Bud hero

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Franklin "Bud" Held (born October 25, 1927 in Los Angeles , California ) is a retired American athlete . He set several world records in javelin throwing in the early 1950s .

Bud hero special

Bud Held had thought together with father and brother about how to improve the flight characteristics of spears. The result was the so-called Bud Held Special, a new type of spear, which, with the center of gravity unchanged, had an increased proportion of wood and a steel tip shortened from 37 to 17 cm and which was hollow. Because of the thickened middle shaft, it was popularly called the flying cigar . With this miracle device, Held was the first javelin thrower on earth to exceed the 80 m mark:

The Finnish-Swedish supremacy in javelin throwing that had lasted for more than 50 years was finally over: After an American with Cy Young won the javelin for the first time in 1952 , the Finn Yrjö Nikkanen also lost his 15-year-old world record. The new spear began its triumphal march around the world and brought its inventor a lot of money. The Finns who had been leading the construction of the birch wood spear up until then were outraged and spoke of sporting deception. The IAAF finally banned the flying cigar - but only eight years later. The world records set in the meantime by Janusz Sidło , Al Cantello and Carlo Lievore , however, remained valid.

Athletic career

Held finished fourth in the California Pole Vault High School Championships in 1946. This gave him a competitive sports scholarship from Stanford University . It was only here that he specialized in javelin throwing and, with his family, developed the new type of javelin and became American college champion of the NCAA in 1948, 1949 and 1950 . In the semester break and after the bachelor's degree in economics (1950) he started for the San Francisco Olympic Club and won the American championships of the Amateur Athletic Union in 1949, 1951, 1953-55 and 1958 . To become an American champion, you had to belong to a club and not just a university. Bud Held himself was only able to record an international success at the Pan American Games in Mexico City in 1955 , where he was victorious with 69.77 m. At the Olympic Games in Helsinki in 1952 , however, he came with 68.42 m only 9th place, and the qualification for the Olympic Games in Melbourne in 1956 he missed by an inch.

His championships:

year 1948 1949 1950 1951 1953 1954 1955 1958
Width (m) 63.91 m (NCAA) 68.48 m (NCAA), 70.77 m (AAU) 66.06 m (NCAA) 73.47 m (AAU) 73.94 m (AAU) 76.11 m (AAU) 79.32 m (AAU) 76.82 m (AAU)

In 1956 he achieved his personal best with 82.30 m, which brought him to fourth place on the world's best list of the year.

Next life

After finishing his sporting career, Bud Held was initially successful as a sporting goods retailer. Then - based on his knowledge of hollow aluminum spears - he developed patents for aluminum rackets for tennis and racquetball as well as for starting blocks for athletics. He is also involved in various venture capital development companies through his Yazoo Venture LLC .

Bud Held also took part in competitions as a senior:

  • In 1970 he threw an American record with 229'3 "(69.88 m) in the M40 age group.

Later he switched to jumping and was also successful there:

  • On November 8, 1997 in Phoenix , he achieved a high jump of 1.52 m. This achievement meant a world record in the M70 age group.
  • On August 3, 2003, he crossed in Mission Viejo with the staff 3.05 m and set the world record held by his compatriot William Bell in the M75 age group.
  • On June 27, 2015, he threw the discus (1 kg) in San Marcos , California , 28.87 m.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.si.com/vault/1955/07/04/602986/a-roundup-of-the-weeks-news# on . March 27, 2017
  2. ↑ http://www.usatf.org/HallOfFame/TF/showBio.asp?HOFIDs=72 on . March 27, 2017
  3. ^ Arnd Krüger : The American sport between isolationism and internationalism . In: competitive sport . Volume 18. No. 1 , 1988, p. 43-47 .
  4. ↑ [1] , accessed on March 27, 2017
  5. ↑ https://www.mastersrankings.com/athlete-profile/?x2=Outdoor&x1=2015&x8=USA32468113BUDHELD&citizen= auf. March 27, 2017

Web links

  • Bud Held in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )
  • Bud Held in the USA Track & Field Hall of Fame
personal data
SURNAME Hero, Bud
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hero, Franklin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American athlete
DATE OF BIRTH October 25, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH Los Angeles , California