Uwe Hohn: Javelin throw’s ‘eternal record’ holder who never won the Olympic gold medal!

Standing at a towering 6’6”, Uwe Hohn is a giant of a man but the German ace’s stature in the sport of javelin throw is, perhaps, even more imposing.

Uwe Hohn never won an Olympic or world championship medal. Neither does he have any official world record to his name. But the impact he made on the sport during his short yet eventful career and then as a coach justifies his legendary status.

Moreover, Uwe Hohn, to date, remains the only javelin thrower to have recorded a 100 metre-plus throw in the sport.

Here’s a closer look at exactly how Uwe Hohn became javelin throw’s ‘eternal’ king.

Where is Uwe Hohn from?

Uwe Hohn was born on July 16, 1962, in the town of Neuruppin in erstwhile East Germany.

Having taken up the sport of javelin throw as a teenager, Uwe Hohn’s life changed while watching a documentary on the 1972 Olympics at home.

“When I was 14, I had watched a documentary on the 1972 Olympic champion Klaus Wolfermann and it was then that I first thought about the 100m throw,” Uwe Hohn was quoted as saying in the Hindu.

At the 1972 Summer Games in Munich, West Germany’s Klaus Wolfermann won the gold medal with an Olympic record throw of 90.48m. A year later, Wolfermann would also pocket the world record with a 94.08m effort.

Both of Wolfermann’s records were broken by Hungary’s Miklos Nemeth with a 94.58m gold-winning attempt at the 1976 Montreal and Quebec Summer Games.

Uwe Hohn’s medals and the javelin throw eternal record

Uwe Hohn would mark his international debut in 1980 at a meet in Potsdam, Germany. He won the gold medal.

The following year, Uwe Hohn won gold at the 1981 European junior championships in Utrecht, the Netherlands, with a throw of 86.56m, a junior record at the time.

He then became the senior European champion, logging a 91.34m throw at the 1982 European championships held in Athens, Greece. Hohn, then just 22, was a firm medal contender going into the 1983 world championships in Helsinki but unfortunately couldn't compete. He ended up missing the entire season.

Exactly eight years since a 14-year-old Uwe Hohn had set his mind on breaching the 100m mark, the German ace finally realised his long-standing dream.

On July 20, 1984, at the Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark multi-purpose sports complex in Berlin, Uwe Hohn threw a giant 104.80m to win gold at the Olympic Day of Athletics competition, shattering the existing world record of 99.72m set by Tom Petranoff of the USA a year back.

It would go down in the history books as the first and only time an athlete breached the 100m mark in javelin throw. “Just inside the stadium,” was how the commentator described it after Hohn’s spear landed.

The mark also remained as the world record until 1986, until the record books were reset due to new specifications for javelins and changes in the rules of the sport. Czech athlete Jan Zelezny, an Olympic champion, holds the current men’s javelin throw world record, courtesy a 98.48m throw he registered in 1996 during an athletics meet in Germany.

Though it lost its official world record status, Uwe Hohn’s 104.80m throw was archived and is referred to as the ‘eternal record’ in javelin throw.

Uwe Hohn’s moment of glory at Berlin, however, marked the start of the end of his career.

Heading into the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, Uwe Hohn was all but certain to win the gold medal but was denied the opportunity as East Germany withdrew from the edition of the Summer Games due to political reasons.

“I had to miss out on the Olympics for no fault of mine,” Uwe Hohn still regrets.

Finland’s Arto Harkonen clinched the gold at Los Angeles with an 86.76m. Interestingly, Uwe Hohn won nine events that year and each of his winning throws measured over 90m.

Uwe Hohn was in sensational form in 1985, winning a flurry of gold medals, including at the 1985 IAAF World Cup in Canberra. Unfortunately, though, it turned out to be his final season as an athlete as a series of recurring injuries and botched surgeries cut his career short.

The German trailblazer was forced to retire at the age of 24, before he even peaked.

Uwe Hohn went under the knife for a back injury for the first time in 1986 and when he woke up, his right leg was limp. The issue only aggravated when the doctors tried to correct it with a follow-up surgery.

With his career already over, Uwe Hohn had to undergo another surgery in 1991 to save himself from becoming crippled for life. The risky procedure involved extracting a length of nerve tissue from his left foot to transplant in his back.

Though it enabled Uwe Hohn to get back on his feet, the German walks with a pronounced limp in his left foot after the surgery.

Uwe Hohn - the coach

While Hohn’s playing career ended prematurely, the German found a way to stay in touch with the sport he so loves by coaching up-and-coming javelin throwers.

After starting as a professional coach in 1999, Hohn has moulded several world-class athletes, including China’s Zhao Qinggang, an Asian Games champion, and Australia’s Jarrod Bannister, a Commonwealth champion.

The most famous among Uwe Hohn’s pupils, however, is undoubtedly Indian sensation Neeraj Chopra, the Tokyo 2020 Olympics champion.

Hohn started working with Neeraj Chopra and other Indian javelin throwers since being appointed as India’s javelin throw head coach in 2017. He guided Neeraj Chopra to the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games gold medals in 2018. He moved on from his role with Neeraj Chopra shortly after but undoubtedly set him up to win a historic gold medal for India at Tokyo 2020.

Uwe Hohn, who has been married since 1983 and is the father of two children, was relieved of his duties as India’s javelin throw coach in 2021.

Uwe Hohn achievements

• First and only javelin thrower to breach the 100m mark (104.80m)
• Men’s javelin throw world record holder till 1986 before the record books were reset
• His 104.80m throw at the 1984 Olympic Day of Athletics competition in Berlin was archived as the eternal record
• Won gold medal at the European Junior Championships 1981
• Won gold medal at the European Championships 1982
• Won gold medal at the IAAF World Cup 1985
• Coached India’s Neeraj Chopra - the Tokyo 2020 Olympics men’s javelin throw champion