line the IOC has to tweak the design of the javelin to make it fly worse, so people don’t hit the high jumpers on the other side.

and you may also wonder, in this sport where you throw an aluminum spear as hard as the human body physically can, are there ever accidents? and there sure are. people let go a split second too early or late and it goes off in the wrong angle, and pierces the liver of someone waiting to do their long jump, or a referee observing another event on the sideline.