Training Talk With Juri Tamm (Part 1)

The first two names that come to mind when you think about Soviet hammer throwing are Yuriy Sedykh, and Sergey Litvinov. Often overlooked on the podium is Jüri Tamm. Tamm, who also briefly held the world record, won the bronze medal at both the 1980 and 1988 Olympics and the silver at the 1987 World Championships. His personal best of 84.40 meters ranked third all-time during most of his career and still ranks in the top eight and is the Estonian national record nearly 30 years later. In summary, there is no reason he should be overlooked. If he threw in any other era he would have more gold medals and accolades than anyone in history.


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8 replies
  1. Anders Halvorsen
    Anders Halvorsen says:

    Thank you very much for this interesting interview. In my opinion, Tamm is not only one of the best hammer-throwers ever, but he is remarkable for having an incredible understanding of the technique and provides analysis better than anyone I have ever known. Regards.

    Reply
  2. james f
    james f says:

    Great interview, Martin. I wonder if Juri knows he has the listed World Masters Record (outdoors) in the weight throw, M35 class. 25.17m!! An amazing throw.

    Reply

Trackbacks & Pingbacks

  1. […] towards hammer throwing and technique. Stay tuned for more later in the week and in the meantime you can read more in our previous interview from a few years […]

  2. […] had the chance to talk with many elite athletes and coaches for this blog, but hands down my favorite interview was with two-time Olympic medalist Jüri Tamm several years ago. We had a wide ranging discussion about the decline of Soviet dominance, talent […]

  3. […] All of this being said, there is unquestionably a certain beauty to some athletes technique (perhaps this should be a conversation to itself). But last time I checked, we do not compete in figure skating. We are not judged on “how it looks.” We compete in the ancient sport of throwing things. This being the case, the only rubric worth mentioning is distance. So I can’t help but smirk when people debate about the aesthetics of someone’s technique. Juri Tamm shared a similar sentiment as he explained in a Training Talk with Martin: […]

  4. […] general athletic foundation needs to be built simultaneously. The examples I use in my article, Jüri Tamm and Hungarian coach Zsolt Nemeth, show it is possible to do this. Tamm began throwing quite young, […]

  5. […] Part 1: The Decline of Soviet Dominance […]

  6. […] this week I posted the first part of my interview with two-time Olympic medalist Jüri Tamm. After talking about why hammer throw results have fallen off in the former Soviet nations and […]

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