When he sat down for a Zoom interview with Sportstar, Johannes Vetter chose a spot just in front of his trophy case at his apartment in Offenburg, Germany. It’s a cabinet filled with memories from a career that has marked him as one of the most fearsome competitors in javelin throw for many years. Besides mementos from his many victories at the European championships and a statue of a spearman from a competition in Germany, there are also multiple Diamond League trophies as well as medals from the 2019 World Championships where he won bronze and the one in 2017 where he won gold.
There’s not much from more recent competitions, though. For all his ability — he has the second-best throw in history (97.76m) and has more throws over 90m than anyone else in history — the last three years have been disappointing for Vetter. A massive favourite for gold at the Tokyo Olympics, Vetter finished a disappointing ninth in a competition where India’s Neeraj Chopra created history to win gold. That was followed by a mystery injury to his throwing shoulder at the start of 2022. He threw only twice that year. Last year, as this injury persisted, he competed just four times, with a best effort of 80.82m.
Vetter still tried to keep a positive outlook. A look at his social media profile all through that dry spell has him posting pictures and videos of himself in the weight room and training hall. Yet there are times when the German admits to being frustrated with it all. This was especially so when he missed his second straight World Championships in a row last year — a competition that was won once again by Neeraj.
“It’s not a great feeling when you see that others are competing but you aren’t. People might say why I didn’t just avoid looking at what others were doing, but I couldn’t really switch off. I mean, you can turn your social media off, but you can also see the results on the internet or on TV. There’s a lot of media where you definitely see the results from the Worlds. I mean, I can’t do anything about that,” he tells Sportstar.
Injuries, though, have always been part of the trade-off in Vetter’s career. The German, standing at 6 feet 2 inches and weighing 105 kg, is probably one of the most explosive throwers on the circuit, but the immense forces he generates are often more than his body can tolerate.
A bronze at the Doha World Championships was followed by foot surgery after cartilage damage. He has been suffering from persistent shoulder pain since the winter of 2021. “Sometimes I cannot help it (injuries) because it comes with the power I put into the throws. I’m also 31 now, so I’m starting to get old as a professional athlete, especially in a sport like the javelin. There are a lot of big forces that act on the body when you throw the javelin that far. And yeah, I mean, I try to push my own limit to the maximum all day. So sometimes s*#t happens and you get injured. But it’s part of the business,” he shrugs.
Hardest comeback
Searching for inspiration: An ecstatic Vetter after winning the men’s javelin throw competition at the ISTAF 2021 athletics meet in Berlin. Despite all his struggles, he says his self-belief has never wavered. | Photo Credit: Getty Images
Vetter’s most recent comeback from injury has also been his hardest. It took nearly a year and a half to simply diagnose the problem. “The last few years have been pretty hard. The main issue was that the doctors couldn’t find out what the problem was. That was the worst time of my career, where I knew I was having an injury but the doctors didn’t know what the problem was,” he says.
Although the injury couldn’t be diagnosed, Vetter could certainly feel it, particularly at the point of the greatest tension when either throwing or lifting weights. “There was enormous pain,” he says.
As his body tried to protect him, Vetter says he had to consciously will himself to throw instead of instinctively flinging it as he had done on previous occasions. Speaking to a German newspaper, he said that he couldn’t even throw a stone into water intuitively. Instead, he had to concentrate on repeating the movements of the throw before he could manage such a simple task.
“It was only at the end of summer last year when we started to understand what was wrong when I tried something different with my physiotherapy and started doing a lot more shoulder stabilisation,” he says.
“The problem was that the scapula from my right shoulder was not in the right position. The head of the humerus doesn’t rest properly in it. As a result of that, I wasn’t getting my shoulder to move at the right angle and get into the right positions. That caused the constant pain. Once we figured out what was wrong, we were able to work on stabilisation,” he says.
The regimen, for the most part, has worked. “When I started training in October, we directly began with throwing some balls and javelins. We were only throwing indoors, but suddenly I felt no pain. That’s when I knew that I was on the right track,” he says.
Just because the injury has been diagnosed and treated doesn’t mean it’s all smooth roads ahead. His injury can be managed with physiotherapy, but it’s a recurring one. Also, according to him, he can’t do a lot of shoulder stabilisation; otherwise, the same shoulder can become overstimulated. Vetter will have to try and find that balance if he is to throw pain-free.
Olympic dreams
With the Olympics a little over three months away, Vetter will very much hope for that to be the case. In the trophy cabinet at his home, perhaps the biggest hole is the empty space where he had hoped to place an Olympic medal.
Back in 2021, he was the undisputed favourite for the Tokyo Games. He’d thrown over 90 metres at seven separate competitions in the lead-up to the Olympics. Then, where it mattered most, Vetter struggled. He complained of not finding enough grip on the runways, slipped on his first attempt, and only managed to throw 82.52m.
“I just couldn’t get the right grip when I was blocking. My foot was just skidding. When that happens, you can’t do anything. If you are slipping on the track, there is no way you can make a good throw. That was the most difficult part of what happened at the Olympics. I had really good throws before the Olympics, and I had really good throws after it (he competed in another six competitions post-Tokyo with a best throw of 89.60m and a lowest of 86.17m),” he says.
