Robert Garrett
 |
|
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | May 24, 1875 Baltimore County, Maryland |
| Died | April 25, 1961 (aged 85) Baltimore, Maryland |
| Height | 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) |
| Weight | 81 kg (179 lb; 12.8 st) |
| Sport | |
| Country |
 United States
|
| Sport | Athletics |
|
Medal record
|
|
Robert Garrett (May 24, 1875 – April 25, 1961) was an American athlete. He was the first modern Olympic champion in discus throw and shot put.
Robert S. Garrett was born in Baltimore County, Maryland into one of the most prominent and wealthiest families in Maryland. He was the son of Thomas Harrison Garrett and Alice Dickerson Whitridge Garrett. The Garretts were a railroad and financing family; Robert was the grandson of John Work Garrett, (1820-1884), the longtime president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and the great-grandson of Robert Garrett, founder of a finance and shipping firm founded in 1819. The younger Robert Garrett studied at Princeton University. He excelled in track and field athletics as an undergraduate, and was captain of the Princeton track team in both his junior and senior years. Garrett was primarily a shot-putter, though he also competed in the jumping events. When he decided to compete in the first modern Olympic games being revived and held in Athens, Greece, in 1896, Professor William Milligan Sloane suggested he should also try the discus.
They consulted classical authorities to develop a drawing and Garrett hired a blacksmith to make a discus. It weighed nearly 30 pounds (14 kg) and it was impossible to throw any distance, so he gave up on the idea. Garrett paid for his own and three classmates' (Francis Lane (finished third in 100 m), Herbert Jamison (finished second in 400 m), and Albert Tyler (placed second in pole vault) way to Athens to compete in the games. When he discovered that a real discus weighed less than five pounds, he decided to enter the event for fun.
...
Wikipedia