Dutch Giant Rutger Smith set for Beijing double 29. October 07

If there was a multi-event competition purely for throws then Rutger Smith would be a pretty fearsome competitor.

The giant Dutchman made history in Osaka by becoming the first athlete in World Championship history to win medals in both the Discus and the Shot Put, after securing bronze in the former event two years after winning silver in the latter discipline at the Helsinki World Championships.

Smith also holds a respectable personal best of just under 60m for the hammer, but we should not be too surprised at the success of the self-confessed athletics obsessive, who has been addicted to the sport for as long as he can remember.

His first hazy memories of track and field are from watching TV coverage of the Los Angeles Olympics aged just three when he recalls telling his parents, "this (athletics) is what I want to do."


Aged six, the minimum age for taking up the sport in Holland, he joined an athletics club and tried his hand at sprints, jumps and throws, but it was not until he was 16 that he committed fully to Shot Put and Discus.

"I did a lot of events but I specialised in Discus and Shot Put because those were my best," said Smith, who competed in the Decathlon until he was 15.

"I think for me looking back, it was important I try those other events because I'm not the strongest Shot Put or Discus thrower, my best skill is my general athletic ability."

From a "sport crazy" family - his father played soccer and his mother handball and volleyball - Smith shone as a top class junior in both disciplines winning double gold in the Shot Put and Discus at the 1999 European Junior Championships in Latvia.

He took some time to adjust to the demands of the seniors - a fact not uncommon for throwers - and endured disappointment at the 2004 Athens Olympics by failing to qualify for the final of either event.


However the Dutchman made a massive breakthrough in the Shot Put in 2005, winning silver at the European Indoor Championships in Madrid, before taking the same colour of medal at the World Championships in Helsinki.

Despite this initial success in the Shot Put, he always continued to devote 50 percent of his training to the Discus, that was until earlier this year, when his long-time coach, Gert Damkat, advised him to concentrate more on the Shot.

Yet in a fickle twist of athletic fate, despite spending three days a week on Shot Put compared to two days on the Discus, it is the latter event which has proved the richer source of success for Smith this year.

Smith finished fourth, and just outside of the medals in the Shot Put in Osaka, before bouncing back from this frustration in the Discus. He threw a personal best of 66.60m in qualification, and came within 0.18cm in the final to land an unlikely discus bronze behind Estonian Gerd Kanter.

So did the Discus bronze surprise the 26-year-old Smith?

"Yes, a little bit because my focus had been on the Shot Put," he said. "But my technique is always very consistent and I have a good coach."

Smith is currently the world's No1 all round thrower, and although there have been world-class throwers in the past such as three-time former world shot put champion and 69.91m discus thrower John Godina of the USA, he believes it is difficult to answer why not more have followed.

"That is a good question," he ponders. "Maybe athletes believe that to be the best in the World they have to do one event."

The Groningen-based athlete describes winning bronze in Osaka as the highlight of his career but he has set himself a greater goal for next year. The Olympic Games looms in Beijing and he hopes to make amends for the personal disappointment of the 2004 Games.

"It didn't go very well for me in Athens, but my dream is to win a medal in both (Shot and Discus) in Beijing," he added.

european-athletics.org