by Rob Leachman
This Series
- Introduction
- Part I – Randy Matson
- Part II – Parry O’Brien
- Part III – Ryan Crouser
- Conclusion
Part Three – Ryan Crouser
He knew it was a good one the instant he released it, triumphantly raising both arms in the air as he watched the shot land near the back edge of the Hayward Field throwing sector. As he later reflected, “I was celebrating on that one almost before it left my hand.” He had been chasing the shot put world record since 2017, the first year he believed he was capable of throwing beyond 75-10¼. His goal had been to surpass a 31-year-old mark considered so tainted that Track and Field News, the preeminent publication covering the sport, had for decades recognized as the record a mark by an East German athlete that some considered similarly suspect.
To knowledgeable fans closely watching this competition, the question was not whether Ryan Crouser had broken the world record but rather by how much. The measurement would confirm that this had been a monumental performance, a throw that set a new world standard for the first time since 1990, an effort that would bring the shot put record into the era of stringent drug testing. And a performance that would help to further immortalize Ryan Crouser and solidify his position among the greatest to have ever competed in the event.
“The First Family of Throwing”
But really, young Ryan had been chasing that record since he began his throwing career as a little boy in his grandfather’s backyard. And with a last name of Crouser and living in Oregon, it was virtually inevitable that he would be a thrower and an outstanding one at that.
Larry Crouser, the matriarch of the family and Ryan’s grandfather, had been a javelin thrower at Gresham, Oregon High School, setting a school record and finishing second in the Oregon state meet in 1953. In the Army, he had a successful competitive career with the javelin, increasing his personal best to around 210. “There was no training,” he recalled. “You threw to get out of KP.” More significant than any championships he won or clean-up duty he missed was the intense interest in throwing that his brief career in track and field generated among members of his family.
Larry and Marie Crouser had three sons, and Mitch, Dean, and Brian Crouser each became a throwing star in his own right, winning national titles and setting records in the shot put, discus, and javelin. That success in track and field might not, and likely would not have occurred without the subtle and at times underhanded urgings of their father. As Dean recalled, “My dad got us a little barbell. I was seven or eight at the time.” (Dean is the middle son, with Mitch two years older and Brian two years younger.) “He told us, ‘If you clean and jerk 40 pounds, I’ll get you a shot so you can shot put.’ Now we didn’t have any idea what a shot put was, but we knew none of our friends had one. So that would be pretty cool.” The next year, their father told them, “Fifty pounds and you get a discus.” The next year, they were promised a javelin if they could clean and jerk sixty pounds. Throwing in their backyard until the small acreage could no longer contain their distances, the throwing careers of the three Crouser brothers were launched.
For Mitch Crouser, his best event was the javelin. But the throwing motion in that event can be very tricky, and if the arm angle is off even slightly, an athlete risks severe injury, especially to the elbow. That’s what happened to Mitch Crouser as a high school thrower. “I had a really good arm, but I didn’t know how to throw. . . It can be a nasty event if you don’t know how to do it.” His nagging elbow injury kept the oldest of the Crouser sons out of the Oregon state meet his junior and senior years of high school. After high school, Mitch Crouser attended junior college before completing his final two years at the University of Idaho. With his best event no longer available to him, he focused on the shot put and discus.
Perhaps the high point of Mitch Crouser’s competitive career occurred in 1988 when he finished fourth in the discus at the Olympic Trials, positioning him as the alternate to the formidable American team of John Powell, Mac Wilkins, and Art Burns. He would compete in the Olympic Trials again four years later, finishing twelfth.
But as impressive as his competitive career may have been, his greatest contribution to track and field may have occurred when he and his wife, Lisa, brought into the world their son Ryan, an athlete Mitch coaches and advises to this day.
Like his older brother, for middle child Dean, the javelin was his best, most natural event. And like Mitch, injuries precluded a lengthy career in that event. As he recalled, he threw the spear 230-6 in 1978, “One of the best high school throws in the nation that year. On the next one, I blew out my elbow.” Unable to compete in his best event at the state meet that year, Dean Crouser still won the large class shot put title.
He enrolled at the University of Oregon on an athletic scholarship, purportedly withholding information about the elbow injury on his throwing arm. The Oregon Duck coaches told him to focus on the shot put and discus, fortuitous coaching as Dean won NCAA titles in the discus in 1982 and 1983, adding the shot put title in 1982 for the first such double in the NCAA Championships in a decade.
University of Oregon track and field is arguably the most iconic and one of the most successful programs in NCAA history. Though perhaps better known for its distance traditions, the program has produced some of the top throwers in the world, athletes like Mac Wilkins, Neil Steinhauer, Pete Schmock, and Dave Vorhees. As perhaps the greatest testament to his prowess as a thrower, Dean Crouser’s 69-1½ shot put in 1982 and 216-2 discus throw in 1983 remain Oregon Duck school records.
Injuries shortened Dean Crouser’s competitive career, though he has maintained a close connection to track and field in part by following the most recent generation of Crouser throwers, including his son, Olympic javelin thrower Sam. In recent years, he has become an artist of note, creating detailed and expressive paintings of birds, fish, flowers, and other outdoor scenes.
Youngest son Brian similarly got his initiation into throwing in his backyard, and like his brothers, the javelin was his strongest event. Unlike Mitch and Dean, however, despite occasional “tweaks” of his throwing elbow, he was able to complete a relatively lengthy career in the event. In high school, he was nearly as proficient with the shot and discus as he was with the javelin, becoming the first to win all three throwing events at the Oregon state track meet. It was an incredibly impressive display of throwing versatility, a feat that would not be replicated until 2010 when another Crouser, his nephew Sam, won all three events. An elbow injury precluded the defense of his state title in the javelin his senior year, though he did again win both the shot put and discus.
Like his brother Dean, Brian Crouser competed at the University of Oregon, where he became the first freshman to win an NCAA title in the javelin. That same year, 1982, Dean won the shot put and discus at the NCAAs, giving the Crouser family collegiate championships in three of the four throwing events, certainly a first. It was also the first time two brothers won NCAA track and field events outright in the same year. While injuries prevented him from defending his title as a sophomore, he placed fourth as a junior and repeated as NCAA javelin champion his senior year.
After graduating from Oregon, Brian broke the US record in the javelin, firing the spear 312 feet. It was a mark that has never been broken because of alterations to the throwing implement mandated by the IAAF, the international body governing track and field. As athletes continued to get stronger and more technically proficient, they were throwing longer distances than stadiums could safely contain. Technical changes in the javelin implemented in the mid-1980s served to greatly reduce the length of throws. As Brian Crouser later reflected, “They had to balance it. The nose had to be heavier than the tail. Theoretically, they moved the weight forward so it would nose-dive quicker and come down out of the sky faster. It took forty or fifty feet away.” He briefly held the world record with the new implement, reaching 262-0 in 1986.
Among the Crouser brothers, Brian was the only one to earn a spot on an Olympic team, finishing second at the U.S. Olympic Trials in 1988 and third in 1992. He competed in Seoul and then in Barcelona, but didn’t qualify for the finals either time.
While the athletic accomplishments of any of Larry and Marie Crouser’s sons would have been sufficiently impressive, it was their collective competitive record that made the Crousers the “first family of throwing.” It was a tradition that would continue with the next generation of athletes.
Two of Dean’s children, daughter Haley and son Sam, completed competitive throwing careers in which the javelin was their primary focus. Haley was a four-time Oregon state champion in the javelin, high school and American junior record holder in that event, and a three-time Oregon Gatorade Athlete of the Year. After making official visits to collegiate track powerhouses like UCLA and Texas A&M, she chose to stay close to home by attending the University of Oregon where her older brother was competing. “All the schools had so much to offer, but Oregon was the best fit for me,” she explained. “I’ve wanted to go there since I was younger.”
Her time as an Oregon Duck, however, was brief. A multi-talented athlete (she also won a state title in the 100-meter hurdles), she had toyed with the notion of competing in the heptathlon in addition to the javelin. But she had battled a foot injury throughout her senior season of high school and finally had surgery to remove a bone spur from her right foot after her final state track meet. After a summer of rehabbing her foot, she had lost strength and weight, and as she began her collegiate career, she struggled to bounce back. As she offered, “It was just not a good year, with a lot of things factoring into it. There was coming back from the injury and transitioning from how I was used to being coached to how I was coached” at Oregon. (Her throws coach at Gresham High School had been her father, Dean.) So, she left the Oregon Duck program, spent the next year working under the tutelage of her father, and ultimately transferred to the University of Texas, where she joined her cousin Ryan.
She had a solid collegiate career, becoming the first woman in Texas Longhorn history to win a Big 12 title in the javelin and then defending that title the next year.
Her older brother Sam had followed a somewhat similar path, demonstrating great talent across multiple events and ultimately completing a longer and more successful competitive career. In high school, he replicated his Uncle Brian’s feat of winning all three throwing events at the Oregon state meet. And he twice broke the high school national record with the javelin, adding over ten feet to a standard that had stood for over twenty years. So good was that performance that it placed him third on the all-time high school list that included throws with the “old-style” implement, making his record throw with the new javelin less than five feet shorter than the true all-time best. He was named the prestigious 2010 Track and Field News “Boy’s Athlete of the Year” as well as the Gatorade “Boys National Track and Field Athlete of the Year.” Like his father, he attended the University of Oregon where he won two NCAA titles and four Pac-12 conference titles in the javelin. He qualified for the 2015 World Track and Field Championships in Beijing and the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. In the qualifying rounds in Rio, Crouser threw 242-1 but missed qualifying for the final. His competitive career soon ended, and like his uncles, Crouser soon began coaching, conducting clinics for developing javelin throwers and coaching throwers at his alma mater in Gresham.
A highlight of Sam Crouser’s career was representing the United States at the 2016 Olympics. His roommate on that team. . . his cousin Ryan.
The Best of the Crousers
“I wasn’t really into it,” recalls a younger Ryan Crouser about his initial foray into throwing when he was in fifth grade. As his father, Mitch, added, “At first, he just hated it. But each time he got a little better. He went to Junior Olympics and finished second (in the javelin). That made it a little more fun.” Like every Crouser before him, young Ryan got his start in Grandpa Larry’s yard, and soon put his javelin aspirations aside and focused on the shot put and discus. The shot put pit at Larry and Marie’s house was around twenty feet wide and 58 feet long, with two wooden shot put circles. The distance from the toe board to the landing area became critically important to the teenage thrower as his throws got longer and longer. In one throwing session, he “busted up the hedge. Then a really high one went through the shed’s roof. I had to come back the next day and fix it.” Not that his grandpa didn’t beam with pride at the distance his grandson had achieved on that throw, destructive as it might have been.
At Barlow High School, Ryan Crouser laid the groundwork for becoming one of the most dominant men’s shot putters in the history of the event. As a freshman, he won state titles in the shot put and discus, incredibly rare accomplishments for athletes so young and so lean, as he measured 6-4 and 190. But in his sophomore year, with his still lean frame having expanded to 6-6 and 210, he truly came into prominence. He reached 67-10 in the shot and a national sophomore record of 202-6 in the discus. The latter was also a state record that would stand until the following year when his cousin Sam would break it with an impressive 205-10; Ryan would add over thirty feet to that record his senior year. He capped off an impressive sophomore year by traveling to Italy for the IAAF World Youth Championships where he won the shot put with an American youth record and finished second in the discus.
