After reading about Al Oerter’s near-fatal heart problems a few years back, I was certain that the four-time Olympic discus champ had called it quits. Not so, according to today’s New York Times. In an article about Al’s being honored on the 50th anniversary of his first gold medal, Frank Litsky writes that Oerter, now 70, visited his friend Art Swarts last year in New Jersey and brought three pair of throwing shoes and two discs. Litsky quotes Swarts as saying: “I told him: ‘You’re crazy. You have a heart condition.’ A few days later, he told me: ‘I went out and threw for a day and I went nowhere. I quit.’ I told him: ‘Good. We had our day.’ ”

The rest of the article:
Oerter won Olympic gold medals in the discus in 1956 in Melbourne, Australia; in 1960 in Rome; in 1964 in Tokyo; and in 1968 in Mexico City. No track and field athlete had ever won the same event in four consecutive Olympics, or broken the Olympic record every time, and only Carl Lewis (long jump in 1984, 1988, 1992 and 1996) has won four straight since.
Oerter is lucky to be here. He has long had high blood pressure, and in 2003 his heart stopped and it had to be shocked to run again. Three doctors told him he needed a heart transplant. A fourth said medication would do the job. He chose medication, and he looks and feels young and healthy.
“I have an implanted combination defibrillator/pacemaker,” Oerter said in a telephone interview. “It’s never gone off. So I asked the doctor why it’s there. He said it’s an insurance policy. I don’t want it. I’m fine.
“I’m back in the gym lifting, about a quarter of what I did. I used to leg press 700 pounds. Now I’m doing 200. I’m doing more work on the treadmill, maybe 15 or 20 minutes a day. I can’t stand it, but I do it.”
He still makes motivational speeches and appearances, but he has cut back on the frequency if not in distance. He is headed for Athens to make a speech, then to Melbourne for an Olympic 50th anniversary celebration.
He and his wife, Cathy, once a high-ranked long jumper, live in Fort Myers Beach, Fla. He spends most of his time there as an abstract artist.
“I’ve done about 230 paintings, and I’ve sold about half,” he said. “I get $2,500 to $3,000 apiece. Painting is no longer a hobby. I don’t say, ‘I don’t think I will paint today.’ It’s like training used to be. I want to do it.”
He wanted to compete in track, and no matter what he says, he never really retired. He passed up the Olympic trials in 1972 and 1976 to spend more time with his family. In the 1980 Olympic trials, he returned at 43, threw a career best of 227 feet 11 inches and finished one place and 4 feet short of making the United States team.
He last competed at 52, when he threw a lighter discus 204 feet in the world masters championship. He once estimated he had thrown the discus more than 500,000 times.
Horace Ashenfelter and Elliott Denman, Oerter’s teammates in the 1956 Olympics, marvel at his longevity and toughness.
Ashenfelter, who won the Olympic steeplechase, said: “I ran for 11 years and that was pretty extensive. To do what he did, competing at that level for more than 20 years, was amazing.”
In those Olympics, Denman, who finished 11th in the 50-kilometer walk, was 22. Oerter, a University of Kansas sophomore, had just turned 20.
“He knew what he was there for,” Denman said. “He was extremely cool under pressure at that age, and his performance was incredible. His New York City coolness paid off.”
To Swarts, Oerter was an idol.
“Al never bragged or played mind games or got in your face,” Swarts said. “He just threw. Win or lose, he was the same. He usually beat me. The first time I beat him, I felt embarrassed.”