Olympic excitement

Scary moment! TV man almost hit by javelin

Moustafa Mahmoud and a TV employee must have been very lucky ...(Bild: Associated Press; Screenshot (www.eurosport.de))

What a scary moment at the Olympic Games in Paris: In the qualifying for the javelin throw competition, the Egyptian Moustafa Mahmoud almost hit a TV employee with his javelin in a failed attempt! Little more than half a meter ultimately made the difference between life and death ...

The man who was supposed to soak up the atmosphere in the stadium with a microphone was correctly standing outside the target area for the javelin throw, but if a javelin goes sideways, even that doesn't help in the worst case.

Not much would have been missing
At least he was able to avoid the javelin, which, according to the shocked live commentators on Eurosport, was probably hurtling towards him at around 80 km/h, in time - but despite the two or three quick steps backwards, not much would have been missing ...

Incidentally, there have already been deaths in javelin competitions: In Düsseldorf, Germany, for example, a 74-year-old referee died in August 2012 after being hit in the neck by a javelin. Apparently, the man had run off to measure the distance before the javelin thrown by a 15-year-old had even landed ...