Entering his junior year, Ryan Crouser and his supportive family anticipated an even more stellar season. “Hopefully, he’ll put on another twenty pounds by next year,” said his father, Mitch, who was his coach. “He’s got a big frame.” Regarding what her son wanted to attain, his mother, Lisa, offered, “My son is a very goal-oriented kid. He writes all his goals on cards—they’re stuck on the bathroom wall—and every time he gets a PR, he crosses it off and writes a new one.” Regarding his ultimate goals as a high school thrower, Ryan was both bold and explicit. “I set my goals high, but still make them achievable. In my last two years in high school, I want to get the national records in the shot and discus. They’re 81-3½ by Michael Carter and 236-6 by Mason Finley.” Mason Finley’s discus record was fairly new, but the legendary Michael Carter shot put mark dated back to 1979. If ever a record seemed virtually unbreakable, Carter’s astounding performance seemed to be that standard. Yet when Crouser shared that his goals included throwing beyond 81 feet, few who were familiar with him, his family, and his career seemed to consider such aspirations to be outlandish.
Then a series of injuries threatened to derail the remainder of his high school career.
Partway into the outdoor season of his junior year, Crouser developed a stress fracture in his left foot. As he later recalled, “I had a stress fracture for a couple of weeks, but kept training,” with rotational forces of both his shot put and discus throwing motions adding additional strain to that subtle injury. As he continued, “I was turning and throwing in practice and the bone snapped. I didn’t hear it, but I knew instantly. . . it was hurt.” Then demonstrating the analytical mind of the future engineering student, he said, “I mean there was around 400 pounds of force driving forward. . . my whole side of my foot collapsed and all the energy was released.” The fifth metatarsal bone in his left foot had snapped.
After allowing two weeks for the swelling to subside, a two-inch metal screw was surgically inserted in his foot. With an extended convalescence and extensive rehabilitation, the foot ultimately healed. But the quest for new PRs and record-breaking performances would have to wait, at least until his senior year. And the two-time state discus and shot put champion would not be able to defend his titles.
Though the premature ending to his junior track season was very disappointing, a philosophical Ryan Crouser came to realize that the clouds brought by the foot injury came with an unexpected silver lining. First, after missing the latter half of his junior track season and a schedule of summer meets that would have been very full, and avoiding any throwing until the fall, the young athlete eventually returned to the sport with a renewed appreciation for what it meant to him. “It gave me a greater appreciation as to why I compete. It was hard, sitting there and watching my teammates and not being able to do anything. I learned from that.”
Second, with his foot in a cast and facing months of rehabilitation, doctors and therapists didn’t allow him to do any heavy lower-body lifting. As a result, for months he was forced to focus his weight lifting workouts on his upper body, addressing what he had considered a weakness. As he prepared for his final high school season, he offered, “My upper body is stronger than last year and my weight is up about 20 pounds” (to 240 on his 6-6 frame).
Third, the tall, lanky, and explosive young athlete had been a force to be reckoned with on the basketball court for the Barlow High School team that had qualified for the Oregon state playoffs both years he started, playing tough defense and dominating the boards. With his foot injury, he was unable to play basketball his senior year, focusing instead on rehabbing his foot and training for track season. That focus would contribute to some impressive performances that might not have been possible had his attention been diverted to another sport.
Showing a level of maturity not always seen in high schoolers, Crouser reflected during the winter of his senior year, “I mean I didn’t want it (the foot injury) to happen, but I think I came away from it as good as I could have. So, actually, I think I am better because of the injury.”
Shot put technique ranges from the relatively simple, such as with the glide technique, to the much more complex, most notably with the spin. Each technique requires intricate timing and the hitting of different positions throughout the throwing motion. But seasoned coaches will describe the glide technique as much more consistent and easier to develop uniformity of motion. They will likely suggest that the spin technique is much more complex, more challenging to master, and less consistent, particularly early on, but offers greater potential for outstanding throws. Stated simplistically, the spin technique could be characterized as “higher risk, higher reward.”
During his entire scholastic career, through and including his shortened junior season, Ryan Crouser had been a glider and had achieved some impressive results in the process. Working with his father, Mitch, as he prepared for his senior season, Ryan transitioned to the spin technique. Though this variation of the shot put has similarities to discus technique, the timing and forces exerted are different, and mastery of the throwing motion requires a great amount of repetition. And with Ryan sidelined with his foot injury from May through the following fall, such practice was not possible, impeding his progress in adopting the new technique. Not that you could tell from the results.
Having added twenty pounds to his 6-7 frame, Ryan Crouser threw in only three indoor meets his senior year. The first at Boise State was his first indoor meet ever, his first competition since breaking his foot over eight months earlier, and the first time he used the spin technique in an actual meet. Incredibly, the young thrower moved to second on the all-time indoor list by increasing his personal best with the 12-pound implement almost three-and-a-half feet to 73-1. Only Brent Noon of Fallbrook, California, setting the mark of 74-11 in 1990, had thrown farther indoors. Then on the second day of the meet, using the 16-pound international shot, Crouser crushed the high school record with that implement by over three feet, reaching 63-11. The previous record of 60-7½ had been set by Arnold Campbell of Bossier City, Louisiana twenty-seven years earlier. With characteristic understatement, he commented afterward about his performances, “It’s a good opener. I was hoping for a PR.”
Throwing a week later at the University of Washington Open, he added another foot to his personal best, reaching 74-5. Then the next weekend, he competed at the Simplot Games in Pocatello, Idaho. It was his last opportunity to reach one of his goals for the year. “It was my last indoor meet of the season and I wanted the indoor (shot put) record. It’s one of my two major goals this year.” The other major goal he was referencing was Michael Carter’s iconic outdoor record, which he characterized as “the hardest record in (high school) track and field.”
In a six-throw series that included two monster fouls, Crouser exceeded the long-standing indoor record not once, not twice, but three times. In fact, the competition was temporarily halted while officials went searching for a longer tape measure, as the one earmarked for measuring shot put attempts only reached 75 feet.
He opened with an impressive 72-1½, a mark that on this day would seem almost pedestrian. On his second attempt, he added four-and-one-half inches to the existing indoor record, reaching 75-3½. After those two fouls of similar distances, with the help of the public address announcer, the crowd of around 4,000 was tuned in to what was happening at the shot put area. As he prepared for his fifth throw, Crouser hopped up and down, clapping his hands over his head as he implored the fans to join him, and then skipped into the ring. The atmosphere was electric, as the future Olympic champion moved across the ring in a controlled spin and released the shot in a motion that seemed almost effortless. After a meticulous measurement, the result was announced—77-2¾. Ryan Crouser had added over two feet to a record that had stood for almost 21 years. He concluded with a 75-11½ toss that was the second-longest indoor throw in history.
Commenting on the atmosphere in the arena in Pocatello, he offered, “It was great. The crowd really got into it. It got pretty loud. They all went crazy (when he threw over 77 feet).” Then as he modestly reflected on his expectations entering the meet, he said, “I was throwing really good in practice and thought I had a good shot at the record, but I wasn’t really expecting it.”
Add in his additional goal of breaking the national discus record, with his senior season just beginning, Ryan Crouser was one (record) down and two to go.
Unfortunately, injuries would again intercede.
Barlow High School had a strong track program, and in Crouser’s senior year his team was in contention for a state title. Additionally, Ryan was naturally competitive, both with himself and with others, including his cousin Sam, who had swept the shot put, discus, and javelin at the state meet the previous year. He had demonstrated his shot put ability the previous February when he became the second-longest high school thrower in history, indoors or out. And he had extended his personal best in the discus to an impressive 213-7. But he had done little javelin throwing since he was much younger, and the forces on the body from that throwing motion are much different. As a result, only an athlete of such natural competitiveness and ability could with any sense of reasonableness consider a last-minute addition of the javelin to his event schedule with an expectation of competing for an additional state title.
After a practice session with the javelin, he couldn’t walk the next day; Crouser had injured his back. It took him three weeks to recuperate, missing critical practice sessions in the middle of what he had hoped would be a historic season. Undaunted, Crouser decided he still wanted to try to win the javelin at the state meet. At the end of a throwing session with the javelin, he took one last runup, and two days before the district meet, he tore his right adductor muscle, a very painful groin injury in an area that was critical for both the shot put and discus throw.
The district track meet is an important competition for every track athlete, but to athletes of Ryan Crouser’s caliber, it represented simply another step in the process of winning more state titles. For a healthy Crouser, winning his third state titles in the shot put and discus would be largely a formality. But to win a state title, he had to compete at the district level and earn a spot in the state meet, a prospect made seemingly impossible by suffering such a painful injury just two days earlier. For most athletes, a torn adductor muscle would have ended their season.
Of course, Ryan Crouser wasn’t like most athletes. At the district meet, two days after sustaining a significant injury and throwing flat-footed from the front of the ring, Crouser threw 55 feet and 156 feet to qualify for the state meet in both the shot put and discus. He spent the week between the district and state meets receiving deep tissue massage, ice baths, and physical therapy. As Mitch, his father and coach, related, “The week helped. He could get a little more torque, especially in the disc.”
Back at Hayward Field for the Oregon state meet, seeking state titles he had won his freshman and sophomore years but could not defend as a junior, Ryan Crouser’s goals were suddenly much more modest. Throwing with less pain but from a standing position at the front of the ring, he threw 179-1 to win the discus by thirteen feet. The shot put was scheduled a few hours later, and discussing his goal for the event, Ryan shared, “I just wanted to get over 60 and score some points.” But once the event started, and realizing that he would not compete again for at least several weeks, Crouser’s adrenaline and competitive juices kicked in. He ended up taking all six throws, even though he easily won the title early in the competition. Again throwing with no spin from the front of the ring, his longest throw was his final attempt, 65-7½. When asked why he took all of his throws given his injured state, he responded, “The meet record is 66-1 from my sophomore year. I fell a little bit short of that.” Though he would throw again later in the summer, his storied but injury-riddled career as a Barlow High School athlete had come to an end.
Track fans and Crouser himself were left to ponder what he might have accomplished had he not been injured at the state meet, particularly given the distances he threw from the front of the circle with no rotation. In addressing this issue, Mitch Crouser offered, “We usually see differentials of about 15 feet in the shot and 50 feet in the disc” between standing and full technique throws.” Adding those values to his winning throws at the state meet, Ryan Crouser would have reached over 80 feet and nearly 230. Such tantalizing distances suggested not just what might have been, but also what might be possible in the future.
Crouser did heal over the summer, and by early July, he was ready to compete again. As he prepared for his last meet as a high schooler, at Mac Wilkin’s Concordia University Throws Center in Portland, he commented on his tenuous return. “I haven’t lifted for two months. I haven’t trained. My back feels better, but I’m not 100%,” he said, adding that his weight was down twelve pounds from his peak of 241 earlier in the year. But a week earlier he had increased his discus PR to 227-4, just over nine feet under the national record of 236-6.
His warmup tosses suggested the possibility of a big throw if the wind cooperated. As his father and coach commented afterward, “He was warming up in the low 230s, but once the competition started, the wind was knocking them down.” He began the competition with throws of 221, 216, and 220, big throws but far shorter than he was hoping for. Then he began to make some adjustments as he dealt with the challenging winds. He had a very long foul that landed just outside the right side of the throwing sector. Then with a controlled spin and smooth release, his fifth throw shot out of his hand in a high arc and landed near his long foul, but this time just inside the sector line. “It stayed up. The wind carried it a little,” explained Mitch. The official distance was 237-6; he had broken the national record by exactly a foot.
