大象传媒

It's time we met another Olympic great, and that great is , the only track and field athlete to win his event four times while setting a new Olympic record each time.

And Oerter's event? The discus.

He got involved with the sport almost by accident when he picked up a discus and threw it back to an athlete further than it had originally been thrown.

A coach immediately recognised he had some talent and the rest is, as they say, .

Oerter's first Olympic appearance was at the 1956 Melbourne Games and his opening throw of 56.36m was enough for a shock win over team-mate and

After recovering from a car crash in 1957, Oerter went to Rome for the 1960 Games and defended his title with a throw of 59.19m in the fifth round after receiving advice from fellow American and world record holder

Oerter became the first man to throw the discus over 200 feet as he broke his first world record in 1962, making him favourite to win a third title at the 1964 Tokyo Games.

A put his appearance at the Games in doubt but, despite competing in pain, Oerter again produced an Olympic best throw of 61.00m to win gold.

And he became the first Olympian to win four gold medals in the same event in Mexico four years later. Carl Lewis has since matched him in the long jump title but he did not break the Games record on each occasion.

At the age of 32, Oerter stunned his critics with an opening throw of 64.78m, a fourth Games record, that proved enough to beat another world record holder in

Twelve years later, he sensationally came out of retirement in an attempt to qualify for the 1980 Olympics. He didn't quite achieve his goal, finishing fourth at the US qualifying trials, although his country's boycott of the Moscow Games would have stopped his participation in any case.

Oerter did improve his own personal best though, ending his career with a 69.46m throw at the age of 43.

Oerter is rightly considered as one of the legendary Olympians of the modern era but will anyone match his record in track and field?