The year was 1951. At three o’clock in the morning, under the dim illumination of the street lamps of an adjoining vacant lot, a nineteen-year-old young man contemplated the 16-pound pellet that was placed in his hand. This iron ball was his barrier, his Everest, his mile in four minutes. Despite his notebook style and powerful arms, he just couldn’t get him past 55 feet.
That night he decided to explore simple laws of physics. If only he could apply his force to the shot for a longer period of time, he would surely go further. No rule specified which direction a shot putter was to face when starting the throw or the action of his legs. The only rule he had to abide by was that the shot had to be put, not thrown, with one hand.
O’Brien surveyed the 7-foot circle from every angle and then stood at the rear, not facing the pitching quadrant as he had in the past, but facing the opposite direction. This meant that the shot resting on his right shoulder would have to travel a full 180E before being released, instead of the standard 90E that shot putters normally used.
He sank down with his weight on his right leg, the shot put resting under his chin. She then executed a long backward jump while at the same time rotating her torso a full 180°. When he finally hit the shot, O’Brien could feel the added momentum behind him.
In the days and months that followed, while attending the University of Southern California, O’Brien refined and perfected his technique. He studied yoga (“to delve into what might be called an internal reserve of strength,” he explained), as well as aerodynamics, religions and, of course, physics – anything that might hold the key to greater distance. He became one of the first track and field athletes to lift weights on a regular basis, gaining up to 240 pounds at his peak at 6’3″.
His cutting-edge style became known as the “O’Brien Glide” and soon brought him to the front ranks of the sport. In 1953, he set a new world record of 59 feet 3/4 inches. In 1954, significantly just two days after British runner Roger Bannister became the first person to break the mile in four minutes, Parry O’Brien became the first shot putter to break 60 feet.
He broke the world record 17 times in his career, eventually raising it to 63 feet 3 inches. On December 3, 1956, he was famous enough to appear on the cover of TIME magazine. In the accompanying interview, he says, “My style is designed to allow me to apply force for as long as possible before shooting.”
At the height of his career, O’Brien was undefeated in 116 consecutive meetings. He won Olympic gold medals in 1952 and 1956, a silver in 1960, placed fourth in 1964, and retired from competition in 1966 at the age of 34. At that time, his style had been widely adopted.
O’Brien’s workouts were legendary. He did 150 practices a day and is quoted as saying, “I don’t give up until my hands bleed, and that’s God’s truth.” Before a competition, to get psyched up, he’d play tapes he’d made to remind himself of the best form and style tips. It is rumored that the tapes always ended with the catchphrase: “And beat them! Beat them all!”
On April 21, at the age of 75, Parry O’Brien died of a heart attack during a Masters 500-yard freestyle race in California. “He was on lap 11, getting ready to switch, and he hit the wall,” his wife Terry said. O’Brien had started swimming in the 1990s when his joints became too painful to throw weights.
We think of a champion as someone who comes in first place in their events. For many years, Parry O’Brien embodied that ideal of a champion. But in the last years of his life, Parry O’Brien showed the world another side of a true champion. As Sri Chinmoy has written philosophizing:
“A great champion is one who over the years retires from racing or ends his career happy and joyful.
“A great champion is one who longs to see his dreams fulfilled, if not through himself, then in and through others.”
Parry O’Brien was that great champion.