Not quite yet finished with his high school career, Crouser calmly completed a shot put series that included two throws of 73-5¼, putting him at sixth on the all-time list of outdoor performances. Michael Carter’s mammoth record remained safe, though Crouser’s performance was particularly impressive given his lack of training, loss of weight, and just-completed rehabilitation. And in an hour, he had completed what was easily the greatest one-day shot put and discus double by a high school athlete.
It had been a stellar senior season, one good enough to garner Crouser the designation as Track and Field News “Boys Athlete of the Year,” the same award his cousin Sam had received the previous year. But it had been a trying year, and though he didn’t lament “what might have been,” at least publicly, it had been a disappointing season as well. As he reflected on his last high school season in an interview in 2018, “It was just a series of really unfortunate smaller injuries that slowed me down because I realistically thought I could have thrown in the 240s, maybe 250 in the disc and got Carter’s outdoor record.”
But he was tired, looking for a little downtime as he prepared to begin his collegiate career. “I’m done for the season,” he commented. “I’m going fishing.”
A Texas Longhorn
Though his father, Mitch, had attended the University of Idaho, his uncles Dean and Brian had gone to the University of Oregon, Ryan’s cousin Sam was going there now, and Sam’s sister Haley would attend Oregon for a year before transferring to Texas. The Oregon Duck track and field program was steeped in tradition, and Hayward Field was a shrine of the sport at which Ryan had won countless championships. Many simply assumed that when he graduated from Barlow High School, Ryan Crouser would travel the short distance down Interstate 5 to Eugene where he would help the Ducks win more national titles.
He certainly had the opportunity to attend Oregon, as well as Stanford, UCLA, Arizona State, and virtually any university with a competitive track program. Valedictorian of his graduating class, Ryan Crouser had aspirations that transcended athletics; he wanted to be an engineer. And as he was making his college selection, the decision ultimately came down to academics. As he explained in simplistic terms, “I wanted to be an engineer. Oregon is a liberal arts school; it doesn’t have engineering.” As he expanded on his explanation, “. . .Texas is ranked the seventh best (engineering department) in the nation.” Then as almost an afterthought, he added, “Plus, they have a great group of throwers and I really got along well with their throwing coach Mario Sategna.” The sunnier and warmer weather of Austin, Texas compared to the colder and wetter climate of Oregon was a bonus. “I’m looking forward to the experience there and a very different work regimen. Unlike now where I have no one to push me, I’ll have a lot of throwers there to push me. I’m looking forward to that challenge.” Beginning in the fall of 2011, Ryan Crouser became a Texas Longhorn.
Crouser’s transition to college life, academics, and training was quick and relatively smooth. As he reflected in the fall of his freshman year in Austin, “I’m getting settled, getting used to college life. I’m busy; I feel like I’m working harder than I ever have before. I’m happy training; I’m happy being down here. I’ve adjusted well.” Much like another shot put legend who had enrolled at Texas A&M over four decades earlier, Randy Matson, a priority for Crouser was gaining strength and weight. “I’m really skinny compared to a lot of other throwers so I need to fill out a little bit,” he suggested. “My biggest thing is gaining weight. The shot seems to be a little heavier guys; discus is taller and more athletic. Right now I’m way more of a discus thrower but as I fill out it could go either way.” Like Matson before him, Ryan Crouser possessed the talent and potential to be world-class in either event, or both.
His collegiate career got off to a strong start his freshman year, throwing 65-3¼ to win his first Big 12 title and 65-5 to finish fifth in the 2012 NCAA Indoor. But he suffered a torn ligament in his hand in that competition, and the injury dogged him for the remainder of his freshman season. By the Big 12 Outdoor meet, he could only muster 58-4 to finish a disappointing seventh in the shot put and fifth in the discus. At the NCAA Outdoor that first year, he finished sixteenth in the shot put, but rallied to reach a personal best of 196-1 to finish fourth in the discus.
What followed was an excruciating summer that would further halt the progress he had been making since bouncing back from the injury-riddled senior season at Barlow High School. The torn ligaments in his hand were slow to heal. And then he developed a pesky sore throat that required surgery to have his tonsils removed, Finally, he was diagnosed with strep throat. “I couldn’t eat. I could hardly drink water,” he later recalled. During a summer in which he should have been packing pounds onto his still thin frame, he lost fifty pounds in around five weeks, weight that was invaluable to a thrower.
To allow his body more time to heal and to regain lost weight and strength, he redshirted for the indoor season in his sophomore year. It was a difficult time for the competitive young athlete. “It’s tough,” he commented partway through the 2013 indoor season. “They (his teammates) were flying out on Thursday and coming back on Sunday with stories about the meet. I would sit at home and work on homework.” But he spent those months wisely, coming close enough to full strength to consider foregoing the redshirt season and returning to competition for the Big 12 and NCAA Indoor Championships. As he recounted, “Halfway through indoors, I started to feel healthy again and I was tempted to come back out. But I talked to the coaches and I figured it would be best to get back to 100 percent.”
Competing for the first time in nearly nine months, Crouser made his seasonal debut on his home track at the Texas Relays, reaching a personal best of 67-½ for the win. “It’s a great start,” he commented afterward. “Whenever you come out after almost a year and a few months after being injured, your first meet can really decide a lot about how the season can go. It’s been a long time since I competed healthy, and it was fun to be out there.”
Crouser’s season kept getting better as he approached the level of performance that had been forecast for him as a record-breaking high school senior. At the Big 12 Outdoor meet, he added more than two feet to his PR, reaching 69-2½. At the NCAA Outdoor, he clashed with Arizona State senior, Jordan Clarke, who had won the last four NCAA shot put titles, two indoors and two outdoors. That Clarke’s best throw that year was 63-6 held minimal meaning given that the Sun Devil thrower had reached his seasonal best at the NCAA Outdoor meet each of the preceding two years.
Throwing in the first flight, Crouser fouled on his first two of three preliminary attempts, and as he entered the ring for his third throw, he was in jeopardy of not advancing to the final three rounds. And he knew it. Spinning deliberately, much slower than was typical, Crouser took the lead with a 66-7¾ throw. “It was about the most nervous I’ve ever been in my life. So, I took an easy one, got the (66-7¾). Then went and sat around for about an hour. I tried to get a big one but I forced the last three.” His third-round “easy one” would be Ryan Crouser’s only legal throw of the day, as he fouled on his other five attempts.
As Crouser “sat around,” Jordan Clarke was completing his preliminary throws, reaching a tantalizingly close 66-6½ on his second attempt. Though he had three other throws within a foot of that distance, he could come no closer, and his string of four straight NCAA titles had come to an end as Ryan Crouser won his first national title. He also finished eighth in the discus. Given the injury, illness, and weight loss he had experienced the previous year, his comeback had been impressive.
Crouser’s development continued largely unabated during his junior year at Texas. He won his second Big 12 Indoor shot put title, a streak that had been interrupted by his 2013 redshirt season. Whereas he had won the 2013 NCAA Outdoor title by a scant one inch, he threw 69-7 to win the 2014 Indoor title by nearly four feet. But it was in the outdoor season that Crouser demonstrated his growing dominance in the throwing events. At the Big 12 Outdoor meet, in a performance reminiscent of a Randy Matson double from nearly fifty years earlier, Crouser established new school and meet records with a 70-2½ shot put, his first time over that iconic barrier. He then set a Big 12 record in the discus when he reached 209-8. And much like Matson before him, when he was throwing well, and uninjured, Ryan Crouser was nearly untouchable by any other collegian.
But he didn’t always throw particularly well, and at times he had to deal with frustrating injuries. Such was the case at the 2014 NCAA Outdoor. Crouser came into the competition with a seasonal best that was nearly three feet farther than his closest competitor. In the second round, he reached a good-enough-to-win 67-2¼. Then, later in that round, Stephen Mozia, a Nigerian athlete competing for Cornell, reached 67-1½ to set a national record and come within less than an inch of the lead. He would not approach that distance the rest of the competition, but Ryan Crouser was facing an unexpected challenge. He had two throws in the 66-1 range and then fouled on his penultimate attempt. As his name was called for the final throw of the competition, he had already secured his second outdoor shot put title, and third overall. With the discus event still to be contested, Crouser could have passed his last attempt. But with his competitive instincts running strong, and perhaps a bit frustrated to have not thrown better, he took his sixth and final attempt. Perhaps more focused than he had been all day, Crouser exploded to 69-3½, extending his lead by an additional two feet. But he had visibly winced when he banged his left foot hard into the toe board as he released the shot. It was the same foot into which a screw had been placed five years earlier during his junior year of high school. X-rays showed no fractures or other severe damage. But much to his chagrin, he was out of the upcoming discus competition. “Just to miss out on a competition like that—this years is the best discus competition, at least going in, in the history of the NCAAs.” (In the discus competition, Hayden Reed, a freshman from Alabama, was the surprise winner by just seven inches over the defending champion Julian Wruck.)
For 2014, Crouser made his first appearance in the prestigious Track and Field News “Annual Rankings,” coming in at tenth in the world that year in the shot put rankings. His ascendancy as a thrower was continuing.
Ryan Crouser’s transition to college life, studies, and competition in Austin was smooth but not without challenges. Many world-class collegiate athletes consider their studies as a means to an end, attending class and pursuing a degree as secondary to training and competing, which is their primary reason for even attending college. On the other hand, engineering is a very rigorous course of study, in many respects rivaling pre-medicine and other challenging programs for its rigor and time requirements. Partway through his time at Texas, Crouser changed majors, switching to a still challenging but less rigorous program in economics. A dedicated student, he did well in his undergraduate program, completed degree requirements well before he had exhausted his athletic eligibility, and then enrolled in a master’s degree program in finance, which he would complete before leaving Austin. Though he had chosen Texas specifically because it offered a highly-ranked program in engineering, Crouser expressed no regrets regarding his college selection. “It worked out really well,” he offered. “I don’t think I’d do it any other way.”
In essence, in both athletics and academics, Ryan Crouser was driven and found it difficult to dial back his preparations in either area. He understood the advantages and drawbacks of such an approach. “It’s a blessing and a curse,” he admitted. “Without it, I wouldn’t be nearly where I am today. But I’d say it does hinder me to some point.”
That driven attitude found its way into Crouser’s approach to training and competition. Particularly with limited training time as a serious, full-time student, he had to develop patience in his training and technique, not throwing hard in every practice and not pushing hard from the back of the ring on his throws. As the throws coach at Texas, Ty Sevin, suggested, Crouser needed to be more “methodical” in his technique. “He needs to be setting up his throw, getting under control at the back, instead of getting in the ring and killing it. It’s about controlling his aggressiveness, keeping in a tempo. He almost has to slow down to throw far.”
In time, particularly as he transitioned from the collegiate ranks to professional competitions, Ryan Crouser would become a true student of the shot put event. As he suggested in 2016 as his pro career was just beginning, “With proper coaching, I just saw the hard work paid off, doing the stuff that nobody wants to do. Technical work instead of going out and throwing hard every day. And drills—really learning the technique was something that in the long run could beat a lot of the bigger, stronger kids.” Then, as he often did, he came back to lessons he learned from his dad and coach, Mitch. “That was the biggest thing that my dad always told me, that time spent on technique beats time spent on strength or just throwing all-out.”
