Al Oerter, who died on 1 October, 2007, was an American Olympic champion who won four consecutive gold medals – the first track and field competitor to do so.

He won gold for the discus throw in Melbourne (1956), Rome (1960), Tokyo (1964) and Mexico City (1968), overcoming stacked odds and setting a new Olympic record on each occasion.

He was the first thrower to break the 200 feet barrier and set a personal best of 227’ at the age of 43 after coming out of retirement. He is reported to have unofficially thrown 245’ which would still be a world record if recorded.

Alfred Adolf Oerter was born in the Astoria district of New York on 19 September, 1936, and grew up on Long Island. He was an unlikely athlete, suffering from high blood pressure during his childhood.

Indeed, his discus career came about by a legendary accident while he was training to be a sprinter – the 15-year-old was running at his high school when a wayward discus landed at his feet. He stopped to throw it back where it came from and cleared the original thrower by a good distance. He was immediately made to switch disciplines by his coach.

Mr Oerter went into every single Olympics as an underdog. He beat the odds with a career best in Melbourne, then overcame injuries sustained in a career-threatening car accident to narrowly beat world record-holder Rink Babka in Rome.

A neck injury and a torn cartilage robbed him of his favourite’s status in Tokyo, but he competed through the pain with another personal best. And in Mexico he beat team-mate Jay Silvester, despite Silvester having a better average distance overall.

He retired after the 1968 Olympics, but returned to the sport 12 years later in a bold attempt to make the American team for the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. He narrowly missed the cut, but nevertheless set his personal best in the process.

It wasn’t until 1987 that he retired from sport for good, aged 51. “Have you ever seen a longer face,” he commented on his long career, “than on an athlete who has quit in his prime?”

Mr Oerter was renowned for his ability to thrive under pressure. He explained: "You have to be better than whatever it is that keeps you from being your best. Pressure is nothing more than opportunity. Why not embrace it?"

He worked as a computer specialist for most of his life and opposed the professionalism of athletics, saying he was glad it hadn’t been his entire life. After retirement he exhibited abstract paintings along with work by other former Olympians and toured as a public speaker.

He was diagnosed with a terminal heart condition several years before his death and refused a transplant, saying, "I've had an interesting life and I'm going out with what I have."

He was survived by his wife Cathy (a one-time long jumper), two daughters from a previous marriage and three grandchildren.