František Janda-Suk

František Janda-Suk, civil name František Janda, was a Czech athlete and the first ever Czech to place on the podium at the Olympic Games. He was dedicated to sprinting, discus throwing, hammer throwing and shot put. He achieved his greatest success in the discus throw, in which he became a world record holder, champion of Bohemia and Czechoslovakia and an Olympic silver medalist. He was the first person in the world in modern history to use a spin when throwing the discus, and thus significantly marked the development of the technique of this sports discipline. He developed the spin technique based on the study of the ancient Myrón statue Diskobolus, when he came to the opinion that even ancient discus players made certain movements before throwing and did not throw from a place, as was common at the end of the 19th century.