As Ryan Crouser prepared for his senior year at Texas, he had the 2015 indoor and outdoor seasons ahead of him. And because of his redshirt season as a sophomore, he would remain eligible for indoor competition in 2016, the year of the Rio Olympics. He had not lost a significant shot put competition since his injury-plagued freshman year, and during that time, he had developed a reputation for being virtually unbeatable in that event. As Ty Sevin carefully suggested, “When he goes to meets and throws, you see other coaches pull their video cameras out and video him. I’m not saying he’s unbeatable, because on any given day there’s some phenomenal coaches in this country and some phenomenal athletes. But I do think he has that intimidation factor.”
Then came the 2015 NCAA Indoor Championships.
As the nation’s best collegiate track and field athletes gathered in Fayetteville, Arkansas for the culminating meet of the 2015 indoor season, Ryan Crouser was the defending indoor champion as well as the two-time defending outdoor champion. His domination of the shot put event was such that he didn’t always have to perform close to his peak level to win. And while he was not necessarily becoming complacent, he was clearly not being pushed by any other college shot putters.
Stipe Zunic in 2015 was a senior at the University of Florida, a huge Croatian athlete who was completing a solid if thus far unspectacular collegiate career as a Florida Gator. He had competed in the javelin in addition to the shot put until an injury and subsequent surgery forced him to focus on the latter event. He had won the Southeastern Conference outdoor shot put title in 2014 and had just won the SEC Conference indoor shot put championship. In 2014 as a junior, he had thrown 64-6 ½ to finish sixth at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Informed prognosticators had little reason to believe that anyone other than Ryan Crouser would win the 2015 indoor national title, much less that Stipe Zunic would be the one to end the defending champion’s long winning streak.
Seemingly out of nowhere, Zunic upped his personal best to 69-3¼, a new Croatian national record. Crouser responded with a 68-8 effort that would have won any of the NCAA indoor or outdoor meets in which he had competed. On this day, it was not enough.
Both Crouser and his coach, Ty Sevin, were philosophical in considering this much-unanticipated loss. “That was the first time anybody in a college setting put pressure on Ryan,” Sevin offered. “That was unique and can push him to the next level. For the past year and a half, nobody was chasing him, 68-feet was good enough to win any meet. With the kid from Florida coming up, he realizes 68-feet may not be good enough anymore.” Crouser placed an even more positive spin on his loss to Zunic. “That really helps,” he reflected. “It can get monotonous when no one is pushing you, when you’re just competing against yourself. I want guys up there who can beat me every meet, pushing me.” He then offered a more guttural reaction to his second-place finish, suggesting, “Indoors, the way it ended, definitely left a bitter taste in my mouth. I’ve been really motivated to get back to training. . .”
Newly motivated and training hard for his final NCAA Outdoor meet, everything was going well for Crouser in the spring of 2015. Then, five weeks before the NCAAs, he was playing around with a football. In a freak accident, as he was awkwardly trying to catch a pass, he dislocated the little finger on his throwing hand. It was a relatively minor injury, not sufficiently severe to end his season, but painful enough to impact his training and throwing.
At the NCAA Outdoor Championships, in a competition in which he would have been strongly favored to win his third consecutive shot put title, Crouser could only reach 65-7. He finished a disappointing fifth to the surprise winner, Jonathan Jones of the University of Buffalo who threw a personal best of 68-2¼. In the discus, for which Crouser had been considered a favorite earlier in the season, he threw 197-5 to finish fifth.
His final outdoor season as a Texas Longhorn had come to a frustrating end.
Due to the redshirting of his sophomore indoor season, Crouser still had one indoor season remaining. On one hand, being able to remain on the University of Texas campus, with access to room and board, coaching, training facilities, and competitions, provided the young athlete with vital structure and support for what would be his first opportunity to compete for a spot on an Olympic team.
But on the other hand, this was Ryan Crouser, and he had demonstrated a tendency to avoid the easier, most-traveled path. An excellent student, he had completed his undergraduate degree program in economics in the four years he had been in Austin, an increasingly uncommon achievement, particularly for students who were also world-class athletes. Realizing he had another partial year of athletic eligibility, Crouser could have spread out his bachelor’s degree program to encompass all five years of his athletic eligibility. What he did instead would lead to one of the most challenging years of his young life.
Ryan Crouser enrolled in a master’s degree program in finance, a typically two-year course of study he hoped to complete in one year. Plus, he would train for and complete in his final indoor season with the Texas track and field team. Then, he would train for his first US Olympic Trials. It was a grueling year in which he attended class from around 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., fitting in training when time became available. As he commented before the 2016 NCAA Indoor meet, “Right now, I just train when I can. I’m taking fourteen hours of classes in a graduate program that typically requires only nine.”
As Crouser later described the challenges he faced during that last year in Austin, he said, “It was a real struggle to get through the past year. I was working five to six hours in the classroom every day, studying for an extra two to three hours and then had to fit training in.” As he continued, “I became pretty good at walking and eating my breakfast and lunch between classes. The goal was to reach the beginning of May when my course was finished and hope I had done enough training to build on.”
In many respects, Crouser was trying to maintain a delicate balance as he finished his time in Texas, completing an expedited master’s program while starting to transition into a career as a professional athlete. He had insufficient time to train but wanted to build a sufficient training base so that in May when he could train full-time, he could sufficiently prepare himself for the upcoming Olympic Trials. To suggest he was successful in maintaining this balance would be an understatement.
Over six months after Crouser’s 2015 had come to a disappointing conclusion, he opened his final season at Texas. His focus coming into the season was to at least maintain if not improve his technique, but more importantly to add weight. As the season commenced, he was up to “about 280 now,” an increase from the “mid-260s to 270” he had weighed most of the 2015 season.
Not widely known at the time was just how difficult his last year at Texas had been for Crouser as he tried to work in training around the rigorous schedule of his amped-up master’s program. As he later shared, in January of 2016, “I was really close to calling it a career.” As he continued, “I’d had some really tough meets. I was working full-time toward my master’s. That was my focus. I was so frustrated with the way things were going. I thought, ‘I’ll finish out my NCAA eligibility, graduate, and then start putting my degree to work by going into a finance career.”
Adding to his uncertainty, Crouser had started to receive inquiries from NFL scouts, and the possibility of replacing a track and field career with one in professional football was enticing, though far from guaranteed. As his father, Mitch, explained, Ryan had offers from the NFL, wanting to look at him as a potential pass-rush specialist.” They had gotten results of his physical testing for strength and the forty (yard dash), which were really good.”
But then a character from Crouser’s past arrived just in time to provide some needed motivation. Jacob Thormaehlen was a couple of years older than Crouser and had been a teammate on the Longhorn track team. Thormaehlen was a thrower who, in the winter of 2016, decided to quit his job and return to Austin to try to make the Rio Olympic team. Just when he needed it, this former teammate provided the spark Crouser needed to keep him going. As Crouser explained, “Jacob is a real intense, competitive guy. I’d been doing things on my own. To have him push me, both with throwing and in the weight room—that was what I needed. That made me work harder and enjoy the sport again.” As Mitch Crouser suggests more succinctly, “The biggest thing, though, was that once Jacob returned to Austin, the switch flipped. Immediately, Ryan was excited again. If Jacob had not come back, Ryan would not have gone on to the Olympics and done what he did.”
The effect of that change could be seen near the end of the 2016 indoor season, his last in Austin. Crouser’s personal best in the shot put (and discus, 209-8) dated back two years earlier to the 2014 Big 12 Outdoor meet, a 70-2½ effort that marked his first (and thus far only) time he had reached the 70-foot line. As he prepared for the 2016 Big 12 Indoor meet, his next to last competition in a Texas Longhorn uniform, Crouser’s seasonal best was 69-9¾, a solid effort but nothing to suggest to the casual fan the breakout performance that was about to occur. At the age of twenty-three and in his fifth year as a student-athlete, he was a veteran among collegians but still a few weeks from beginning his career as a professional.
On this day in the Lied Recreation Center in Ames, Iowa, Ryan Crouser forced himself into discussions about the 2016 Rio Olympics. He started the competition slowly, wanting to score maximum points for his Texas team. His opener, 64-4½, was good enough to win, but he was just getting started. Regarding that initial throw, he said, “I was really conservative, I could build from there. Then every throw was a little further. Between prelims and finals, I dialed it in a little bit in the intermission. I felt a better pull, I was hitting the shot a little cleaner.” That “better pull” resulted in a throw of 71-3½, a personal best by more than a foot, and a performance that tied the collegiate record set eight years earlier by Ryan Whiting.
In his final college competition, the 2016 NCAA Indoor Championships in Birmingham, Alabama, Crouser threw 69-9¾ to easily win by over two-and-a-half feet. With that, a storied collegiate career came to an end. Despite some freakish injuries, he was able to win four national titles in the shot put, two indoors and two outdoors. And though he would change course from the engineering program that had drawn him to Texas in the first place, he would leave Austin not only with a bachelor’s degree in economics but also a master’s degree in finance.
Summarizing his time as a Texas Longhorn, Crouser offered, “It’s been a long journey and had a lot of ups and downs. I feel like I’ve grown a lot as a person and definitely as a teammate.” Regarding his decision to come to Austin, he said, “I wouldn’t have chosen anywhere else but Texas. I had an excellent experience here and I will miss it.”
Becoming a Professional Shot Putter
Among diehard track and field fans, Mac Wilkins is a legend, particularly in Oregon. As a young thrower at the University of Oregon, Wilkins showed potential in all four throwing events. Then the hammer throw went by the wayside, and an injury halted his career with the javelin. A shot putter who approached seventy feet when such distances were far less common, after college, he focused almost exclusively on the discus throw. And the results of that focus were prolific, winning a gold medal in the 1976 Olympics and a silver in 1984 (missing the 1980 Games due to the U.S. boycott). He set four world records in the discus, including three in one day in 1976. After concluding his competitive career, Wilkins eventually gravitated to coaching, developing an acclaimed throws program at Concordia University, an NAIA college in Portland. In 2013, he left Concordia to become the throws coach at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, California, outside of San Diego.
After completing his graduate program at Texas in May of 2016, Ryan Crouser traveled to Chula Vista to train with Wilkins. The two had had an informal relationship since Crouser was in middle school, a connection that had been made possible by Wilkins’ prominence in the Portland area throwing community. Additionally, his father, Mitch, had been an alternate on the 1984 Olympic team in the discus. As Ryan Crouser recalled, “When I was in sixth or seventh grade, we went to a barbecue at Mac’s house, and Wolfgang Schmidt (East German former world record holder in the discus, and 1976 silver medalist) was there. Through my high school years, my dad was coaching me, but Mac was helping me out.”
Even after arriving in California, with coaches ranging from Wilkins to throws guru Art Venegas available to work with him, Crouser was not looking for significant refinements to his technique. As he commented shortly before the Olympic Trials, “Mac’s not making any changes in my technique. The biggest thing he provides is help with the mental aspect. He has been there, done that, where not a lot of people have.”
According to Wilkins, as Ryan Crouser was just turning professional, the mental aspect of his preparation was progressing just fine. “Ryan’s greatest strength is his mind. Focused, yet calm and undistracted by the unusual external and internal noise that goes with competing in the Olympic Games,” Wilkins offered. Linking Crouser’s technique and ability to handle competition, he continued. “His technique is simple and stable so dealing with the adrenaline of the competition is a more manageable challenge.”
