 The first Olympic men 's javelin throw contest was held in 1908 and a women 's competition was introduced in 1932 . The first <unk> were made of various types of wood , but in the 1950s , former athlete <unk> Held introduced a hollow javelin , then a metal javelin , both of which increased throwers performances . Another former athlete , <unk> <unk> invented the rough @-@ tailed javelin and throws reached in excess of 100 m – edging towards the limits of stadia . The distances and the increasing number of horizontal landings led the IAAF to redesign the men 's javelin to reduce distance and increase the implement 's downward pitching moment to allow for easier measurement . Rough @-@ tailed designs were banned in 1991 and all marks achieved with such <unk> were removed from the record books . The women 's javelin underwent a similar redesign in 1999 . The current javelin specifications are 2 @.@ 6 to 2 @.@ 7 m in length and 800 grams in weight for men , and 2 @.@ 2 to 2 @.@ 3 m and 600 g for women . 
