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After having dominated the javelin for the whole of the 1990s, it seemed
that age had finally caught up with Jan Zelezny and old rival Steve
Backley (Great Britain) when they finished respectively third, and
eighth, at the 1999 World Championships in Seville. However, the
following year, both athletes were in good form during the early part of
the season prior to the Olympic Games in Sydney. As he had done in a
number of previous years, Zelezny started 2000 with an early season trip
to South Africa, where he recorded his year's best throw of 90.59m at
Pretoria on 24 March. His Olympic preparation included two more meets
with throws over 90 metres, while achieving victories at Prague on 5
June, and in the Bislett Games at Oslo on 28 July. On both occasions
Jan's winning throw was 90.56m.
In the qualifying round at Sydney,
Zelezny showed that he was more than ready to try to defend his Olympic
title when he produced the best throw of 89.39m in the qualifying round
on 22 September, to set a new Olympic record. In the Olympic final held
the following day, Zelezny (aged 34) and Backley (aged 31) staged one
of the best competitions between themselves in the course of their long
careers. Zelezny took the lead in the first round with at throw of
89.41m, to better his Olympic record set the previous day. Backley
responded to this in the second round with a throw of 89.85m to grab the
lead. Zelezny regained the lead when he threw 90.17m on his third
attempt, to retain his Olympic title, leaving Backley with the silver
medal as he had done four years earlier.
At the medal ceremony, Zelezny
(see photo above) no doubt reflected on the fact that he had
become the oldest Olympic javelin winner and the first to win three
consecutive gold medals. (Ron Casey)
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