Particularly when compared to his harried schedule the last year as he completed his master’s degree, the biggest change at Chula Vista involved the availability of time. Rather than fitting training around other activities he considered equally important, working to become a better shot putter was now his full-time job. As he described one of his first workouts at the training center, “Mac Wilkins was overseeing my throwing and (I was) throwing and jogging out to get my shot and running back and throwing again.” Wilkins shook his head and asked Crouser, “What are you doing? We have twelve hours a day here where we can train. You don’t have to run to get your shot and see how many throws you can get in in an hour.” As Crouser commented shortly after arriving in Chula Vista, “I’ve thrown more the last two weeks than I have in any one-month block over the last five years.”
Now with no college requirements to worry about, Ryan Crouser had support, outstanding training facilities, and perhaps most importantly time to train and contemplate his event. With the Olympic Trials just weeks away, it was a recipe for the breakout performances that were to come in the summer of 2016.
But a persistent question remained. Anyone who had seen footage of Ryan Crouser’s high school record discus throw of 237-6, a monster performance that occurred as he was coming off an extended period of injury rehabilitation, could only imagine what the young athlete could accomplish if he focused on his “secondary” event. He had grown to 6-7, with around 280 pounds on that huge frame and the long arms that are so common to the best discus throwers. Plus, given his height and the spin technique he utilized, the seven-foot shot put circle was almost confining to such a tall athlete; the discus ring was over a foot larger in diameter.
In addition, despite his recent performance improvements in the shot put, there was no guarantee he would even make the Rio Olympic team in that event. The final predictions by Track and Field News had Crouser finishing no better than fourth in the Olympic Trials, the same frustrating spot his father had finished in the discus in 1984. The shot put was one of the United States’ strongest events in 2016, with throwers like Joe Kovacs (world champion in 2015), Reese Hoffa (top-ranked in the world in 2014), and Ryan Whiting (top-ranked in the world in 2013) vying for a ticket to Rio. Add in throwers like Christian Cantwell and Adam Nelson, each in the latter stages of his career but still formidable threats to perform well, and Crouser would need a standout performance to make the shot put team.
On the other hand, while US athletes had been a dominant force in the discus event through the 1980s, no American discus thrower had won an Olympic medal since 1984. (In 2016, only one of the three US athletes in Rio, Mason Finley, would qualify for the final, finishing eleventh.) In essence, in 2016 and possibly into the future, a great performance would be needed to make the US team in the men’s shot put; a simply good throw could possibly earn a spot on the discus team.
Even in the run-up to the 2016 Olympic Trials, the question of “shot put, discus, or both?” remained on Ryan Crouser’s mind. “I haven’t completely given up on the discus yet,” he offered in the spring of 2016. Then alluding to the difference in American talent levels in the two events, he added, “There are a lot of A-standards in the shot; an A in the discus and you’ve almost punched your ticket.” (“A Standard” refers to the Olympic qualifying standard utilized at the time. To be entered in an Olympic track and field event, in addition to earning a spot or being selected by a nation’s governing body, an athlete had to meet this standard to be guaranteed entry.) In other words, for an American athlete with talent in both events, Crouser realized it would be far easier to qualify for the Olympics in the discus than in the shot put.
Then, considering the situation realistically, he added, “. . . it’s hard to throw 70 feet and just hang up the shot. I’m going to keep doing that, but I’ll throw the discus a little bit, too. The shot is my main event but the discus may be my backup for Rio.” As history would suggest, no backup was needed.
Mac Wilkins is a gold medalist and former world record-holder in the discus who was good enough to win a national title in the shot put. From that perspective, he suggested about Ryan Crouser, “Down the road, he could be an amazing discus thrower. He could do both of them pretty well, but if you’re going to get everything out of yourself, you have to focus on one event.”
With life as a full-time student behind him and with time now to devote all his energy to training and throwing, Crouser began to blossom. As he reflected, “Going from five years of only throwing three times a week to a full throwing load again has been the biggest difference for me.” Those around him, like Mac Wilkins, could see the change. “Those on the US team could see it like a freight train coming down the tracks,” Wilkins offered. “Although you can never be sure how training translates to competitive performance, Ryan’s training was steady, methodical, and controlled. . .”
At a warm-up meet at the training center in Chula Vista, Crouser extended his personal best to 71-8¼. More important, though, was his consistency in that series. As he reflected on that performance, “The thing I was most happy about was the series. I’ve been working on making my first throw a good one, and I opened with a PR (71-4¾). I had four throws over 70 feet, so that was good.” Crouser’s odds of making the Olympic team in 2016 were steadily increasing, and the twenty-three-year-old understood the significance of making the US team in the men’s shot put. As he suggested, “The US is so competitive internationally in the shot. If you can make the team, that’s as challenging as making the podium at the Olympics.”
Any doubts about Ryan Crouser’s arrival at the upper echelons of men’s shot putting would soon be put to rest.
Rio Olympics, 2016
Going into the Olympic Trials in Eugene on July 1, particularly to those not familiar with his training at Chula Vista, Ryan Crouser was still an underdog to make the Olympic team. Joe Kovacs was the clear favorite to win the Trials, both the defending World Champion from 2015 and the 2016 yearly leader, having thrown 72-7¼ at Hayward Field earlier in the season. Reese Hoffa was in the latter stages of his career but was a savvy competitor who had thrown 71-9½ just two years earlier. Kurt Roberts had won the U.S. Indoor title earlier in 2016 and had multiple performances beyond seventy feet; he was picked by Track and Field News to win the coveted third spot on the team. And then there was Ryan Crouser.
In the qualifying rounds, all the top throwers made it through to the finals except the aforementioned Kurt Roberts, who could only reach 65-3½, five feet under his personal best from earlier in the year.
After a subpar 67-0 opener, Crouser exploded in the second round with a 72-6½ that bettered his previous personal best by nearly a foot. Joe Kovacs struggled to get past the seventy-foot line until the last round when his 72-¼ moved him into second place. A surprise in third was Darrell Hill, like Kovacs a Penn State alum. In the second round, Hill threw 70-11¾, his first throw beyond that coveted barrier. None of the other throwers reached seventy feet that day.
Ryan Crouser explained why he was pleased but not necessarily surprised by his performance. “I’m definitely a meet thrower,” he offered. “I usually don’t throw monsters in practice but I’ve had some throws that even surprised me a little bit. Going in, I knew I had a chance at a pretty decent PR, and I had PRed two weeks before in Chula Vista and that was a pretty good indicator. I was hoping for a 22 (meters) and even got a little bit more.”
This would be the last Olympic Trials for American shot legends like Adam Nelson, Reese Hoffa, and Ryan Whiting. Add in Christian Cantwell, who did not compete, and 2016 represented a distinct changing of the guard, a fact that was not lost on Crouser. “There was, I think, a pretty cool atmosphere between the older guys and the younger guys, to see a relatively seamless shift in the guard. Adam and Reese have done so much for the sport.”
Crouser did not compete again in the month between the Trials and the start of the Rio Olympics, getting in some solid training sessions as he worked to make up for the time lost as he completed his graduate studies. Then after marching into the Olympic Stadium with his teammates for the opening ceremony, he waited another thirteen days until the qualifying rounds and final on August 18. He put that time to good use. As Mac Wilkins suggested, “In Rio in the weeks before the Games, Ryan took yet another step up exceeding all lifting and throwing PRs established before the Trials.” Though even those around him may not have realized it at the time, something special was about to happen.
Perhaps jacked up on adrenaline and emotions, throwing to qualify for the final, Crouser exploded with a 70-10 throw, the best performance ever in an international championship qualifying round and almost four feet beyond the automatic qualifying mark of 66-11¼. As he commented afterward, “My nerves may have been a little bit evident on my first qualifying throw—trying to throw 20.65 (67-9) and having it go 21.59 (70-10). That surprised even me. . . but I love big meets and I love getting out there and competing, so for me, the more nervous I am, the better.” Not making it through to the final was Darrell Hill.
The first to throw in the final, Crouser opened with a conservative effort, reaching a safe 69-4¾. Joe Kovacs then stepped into the ring for his first-round attempt. Spinning quickly, he took the lead with a 71-5½ effort, excitedly yelling “That’s how it’s done!” as he left the circle. That would be his best of the day, an early marker that many believed would be tough to beat. At the end of the initial round, surprisingly in second place was Frank Elemba, who had set a new Congolese national record of 69-6¾.
Then Ryan Crouser took over the competition.
As the young thrower throw stepped into the ring for his second attempt, in third place but with the knowledge there was so much more in the tank, Crouser spun across the circle with deceptive speed and released the shot with a motion that seemed almost easy. The result was a world-leading personal best of 72-10¾, giving him a lead he would not relinquish.
In the third round, Crouser extended his personal best to 73-½ to lengthen his lead. As the order was reshuffled and the top eight were given three more throws, Ryan Crouser was in the gold medal position followed by Joe Kovacs and Frank Elemba still in third. Tom Walsh of New Zealand, the defending world indoor champion from earlier in the year, was tied with Elemba but was in fourth place due to the Congolese thrower having a superior second-best throw.
In round four, Crouser reached what for him on this day was a subpar 71-11½, a performance good enough to win the gold medal. In the fifth stanza, Kovacs had a huge throw in the 73-foot range, yelling “No! Protest!” as he saw the official holding up a red flag signifying a foul. Replays confirmed that Kovacs’ right heel had brushed the top of the toe board, and the official’s foul determination was upheld. Though he had protested immediately and emphatically, in an interview a few months later, he had come to accept that the foul call was the correct one. “Everybody keeps asking me about the foul I protested to the official. But I see that. Some people say it wasn’t a foul; I would have called it a foul too. That throw would have taken the lead at the time.”
Possibly emboldened by Kovacs’ long foul, Crouser exploded on his fifth attempt, knowing from the release it was a good throw as he yelled, “Oh yeah! Go! Go!” It was the third personal best of the day for the twenty-three-year-old athlete, a new Olympic Record of 73-10½. He finished his day with a 71-4 in the sixth and final round. Ryan Crouser had averaged 72-1 in a series with no fouls.
Joe Kovacs could not improve on his first-round effort, a throw long enough to win the silver medal by a foot-and-a-half. Frank Elemba also could not improve on his first-round national record but remained in the bronze medal position until the fifth round. In that round, Walsh uncorked a 70-1 throw that secured him the bronze medal. Elemba finished fourth followed in fifth by the local favorite, Darlan Romani of Brazil.
The Olympic Games represent the brightest, most pressure-packed setting in track and field. It’s certainly not unheard of but still relatively rare for athletes to reach their best all-time performances in Olympic competitions. On this day in 2016, in his first Olympics, Ryan Crouser set a new personal best three times, in the process moving to ninth on the all-time world list and the fifth-best American. It was an amazing performance, made even more so given that just a few months earlier, he had contemplated leaving the sport.
In his post-meet comments, Crouser said, “It’s really something special, and if you had written it out as a script I wouldn’t have believed it.” Then he referenced Michelle Carter, a fellow University of Texas alum (and daughter of Michael Carter, whose high school record Crouser had hoped to break) who had won the women’s shot put, adding that it was “definitely a first for the Longhorns to come out and win two Olympic golds.”
