Henry Dreyer

Henry Francis Dreyer (February 2, 1911 – May 27, 1986) was an American athlete. He competed in the 1936 and 1948 Summer Olympics as a hammer thrower; his other strong event was the non-Olympic weight throw, in which he broke the world record several times. Between the two events and counting both outdoors and indoors, he won twenty United States championships.

Sports career Early career and 1936 Olympics Dreyer won his first national title in 1934, winning the 35 lb weight throw at that year's AAU indoor championships with a throw of 53 ft 8 in (16.35 m). Representing Rhode Island State College, he also won the 1934 indoor IC4A weight throw title, throwing 55 ft in (16.82 m), a world record. At that summer's NCAA championships he won the hammer throw, throwing 169 ft in (51.73 m) and defeating 1932 Olympic bronze medalist Pete Zaremba; only Fred Tootell, the 1924 Olympic champion and Dreyer's coach, had ever thrown farther at the NCAA meet. and repeated as national champion in the event. The previous week he had thrown 181 ft in (55.30 m) at the New England championships in Newport,

On 29 February 1936 he threw the indoor weight 58 ft in (17.79 m), regaining the world record from Irving Folwartshny, who had thrown 58 ft in (17.71 m) at the national championships the previous week. He only placed third in the hammer at that year's national championships, He placed ninth at the Olympics, throwing 165 ft 5 in (50.42 m). He regained the indoor weight throw title in 1939; but won the outdoor 56-pound weight throw for the first time, throwing 35 ft 6 in (10.82 m). He won seven consecutive national titles in the indoor weight throw from 1941 to 1947, Dreyer also won the outdoor weight throw in 1945 However, he regained the outdoor title; his throw of 41 ft in (12.56 m) exceeded Matt McGrath's old world record of 40 ft in (12.32 m) from 1911, but the implement used was found to have been too light. At the Olympics in London Dreyer finished ninth, just as he had twelve years before; this time his best throw was 168 ft in (51.37 m), three feet better than in Berlin.

Dreyer reached career-best form with the 56-pound outdoor weight in 1951; at the Metropolitan championships in June he threw 41 ft in (12.68 m), again breaking the world record and now legitimately, although as the IAAF didn't recognize official weight throw world records it was only ratified as an American record. He also won the national championship, throwing 41 ft in (12.66 m), a meeting record.