In the months after the disappointment in Tokyo, Vetter has had a role to play in changing the quality of the runway. “Mondo — trademarked synthetic track surface used for track and field athletics — had created a new running surface, especially for the Olympics in Tokyo, but unfortunately, they made every running surface in the stadium. And that’s not going to work for the javelin throw, especially if you produce as much power as I did. I was coming down so hard that the surface couldn’t hold me. After the Tokyo Olympics, Mondo and I tried to find a solution that worked for everyone. Now the runways at any Mondo track are a lot harder and have more grip. The change hasn’t been made across the whole stadium, just the eight metres of the runway before blocking. I’ve also worked with Puma to make a shoe that gives me more grip,” he says.
While he couldn’t put a performance together when he most needed to, Vetter looks back at the 2021 season with some fondness. “Despite what happened at the Olympics, 2021 was a great year for me. I had a lot of 90m throws, and I was very consistent at that mark. I did find out the hard way that not every surface was meant for me, but if I could conserve the kind of form that I was in, I’d wish that I could bring that to 2024 as well,” he says.
There have been positive signs. A few weeks ago, Vetter posted on Instagram a training throw from his camp in South Africa. Without a running start and starting only from the crossovers stage of his run-up, Vetter threw what was estimated in the comments section as 80m.
Learning to step back
Lost track: The last three years have been disappointing by any measure for Johannes Vetter. | Photo Credit: Getty Images
Despite those flashes of promise, there’s always the ever-looming threat of injury. Even as his shoulder has recovered, Vetter has had some trouble with his throwing elbow in recent weeks. While some of his compatriots have already started their throwing season, Vetter will only return to competition in May at home in Offenberg.
While it’s not what he had planned originally, Vetter has learned to take a step back. “All in all, I’m feeling pretty good. From a strength perspective, I’m not very far off from where I was in 2021. I had a really good training camp in South Africa in the winter. There are some exercises in the gym where I’m even stronger. I actually wanted to start my season in February or March, but I picked up a slight muscle tear in January. After I treated that, I had some issues with my elbow last month. I’ve done a lot of treatment to get it fixed again,” he says.
While it might be frustrating that he can’t head back to the field and just throw, Vetter’s learned over the past couple of seasons that sometimes his own ambition can be a stumbling block. “The most significant thing I learned was how to treat my body with a little more respect. I was doing a lot of bad technical things in training, and I was getting away with it. I’ve learned to recognise where I might be starting an injury. When that happens, I know now that I can’t throw anymore. I have to find the problem, solve the issue, and then restart throwing. It’s something that can be frustrating because you want to throw, but I know that it’s most important to throw when I am fully fit and pain-free,” he says.
Even as he waits to make his return, Vetter has seen the international field move ahead. Some of that is inevitable. He explains this by way of Germany’s own fortunes in the javelin throw. “You will always have new players coming up. There was a time when Germany had a lot of really good throwers (Vetter, Thomas Rohler, and Andreas Hofmann were all throwing over 90m simultaneously back in 2019), but right now that’s not the case. We (the three Germans) are now starting to get older and more injury-prone, and that’s why you don’t have a lot of Germans at the top right now, although we have a young guy named Max Dehning who just threw 90m,” he says.
“I think Finland had the same problem. They had some really good years, and then the older guys ended their careers, and then there was like a big hole. Nobody was there who was able to throw really, really far. Now they are getting back. I think it will be the same in Germany.”
Not jealous of Neeraj
Far from his best: At the Tokyo Games, Vetter complained of not finding enough grip on the runways, slipped on his first attempt and only managed to throw 82.52m. | Photo Credit: Getty Images
Perhaps the most unexpected rise in the world of javelin has been that of the Indians. No Indian had even made an Olympic final before the 2020 Olympics. Now Neeraj is an Olympic and World Champion, and he and Kishore Jena have already qualified for the Olympic Games.
According to Vetter, this was a phenomenon that was bound to occur. “There are a lot of talented guys in India. I mean, first of all, you have a big, big population, so there is bound to be talent. And secondly, cricket is a big national sport, so there are a lot of guys who will know how to throw. I don’t know if that’s the reason, but I think there’s been a lot of improvement,” he says.
And while it’s Neeraj who’s the undisputed leader of the javelin world right now, Vetter isn’t envious of the Indian’s success. “I don’t really compare myself with others. I have a lot of respect for Neeraj’s achievements and for his career. But the javelin throw is a very unique event, as no one has exactly the same style. I think we are very different both in terms of body type and technique,” he says.
While he’s gone two years away from the podium in elite competition and has not even met the 85.50m qualification standard for the Paris Olympics, Vettter believes he can get back on top. Despite all his struggles, he says his self-belief has never wavered.
“When you aren’t successful, you don’t always have a lot of people around you, but I have a small team who have stood by me, and I’ve always been very self-motivated. Right now, my goal is to just stay healthy. I’m not looking at that (Olympic qualification) number.
“If I can do that, I know I will be able to make big throws again,” he says.
He knows he has a few of them still left in him, and there’s unfinished business too, perhaps even a crack at Czech Republic’s Jan Zelezny’s world record (98.48m), which he missed by 72 centimetres in 2021. But if he had to choose, he’d first fill that Olympic-sized gap in his cabinet and resume.
“This year, I’m not looking at any numbers in terms of throws. My first priority is the Olympic gold medal. The last two years have been really tough. I would like to throw far, but first, I really want to get a medal at the Olympics. It would be much nicer than a world record this year,” he says.
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