Old Timer Takes Javelin to the Neck and Dies

Dillon Cheverere12 years ago

The lovely lady in the above photo has nothing to do with this story, but she is an Olympic javelin thrower from Paraguay, and I don’t foresee many other opportunities to post a photo of her. And this story is about javelins, so I figure ‘fuck it.’

I guess when a spectator sport involves hurling a deadly weapon as far as possible, an accident like was this was destined to happen. Well, it happened. A 74 year-old German referee took one to the jugular Sunday, and by “one” I mean a nine ft. spear, a pre-historic weapon that was renamed a javelin to knock the scary off it and enter it into the sporting world.

The 74-year-old man was officiating at a youth meet in the western city of Duesseldorf when the incident happened late Sunday, police spokesman Andre Hartwig said. He was immediately taken to hospital but died of injuries early Monday, Hartwig said. The local athletics association for Duesseldorf and Neuss identified the man as Dieter Strack.

Poor Dieter, man.

I think it’s time to implement some prerequisites for javelin referees. The first one I’d propose is they must be somewhat agile, which in effect should eliminate all 74 year-olds from standing adjacent to the playing surface where these tools of death are to land. 64 and 54 year-olds may need to become spectators, too. Young, agile and alert: these should be qualities of a javelin ref. Gotta keep that head on a swivel and ready for action.

• [via CBS Sports]