After a few months had passed, Crouser was even more reflective in commenting about winning the Olympic title. “I couldn’t believe it,” he recalled. “Every young athlete dreams of being in the Olympics. The ultimate is winning a gold medal. When they put the medal around my neck—with my whole family there to witness it in person—it’s tough to describe my feelings. All the support they’ve given me. . . I wouldn’t be close to where I’m at without that. I was able to share that moment with them. Pretty special.”
Joe Kovacs had been favored to win the gold medal but was magnanimous in his comments after finishing second. “You’re never happy to get second. It’s a bittersweet feeling, but it’s setting in. . . that I’m still bringing a silver medal to the US and the gold is coming to Ryan.” He had been training with Crouser in Chula Vista, had seen the younger athlete’s workouts, and wasn’t surprised by how he had performed. Knowing Crouser was so ready to throw long may have contributed to Kovacs fouling on half of his throws. “So I knew he was going to be in shape,” he offered, “and that’s why I had so many fouls, because I knew I wasn’t completely on my game like I was expecting to be with our training. . . Ryan wasn’t going to make it easy so I had to go after it on all those throws.”
As Ryan Crouser, Joe Kovacs, and Tom Walsh climbed onto the podium to receive their medals, it was clear that the changing of the guard was now complete. And in the process, a largely friendly rivalry had been formed that would drive the event to greater heights over the next half-decade.
The Olympics concluded, the rivalry among the three shot put medal winners continued in 2016 with three huge clashes on the European circuit. At the Paris Diamond League meeting, in which Kovacs didn’t compete, Tom Walsh threw a New Zealand national record of 72-2¾ in the final round to beat Crouser by a half inch. In a succinct comment after the meet, Walsh said, “After Rio, I had something to prove.”
Then, less than a week later at the Diamond League final in Zurich, Walsh extended his national record to 72-10, this time beating Crouser by less than eight inches. Joe Kovacs was well back in third, reaching 69-6¾. Reveling in not just the win, but also the Diamond League trophy, Walsh said, “The Diamond (League) rankings were very close before tonight, so I’m very happy I managed to win here with a PB.”
In the final meeting of the big three, at an impromptu venue in a park on the day before the Hanzekovic Memorial in Zagreb, Croatia, Crouser had the second 73-foot throw of his career, 73-1¼, to best Walsh by nearly a foot. Joe Kovacs, perhaps feeling the effects of a long season, finished fifth at 67-0. Darrell Hill, on the other hand, bounced back from his disappointing performance in Rio to reach 70-4¼. Noteworthy was the seventh-place finisher, Olympic gold medalist in 2008 and 2012, Tomas Majewski, who threw 66-5 in the final competition of his storied career.
Commenting after the meet, Ryan Crouser showed his analytical side, stating, “Today’s throw technically was probably better than my throw in Rio, I’m just not quite in as good of shape.” As he continued, “I’ve only lifted once since Rio. I’m not the strongest guy, so my strength is definitely down, but technically, I’m in the best shape of my life.”
For all three of these athletes, but especially for Ryan Crouser who had completed a full collegiate indoor season before turning professional, it had been a long but momentous year. In many respects, though, they were just getting started.
The Big Three – Crouser, Kovacs, and Walsh
As the 2017 season began, the showcase of which would be the World Championships in London in August, the rivalry among the young trio of Crouser, Kovacs, and Walsh had rejuvenated the men’s shot put event. Track and field fans were looking forward to that London meeting, but the most ardent enthusiasts were anticipating a meeting of the big three in late May in Eugene, Oregon at the Prefontaine Classic, the only US stop on the Diamond League circuit. Ryan Crouser was undefeated going back to the last competitions of the 2016 season, and with his training progressing so well, most were beginning to realize that when the was throwing near his potential, he would be very tough to beat.
Then Joe Kovacs exploded in Arizona, with the longest throw of his already storied career.
The Tucson Elite Classic is a rare meet that places special focus on the throwing events, and Kovacs arrived “just trying to show that I was in shape and getting ready for the outdoor season.” Other than a meet in April in which he finished third with a 67-6 throw while using an eighteen-pound shot, this was his first competition of the 2017 season. On this day, Kovacs raised his personal best to 74-¾, a monster throw that was two inches beyond Ryan Crouser’s gold medal-winner from Rio. It was also considered, at least by many, to be the “new millennium world record,” or the best mark since the turn of the century (a period of increasingly stringent drug testing).
Regarding that throw, Kovacs commented, “It’s probably the most relaxed I’ve ever been in a meet. That was nice. I think 2017 is going to be a fun year.” Then, alluding to the budding rivalry between him and Crouser, as well as Tom Walsh, Kovacs added, “There’s going to be some big throws all around.” He had admittedly been disappointed not to win the gold medal in Rio, but in some ways that loss liberated him. As he shared, “. . . I feel like I have nothing to lose now. . . I already lost, per se. So I’m here to throw the ball as far as I can. I’m enjoying that.” His focus for the season was the World Championships in London, and as the defending world champion, he had an automatic bid to the competition. That advantage, in his mind, would play out through the entire season. He explained, “. . . but all the way through this whole year, I’m going to train through every meet and not worry about any of them except the World Championships.”
As Kovacs predicted, 2017 would be a season of long throws, but not everything would go as anticipated.
Though certainly not on the level of the Olympics or World Championships, the Eugene stop on the Diamond League circuit, the Prefontaine Classic, has in recent years served as an early season magnet attracting the top men’s shot putters in the world. And in 2017, the Pre Classic represented the first meeting of the year of the new “big three” in the event. Heading into the meet, Tom Walsh had already logged multiple competitions beyond 71 feet, and of course, Joe Kovacs was coming off his 74-foot bomb from two weeks earlier in Tucson. Ryan Crouser had developed some early season consistency beyond the 72-foot line, and as a result, many were anticipating a continuation of the huge throws that had characterized the end of his 2016 Olympic season. They were not disappointed.
In its forty-third edition, the Prefontaine Classic was named after the legendary Oregon distance star tragically lost in a car crash in Eugene in 1975. With the shot put contested in the infield of the Hayward Field track, many of the 12,000 knowledgeable fans had come to see Ryan Crouser, considered a local despite his departure to Austin and then Chula Vista. And the Boring, Oregon native did not let them down.
Joe Kovacs opened with a modest 69-½ followed in the first round by Walsh’s 71-2¾, his best of the day, and Crouser’s 71-10, a throw that would have been good enough to win. Kovacs reached 70-4¼ in the second round but would not improve. Crouser had a very long foul in the second round, estimated at over 74 feet, and then reached his best for the day with 73-7¾ on his fifth attempt.
Despite being the defending Olympic champion, it was easy to forget that this was Ryan Crouser’s first full year as both a professional and full-time athlete. As he reflected on the changes in his competitive life, “This year has been a big difference from last year. I had just finished school last year, was coming off an injury and hadn’t signed with anyone. Now I’m a professional with Nike and can train full-time and do all the prep and rehab I need.”
Regarding his third-place performance, Joe Kovacs maintained his emphasis on training through to the World Championships in London. He said, “I wanted a big throw, but I got it at my last meet (in Tucson). I wanted to do it in this environment, but a big throw in London would mean a lot more than a big throw here.”
The next clash of the 2017 season, this one involving the two Americans, occurred in Sacramento at the USATF National Championships. In addition to crowning the national champion in each event, the competition would serve as the trials meet for the upcoming World Championships in London. In most events, the United States could send three athletes to London; in some events, like the men’s shot put in which defending world champion Joe Kovacs had an automatic bid, the US could send four athletes.
Entering the USATF meet, Ryan Crouser had not lost since the Diamond League Final of the previous year and was riding high, winning most competitions by impressive margins. On this day, as he sought to defend his national title, he was pressed, severely. He opened with what was for him a safe 71-7¼ effort that was followed in the second round with a 72-3; he would not improve on his next three throws.
Starting slowly, Joe Kovacs caught fire in the final three rounds, reaching 70-11¾ and then 71-11½ in the fourth and fifth rounds, the latter leaving him three-and-a-half inches behind Crouser. Then, in the final round with the penultimate throw of the competition, Kovacs dug deep and with a loud shout, pushed the shot out to 73-4. Now leading by over a foot, the defending world champion was in a celebratory mood.
This was a unique position for Ryan Crouser. Throughout most of his career, beginning in high school, the young athlete had more often than not been far ahead of his nearest competitors. Where he found himself on this occasion, needing to come back on the last throw of the competition to win, had been a rarity. Or had it?
As he commented after the meet, “. . . I’ve been in that position a lot of times. When I was little, my dad. . . used to play all kinds of games like that with me. He would put out a flag or a marker and say, ‘OK, this is the last throw in the Olympics or the US nationals and you’ve got to beat it.’ So it feels like I have done that a thousand times.”
And he did it again. Collecting himself in the back of the ring, he calmly focused, spun across the circle, and exploded to 74-3¾. Under intense pressure, Ryan Crouser had not only won another U.S. title, he added five inches to his personal best and three inches to Kovacs’ recent “new millennium world record.” Finishing third as his career was coming to an end was a hobbled Ryan Whiting at 70-8. Earning a spot on his second consecutive US international team was Darrell Hill, fourth at 67-7.
Commenting on his come-from-behind victory, Crouser stressed that the key was relaxation. “I got to the back of the ring and my mind was completely blank.” As he continued, “It’s definitely tough to stay relaxed in a situation like that. It’s probably one of the most difficult situations—in any sport—when you’re down and you know you have to do something big. To be able to do that takes a lot of practice. . . It’s definitely something special to throw your lifetime best when you really need it.”
As he looked forward to his first World Championships, Crouser’s goals for that competition were anything but modest. “My goal is to win the world championship and throw a PR over that 22.65 mark. It definitely will be a competitive atmosphere.”
To the surprise of virtually everyone, he didn’t come close to reaching either goal.
If there was a decidedly blue-collar athlete among the most prominent men’s shot putters of the 2010s, it was Tom Walsh. Born and raised in the southern New Zealand port city of Timaru, the hometown of 1936 Olympic 1,500-meter run champion, Jack Lovelock, Walsh has been a part-time builder. He was introduced to the shot put by his father, who had been the New Zealand junior champion in the event in the mid-1960s. And though he has become one of the top shot putters in the history of the event, his road to the top was at times pocked with frustration.
Just two years younger than Walsh, Jacko Gill was an international phenomenon in the event as the two were growing up in New Zealand. On multiple occasions, Tom Walsh would establish a New Zealand junior record in the event, only to have Gill exceed that mark. Then, at the 2010 World Junior Track and Field Championships, Walsh failed to qualify for the final in an event that was won by his compatriot. As he later admitted, “Jacko Gill, the other Kiwi guy, managed to win, and I was very jealous.”
In time, the fame and success of Jacko Gill served to motivate the young New Zealander. As he recalled, “In New Zealand, I was told numerous times by numerous people that Jacko was the guy, not me. So that was a big motivator for me. I probably had no right to think it was me. But I thought, ‘stuff these guys,’ I’m going to show them I can prove them wrong.”
This eventually led to a turning point in Walsh’s career at a time when he had been competing in rugby and cricket in addition to track and field. He gave up the other two activities to focus on the shot put, and that concentrated effort paid off. At the 2014 World Indoor Championships in Poland, he finished a surprising third to win the bronze medal, knocking off the podium local hero and two-time Olympic gold medalist Tomas Majewski. “That was definitely my breakthrough,” he later recalled. “I threw a PB to get to the final, then a PB on the last throw to get bronze, which was the start of people thinking I could do it.” It was Tom Walsh’s entry into the upper echelons of men’s shot putting, and he has been among the best in the sport in the years since that first international medal.
