Sword to Shot Put: 10 Olympic Sports You've Never Thought About

Javelin

Weight: 800 grams (almost 2lbs)

Length: between 2600 – 2700 mm (about 8.5 feet)

Maybe it’s due to our primitive relationship with spears (or Gerard Butler’s performance in 300) but we tend to think javelins couldn’t be that hard to throw. Reality check—consider this: If you’re standing on home plate at Fenway Park, the Green Monster is 310 feet away. In order to compete for a javelin gold medal, you’d have to fling the 8.5-foot spear from home plate and stick it somewhere in the middle of the scoreboard to win.