Track and field
b. June 24, 1875, Baltimore County, MD
d. April 25, 1961
The captain of the Princeton track team, Garrett was primarily a shot-putter, though he also competed in the jumping events. When he decided to compete in the first modern Olympics in 1896, Professor William Milligan Sloane suggested he should also try the discus.
They consulted classical authorities to develop a drawing and Garrett, who came from a wealthy family, hired a blacksmith to make a discus. It weighed nearly thirty pounds and was impossible to throw it any distance, so he gave up on the idea. Garrett paid his own way to Athens to compete in the Olympics. When he discovered that a real discus weighs less than five pounds, he began practicing and decided to enter the event, after all.
With his third and final throw, Garrett beat local favorite Panagiotis Paraskevopoulos in the discus. He also won the shot put and finished second in the long jump and high jump. In the 1900 Olympics, Garrett placed third in the shot put and the standing triple jump; he didn't take part in the discus throw because it was held on Sunday.
Garrett was the IC4A shot put champion in 1897.
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