Walsh won the World Indoor title in 2016 and the bronze medal that year at the Rio Olympics. Heading into the 2017 World Championships in London, most track analysts considered Tom Walsh to be an up-and-coming star, but just a step behind Ryan Crouser and Joe Kovacs. Those analysts would soon need to reconsider that stance.
Ryan Crouser came into the competition claiming seven of the ten longest throws of 2017 and had not lost all year; most considered him a strong favorite to win his first World Championship gold medal. But the qualifying rounds, where Tom Walsh reached 72-7¾ for the longest qualifying mark in history, suggested that perhaps Crouser needed to be on his game if he was going to win.
In the first round of the final, Tom Walsh briefly took the lead with a modest, for him on this day, 70-1¾. On his first attempt of the day, Joe Kovacs, the defending world champion, took the lead by four inches. Ryan Crouser was in third with a 69-1½ opener. In the second round, Walsh reached 71-0 to regain a lead he would not relinquish.
Tom Walsh was on fire, increasing his lead with a 71-4¼ in the third round and nearly equaling that distance in the fourth. Then, on the last throw of the competition, Walsh unloaded a bomb down the left sector line that spanned 72-3½, placing an exclamation point on his world championship performance. Commenting afterward, Walsh said, “This gold medal is something that me and my team behind me have been working on for so long. I did not want to do 22 meters in the qualification and then lose it in the final.”
No one could touch Tom Walsh on this evening in London, though Joe Kovacs made a good effort. Trailing by four inches as he entered the ring for his last throw, the defending champion had a fierce and determined look on his face. Spinning quickly, he released the shot with a huge guttural yell and shouted, “Go! Go!” as he watched it land on the 22-meter line. The official sitting next to the circle immediately raised the red flag, causing Kovacs to storm away. A protest was lodged, and the throw was measured (reportedly at 72-5¼), but replays confirmed that he had brushed the top of the toe board with his left foot as he had prepared to release the shot. After Walsh’s last throw, Kovacs congratulated the new champion. He later commented, “I’m just happy I went down swinging.”
Inexplicably, Ryan Crouser was never in contention for a medal, with a best legal throw of 69-6¾. In the third round, though, he seemed to get his technique in synch as he exploded with a throw that landed nearly two feet beyond Walsh’s best mark to that point. Event officials disallowed the throw, ruling that Crouser had brushed his heel on top of the back of the circle as he began his spin. A protest was lodged, and the throw was measured (73-2½, according to Crouser). But after an inquiry that, to the chagrin of Walsh, lasted until just before the medal ceremony, the protest was denied.
Regarding that throw and his overall performance, Crouser said, “For me, it was kind of a struggle. But in the third round, I felt like I started to get it going. It was a big throw, and we asked for a protest.” As he continued, “But they made the right call and I tried to get it going but it just wasn’t happening.”
It had been an incredibly deep competition, the first in which seven men threw beyond twenty-one meters. And athletes reached the best-for-place marks for fifth through eleventh positions. Joining Walsh and Kovacs on the podium was the surprise bronze medalist, Stipe Zunic of Croatia in the high point of his athletics career.
And finishing a disappointing sixth was the prohibitive favorite going in, Ryan Crouser.
At the Diamond League Final in Brussels nearly a month after the World Championships, athletes were tired and ready for the season to come to the end. As a result, when Crouser opened the competition in the initial round with a huge 73-4¾ throw, many believed the competition was over. But then Darrell Hill stepped into the ring for his last attempt. Hill, the former Penn State athlete who had performed poorly in London, had shown significant improvement in 2017, increasing his PR to 71-10¾ earlier in the season. But no one, perhaps even Darrell Hill, anticipated what was about to transpire. Spinning deliberately across the ring, Hill exploded to increase his personal best by more than one-and-a-half feet to 73-7½. In addition to winning the Diamond League trophy, Hill moved to eighth on the all-time US list.
In the prestigious Track and Field News annual world rankings, which place great emphasis on performances in major international competitions, despite his poor showing at the World Championships and second-place finish in the Diamond League Final, Ryan Crouser earned his second consecutive top ranking, edging out Tom Walsh. In explaining the decision, it was suggested that Crouser had a 5-2 winning advantage against the new world champion, who finished sixth in the Diamond League Final. Clearly, though, Tom Walsh had in 2017 earned his spot among the best shot putters in the world.
For Crouser, it had been an oddly frustrating year, with his sixth-place finish in London and loss to Darrell Hill in Brussels. But when asked if he was disappointed in how the season had concluded, the twenty-five-year-old was upbeat and forward-thinking in his response. “It was a year of mixed emotions,” he responded. “In terms of average distance, I think it was one of the most dominant years ever. If you took out the two major meets, I definitely think it was close to a perfect year and that it really laid a lot of foundation going forward into this year (2018).”
That Ryan Crouser was a big man was well-established, having increased the bulk on his 6-7 frame to over 300 lbs. Particularly in high school, even as he was breaking national scholastic records in the discus and indoor shot put, the young thrower had been tall and lanky, peaking at around 240 before heading to Texas. In essence, Ryan Crouser was not naturally bulky, and particularly as he had transitioned to the larger international shot, he knew he needed to add a great deal of muscular weight. Easier said than done.
“For me, it’s always been difficult to gain weight,” he offered in 2018, “and as soon as I stop training, I drop weight pretty fast. . . I stay close to 5,000 calories a day to maintain body weight and about 5,500 if I’m trying to gain muscle.” As a professional shot putter, he was now beyond being able to eat whatever he wanted; consuming food was now a major part of his job.
The average adult in the United States consumes around 2,000 to 2,500 calories a day, so Crouser is eating between twice and three times what is typical in American society. And while many (most) in the US gain many of their calories from high-calorie food with less nutritional value, a thrower like Crouser must eat healthier foods that are less calorie dense. To reach that 5,000 to 5,500 calorie count, he must eat five to six large meals spaced out throughout the day.
Before the Tokyo Games in 2021, Crouser described his eating regimen, which he considers as important to his success as his training program. “I do two breakfast burritos in the morning, which is about nine eggs. I add sausage or six strips of bacon, cheese, sour cream, some red salsa, on the biggest flour tortilla I can get. Then around lunch, my go-to is twelve ounces of rice with one pound of ground beef. I’ll put some barbecue sauce on it, or sometimes I’ll make an egg fried rice. For dinner, my girlfriend and I do a meal delivery service. She’s a pole vaulter, and the ‘family of four’ box works out well for us: she eats about 2/3 of a serving, and I will eat the other three and one-third servings. So, I eat like a family of three’s dinner. Then another snack to finish off my calories.”
Crouser considers it vitally important that he not go more than three waking hours without eating, the need to both fuel his workouts and maintain his weight being that critical. As a result, eating to the huge athlete is a job, a task that has to be completed rather than the enjoyable event it is for most people. “I don’t even like food anymore,” he said. “. . .If I ever feel hungry during the day that means I’m not doing my job. So I eat all the time. Sometimes before another meal, I’ll stare at it for a while, like, ‘This again.’”
Like many who follow structured diets, Crouser will sometimes have a “cheat” meal. For most people, a cheat meal might be pizza, or fried chicken, or ice cream, or some other high-calorie food. For Crouser, though, “It’s funny for me when I have my ‘cheat,’ if I take a cheat meal, usually on Sunday, I just skip a meal.” To Ryan Crouser, the mammoth athlete, the “joy of eating” is often associated most closely with no eating at all.
Ryan Crouser had thrown, and won, in many venues in his still young career. But none were more special to him than Hayward Field. He had won six Oregon high school titles in that iconic stadium while a high schooler, had competed in countless competitions while growing up, and had won the Olympic Trials there two years earlier, the prelude to his breakout performance in Rio. When asked about his favorite shot put ring to throw from, he responded, “I’d say it would be Hayward Field. I mean it has good memories and the crowd and the atmosphere that goes along with it is always good and that field has more 70-foot throws than anywhere else in the world.”
The 2018 Prefontaine Classic was an extra special occasion in that it would be the last time the meet would be held before the teardown and rebuild of Hayward Field. Eugene had been awarded the 2021 World Track and Field Championships, the first time that major international meet would be held on U.S. soil. As a part of the bid package to the IAAF, it had been stipulated that the old Hayward Field stadium would be replaced with a modern facility with vastly expanded seating. So, to athletes like Crouser with great memories of the old Hayward but with excitement about the new, the 2018 Pre Classic was a bittersweet event.
Against a field that included Tom Walsh, Polish thrower Michal Haratyk, up-and-coming Brazilian athlete Darlan Romani, and Darrell Hill, Crouser dominated the competition. With the shot put circle placed in the center of the Hayward Field infield, and with over 12,000 knowledgeable and excited fans watching, Crouser opened at 72-1½, long enough to win, and in round five reached 73-11.
He won against truly quality performances. Hartatyk and Romani each threw past 72 feet, setting Polish and Brazilian national records respectively. Walsh finished fourth at 71-8 and Hill threw 69-6 ¼ for fifth.
In only his third meet of the year, Crouser was most excited about what this performance portended for the future. “I saw a lot of potential and I’m just starting to channel it,” he said. “I’m really just excited to see this season how far I can actually throw.” It would be his longest throw of the season. But in his post-meet comments, Crouser also expressed excitement about the future of the shot put event. “It’s unbelievable the level the shot put is at right now and still on the upswing,” he said. “All the guys throwing far right now are young so it will be an event to watch for years to come.”
In a rare trip to the Midwest, the 2018 USATF Championships were held at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. With Joe Kovacs having an off-year, Ryan Whiting still competing but nearing the end of his career, and Darrell Hill not having approached the mammoth performance level that had secured him the 2017 Diamond League title, Ryan Crouser was considered the prohibitive favorite to win his third consecutive national title. But on a day when none of the throwers performed particularly well, the Olympic champion could not crack the 69-foot mark, finishing second with a subpar 68-10½. It harkened back to the World Championships in London the previous year, the last time he had failed to reach the 70-foot line. Struggling with the throwing surface, Crouser fouled on five of his six attempts.
By far, the athlete performing the best in the Iowa humidity was Darrell Hill, who took the lead in round five with a 70-1 and extended that on his next attempt with a 70-9¼ to win by almost two feet. It was his first national title and further evidence that the twenty-four-year-old was worthy of consideration among the top shot putters in the world. “You can’t consider yourself one of the great shot putters in the US if you never win a US championship,” he said. “Wins don’t come easy against these guys and I’m just thankful.”
World-class track and field athletes tend to view time in four-year blocks. As an example, in the four years following the Rio Olympics, 2017 brought the World Championships in London, 2018 no international championship competition, 2019 the World Championships in Doha, Qatar, and 2020 the Tokyo Olympics. For many athletes, the “off-year,” in this case 2018, provided the opportunity to make changes in their technique and training, try new events, rest more than usual, or just plow ahead as they would normally. To many athletes, competitions like the Diamond League Final took on a little added significance; in addition to the prestige of winning a Diamond League trophy, the title in each event came with a hefty payday.
At the Diamond League Final in Zurich, Darrell Hill came close to defending his title from 2017, reaching 73-6 to come within an inch-and-a-half of his personal best. But he could not top Tom Walsh, who threw 74-1¾ to win the title. Ryan Crouser took the lead in the first round with a 72-9 ¼ but then never threatened for the win as Hill and then Walsh surpassed him.
