...The fans' interest then shifted to what was, for them, the most important event of the day. This was the discus throw, an event of ageless beauty revived by the Greeks from depictions in classical art and carefully prepared for only in Greece. In the darkening evening, the competing athletes were impelled to wear heavy coats or sweaters against the chill. The favorite was Versis, who, in form and in motion, was an almost lyrical evocation of classical harmonies.
Astonishingly, this event drew an international field of entries. There were several Greeks, three Danes, a German, a Frenchman, an Englishman, the lone Swede at the Games, and one American, Robert Garrett. Garrett was probably the only foreigner whose interest in the discus antedated the Games themselves. At Princeton he had briefly considered preparing for the event, but abandoned his discus since it was too heavy. While jogging about a practice field just after he arrived in Athens, however, Garrett had seen a disc-shaped object lying in the turf. He picked it up and, upon examining it, saw that it was made of a hard, tough wood with a small brass center and a protecting rim of wrought iron. By means of a short pantomime, a Greek athlete informed Garrett that he held a competition discus. It weighed just two kilograms, or about four and a half pounds. His teammates agreed that he might as well try it, so Garrett devised an individual style of wind-up for the throw. His technique differed from that of Versis, who took a little hop and then let go; Garrett, instead, spun upward from a deep crouch and released the discus at the end of his abrupt, centrifugal motion...
- from The First Modern Olympics, by Richard D. Mandell, pp.126-127
