Tom Petranoff
Thomas Alan Petranoff is a retired American track and field athlete who competed in the javelin throw. He held the world record from May 1983 to July 1984; his 99.72 m throw was almost the length of an American football field (. During his career, he was a silver medalist at the World Championships in 1983 and represented the United States at the Summer Olympics in 1984 and 1988. He transferred to South Africa in the 1990s and was twice a winner at the African Championships. His personal best with the new implement javelin is. In the final years of his career, he returned to the United States and won a medal at the 1999 Pan American Games.
Career
Petranoff's world record added precisely three meters to the previous global standard of 96.72 m, set in 1980 by Hungary's Ferenc Paragi. Petranoff's effort fueled further discussion and speculation regarding the likelihood of alterations to the javelin's design and flight characteristics. Propelled by the need to shorten distances and the then frequent flat or ambiguous landings, a change to a new design finally took effect in April 1986. By then, East German Uwe Hohn had greatly improved Petranoff's mark with a throw of 104.80 meters. This throw came after the changes had been officially proposed and was not a driving cause of the change.Petranoff's mark with the old javelin design was never exceeded by any throw other than Hohn's mark. He also did well with the new design; his personal best of 89.16, thrown at Potchefstroom, South Africa on March 1, 1991, was at the time the second best ever, behind only Steve Backley's world record of 89.58 m.
In 1984, Petranoff won the Superstars championship with a record score of 61 points. He qualified for the United States Olympic Team, but finished a disappointing 10th in the final in Los Angeles.
A native of Illinois, Petranoff later became a citizen of South Africa and competed for that country in various international competitions.