The sport of throwing the discus traces back to it being an event in the original Olympic Games of Ancient Greece.

[2] The discus as a sport was resurrected in Magdeburg, Germany, by gymnastics teacher Christian Georg Kohlrausch and his students in the 1870s.

Today the sport of discus is a routine part of modern track-and-field meets at all levels, and retains a particularly iconic place in the Olympic Games.

The first modern athlete to throw the discus while rotating the whole body was František Janda-Suk from Bohemia (the present Czech Republic).

The weight of the discus is either governed by World Athletics for international or USA Track & Field for the United States.

A discus with more weight in the rim produces greater angular momentum for any given spin rate, and thus more stability, although it is more difficult to throw.

To make a throw, the competitor starts in a circle of 2.5 m (8 ft 2+1⁄4 in) diameter, which is recessed in a concrete pad by 20 millimetres (0.79 in).

[11] Initially, the thrower takes up their position in the throwing circle, distributing their body weight evenly over both feet, which are roughly shoulder width apart.

This is due to the throw being a linear movement combined with a one and a half rotation and an implement at the end of one arm.

Athletes employ various techniques to control the end-point and recover from the throw, such as fixing feet (to pretty much stop dead[13]), or an active reverse spinning onto the left foot (e.g. Virgilijus Alekna[15]).

[16] The discus throw has been the subject of a number of well-known ancient Greek statues and Roman copies such as the Discobolus and Discophoros.

The discus throw also appears repeatedly in ancient Greek mythology, featured as a means of manslaughter in the cases of Hyacinth, Crocus, Phocus, and Acrisius, and as a named event in the funeral games of Patroclus.