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Comment by peeters | Hacker News Reader

That doesn't explain why a WR from 10 years after those changes hasn't been even close to beaten recently.

But it has been close? Johannes Vetter got a result of 97.76m under a year ago, that is only 0.72m shy of the world record. Also the reason he was underperforming in the olympics was that the surface of the run-up track was not able to take his weight on the final step and he would slip, making it impossible to perform on his normal high level.

Source for the reason Johannes Vetter failed? Does not look like this was covered well in the press.

I think the throwing surface had poorer grip than standard for various reasons. So Vetter couldn't use his typical speed without slipping.

In german news it was quite widely reported that he had problems with the surface of the runway

My source for this was watching the final myself. When I watched the broadcast myself it was clear to me that this was the problem. Also the (Finnish) commentators were very knowledgeable in the sport and pointed out the problem many times.

I was unable to find a clip of his throws in YouTube, but here's a Google Translated article from a Finnish newspaper: https://bit.ly/3xvZWMk.

Vetter's official performances and progressions can be found on the World Athletics (formerly IAAF) website: https://www.worldathletics.org/athletes/_/14408144

His 97.76 was in 2020 in Poland.

That's some high-quality journalism. Matter-of-fact, primary sources, asks illuminating questions.

Thanks. Seems like a technical problem on his throw then? I'm not aware of the intricacies of surface and I assumed it was a standardized setup.

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