In the last major competition of the season, the IAAF World Challenge meet in Zagreb, Croatia, Crouser was able to exact a bit of payback at the end of a frustrating season, throwing 72-5¾ to defeat Walsh by nearly a foot. He ended 2018 with a 5-3 advantage over his rival from New Zealand.
Still, Crouser had missed the indoor season with a hand injury and Walsh had won the World Indoor, Walsh had won the Diamond League Final while Crouser finished third, and the Kiwi had a seasonal best of 74-4½ to Crouser’s 73-11. As a result, Tom Walsh for the first time was ranked #1 by Track and Field News, with Ryan Crouser second.
Ryan Crouser is 6-7, with long legs and arms, or “long levers” in athletic parlance. When you watch him spin across the shot put ring, his throwing motion seems incredibly smooth and efficient. The seemingly effortless hitting of positions as he moves across the ring has come from countless throws, drills, and repetitions, allowing him to complete that movement in a virtually thoughtless manner. And as he releases the shot, those long levers add force and height to each throw.
But there is a distinct downside to being such a tall shot putter. The throwing circle is only seven feet in diameter. Joe Kovacs is 5-11 and Tom Walsh is 6-1, and watching each of them throw, their movement is quicker and much more dynamic. Crouser, on the other hand, is by necessity much more controlled, building speed as he moves across the ring. A tall athlete adapting what was originally a discus throwing movement in an 8-2½ circle to a shot put movement in a ring over a foot smaller often feels constrained. A shot putter of Crouser’s height trying to rotate rapidly would no doubt increase the tendency to foul at the front of the ring. As he explains, “. . . height definitely makes a difference. In discus a little bit, but when you take away that ring and make it over a foot smaller, that’s a pretty big difference for us tall guys.”
The former engineering student provided a slightly more technical explanation of the advantages and disadvantages of being a tall thrower. “I am tall, which can be an advantage and a disadvantage. From a physics perspective, being tall can be an advantage because you have longer levers and therefore more time to apply force to the shot.” As he continued, “The downside of being tall is that, for me, the circle is very small—just over a foot shorter than the discus ring. That’s probably why you see more of the taller athletes throwing the discus rather than the shot.” Turning to his two biggest rivals, he said, “Take Tomas Walsh or Joe Kovacs—they can be really dynamic across the ring. I can’t have a sprint dynamic technique—I have to have a technique which is very conservative, which is focused on how I keep my 6-7 self from fouling at the front of the circle. I’ve spent most of my career figuring out a technique that works for me.” Most would agree that he has succeeded in that endeavor while also wondering just how far he could throw if he had a larger circle to throw from.
Injured during the indoor season the previous year, Crouser opened 2019 in early February at the Millrose Games in New York City. Perhaps as an indication of what was to come later in the year, he reached 73-3½, moving him to fourth on the all-time indoor list., with only Randy Barnes, Ulf Timmerman, and Adam Nelson having thrown farther undercover. Commenting about his consistent series that included no fouls, he said, “First time I’ve had six throws over 70 feet indoors, really happy with the consistency.”
Two weeks later, Crouser was back in New York for the USATF Indoor Championships, hoping to add his first indoor title to the two outdoor USATF titles he had won in 2016 and 2017. It was a trip he almost didn’t make after becoming ill after the Millrose Games. Still, in another consistent series with all five legal throws over 70 feet, he reached 72-10¾ to beat Joe Kovacs by more than two-and-a-half feet. Commenting on his depleted state, he commented, “This was better than I expected for essentially two weeks of no throwing. I had a lot less in the tank in terms of energy and power today.”
He had won his first indoor national title after a period of inactivity; there was more adversity on the horizon.
Crouser opened his outdoor season in April at the Beach Invitational in Long Beach, California. What would end up being a mammoth performance had an inauspicious beginning. Due to a large field, the throwers had limited time to warm up, and as a result, Crouser didn’t feel prepared for all-out throwing in the early rounds. “We had very limited time in the ring. Not exactly an ideal warmup,” he said afterward. “I didn’t feel quite warm and the biggest thing at this level is just staying healthy, so I didn’t really want to push it.” Then, taking more time than expected to reorder the field for the final three throws, the remaining throwers were allowed more warm-up throws. For Crouser, it made a huge difference. “I found my groove there. I think I got four throws in. I felt a little bit of rhythm and finally started feeling warm.”
Warm, indeed, as Crouser launched the two longest throws of the past quarter-century. In the third round, he increased his personal best to 74-7 and then added a quarter inch on his next attempt before fouling on his last throw. “Everything lined up, everything was where it was supposed to be,” he said. “The goal was to just increase the intensity on every throw.” With those two throws, Ryan Crouser moved to #5 on the all-time world list (as recognized by Track and Field News) and #2 on the US list.
It was an impressive performance, made more so given what Crouser had endured in the two months between the USATF Indoor and this competition. He had been ill before the national indoor meet, and then afterward, “I kinda got sick again. It made it worse. And so I was out for ten days after that.” Perhaps of even greater significance, as he was easing back into training after his illness, he suffered a small tear in the pectoral muscle on his throwing side, a critical injury for a shot putter. As Crouser explained, he “had to take three weeks off throwing and essentially four weeks off in the weight room from any pressings. So, it was a really tough six weeks there.” After everything he had experienced, and with minimal training, he had moved to fifth on the all-time list.
After lackluster performances at the Drake Relays (terrible weather conditions) and at the Doha Diamond League (dealing with lengthy travel), Crouser competed in the Tucson Elite meet, the same competition at which Joe Kovacs had raised his PR to over 74 feet two years earlier. Winning by over five feet, he threw 74-4½ to come within two-and-a-half inches of the personal best he had thrown earlier in the season at Long Beach. Whereas in that earlier competition, Crouser was coming off an injury and minimal training and throwing. In Tucson, he was coming off a very heavy training schedule. As he shared, “. . . I’ve been back in heavy training since Doha, so I felt, actually, a little bit flat.” With the USATF Championships and the World Championships on the horizon, knowledgeable observers were left to ponder just how far Ryan Crouser could throw under ideal conditions, and whether under those conditions anyone could compete with him.
Then he ran into an inspired Darlan Romani.
Due to the reconstruction of Hayward Field, the Prefontaine Classic was moved to Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. Conditions were warm and sunny, and some of the top track and field athletes in the world competed in front of a sellout crowd of around 8,000.
At 6-2 and 300, with huge arms and shoulders and a massive neck, Darlan Romani is an imposing figure. His appearance exudes strength, and reportedly he has bench pressed 300 kg, or over 660 pounds. The Brazilian champion had shown steady improvement in the shot put, reaching a personal best of 72-2 ¼ in 2018. No one, however, could have anticipated how he would perform at the Prefontaine Classic.
Ryan Crouser reached 72-9 in the first two rounds, his best of the day, and would lead into the third round; he finished second. Tom Walsh had a solid series, with three throws over 71 feet but finished third. Joe Kovacs threw 70-2¼ and finished in fifth. All three could only watch in amazement at Romani’s performance.
The huge Brazilian opened with two throws over 71 feet but was simply warming up for what was to follow. In the third round, he exploded to 73-8¼, a national record. He followed that on his next throw with another Brazilian record, 73-11¾. Finally, on his last attempt, he reached his third PR and national record of the day, 74-2¼. Compared to when he had started the day, Darlan Romani had raised his personal best an astounding two feet. In his post-meet comments, the imposing thrower showed great humility given what he had accomplished. “We respect each other,” Romani said of his fellow shot putters. “I respect them a lot. We are all trying to get better and also help one another, so today was my day.”
Regarding Romani’s performance, Ryan Crouser said, “(He) is a big strong guy, the strongest person out there, probably. He’s a really talented guy, so I wasn’t that surprised, especially when I saw the (73-8 ¼). By the time he worked his way up to (74-2¼), I was surprised. Anytime you PR by (two feet), that’s especially unheard of at this level.”
With Romani’s performance at the Pre Classic, suddenly, the “big three” seemed poised to possibly become the “big four.”
The USATF National Championship meet not only crowns national champions in each event, but in odd-numbered years the competition serves as the selection meet for the team that represents the United States at the World Championships. In 2019, the selection meet for the World Championships in Doha was again held at Drake University in Des Moines. Ryan Crouser’s most recent history at Drake had been less than stellar. He had thrown poorly at this meet the previous summer, finishing second to Darrell Hill. Then, he had returned to Iowa in late April for the Drake Relays, battling a cold rain as he won the event with a 69-3½ throw. This return to the “Blue Oval,” however, would be different, as the top three finishers and World Championship qualifiers combined for a historic performance.
Heading into the fifth round, Crouser was in third behind Joe Kovacs’ 73-2½ and Darrell Hill’s 72-6½. On his penultimate attempt, though, Crouser exploded with a 74-2½ effort that catapulted him into the lead. None of the top throwers improved in the final round, and Ryan Crouser had regained the national title he lost to Hill in this stadium a year earlier. He, Joe Kovacs, and Darrell Hill would be a formidable trio heading to Doha, Qatar. It was the first time three shot putters from the same country had exceeded 72 feet or 22-meters in the same competition. Commenting about his recent string of minor injuries, Crouser said, “I’ve struggled the last couple of weeks and have been battling some injuries. So I just really wanted to go out and execute and make the team. . . This one meant a lot to me. . . I’d put that up there with any of my best throws ever.”
Though they couldn’t have known it at the time, Ryan Crouser, Joe Kovacs, and Darrell Hill were headed to Doha for what some would call the greatest field event competition of all time.
But first came the Diamond League Final in Brussels, Belgium. In odd-numbered years, the Diamond League Final is typically scheduled after the World Championships are completed. But with the blistering heat of Qatar causing the World Championships to be moved to early October, the showdown in Brussels was moved to early September, around a month before the meeting in Doha.
The shot put was the first event of the Diamond League Final and was moved to downtown Brussels at the beautiful Place de Brouckere. Tom Walsh blasted his best of the day, a 73-2 throw, on his first attempt and never trailed. Ryan Crouser reached 72-5¼ but could only muster third, behind the surging Darlan Romani’s 72-8.
Reacting to winning another Diamond League title, Walsh said, “My season is coming right at the right time.” He would back up that statement a month later in Doha. Continuing his emphasis on only one competition in 2019, the World Championships, Joe Kovacs finished eighth with a pedestrian distance of 67-7. There was little evidence of what was about to transpire in Doha, and certainly no one (at least no one outside his inner circle) could have predicted that the former world champion would throw seven-and-one-half feet farther than he did at this Diamond League Final in Brussels.
The Greatest Shot Put Competition in History
Joe Kovacs’ ascent to the top of the men’s shot put world was characterized by late starts, great ups and downs, and a surprise Olympic Trials performance without which his career would have ended largely before it got started.
The future world champion’s childhood was greatly influenced by profound loss followed by the creation of an inseparable bond with his mother. When young Joe was only seven, his father died of colon cancer at the age of 33. Within 24 hours, his mother Joanna learned that her mother, Joe’s grandmother, had unexpectedly passed away as well. Losing these two family members left Joanna and her only child on their own, forging a relationship that remains incredibly strong to this day. As Joe Kovacs later reflected, “It was sad losing my father and him not being there, but my mom stepped up so much and provided so much for me.” As he continued, “It was never, ‘look down upon yourself,’ It was always ‘keep looking forward.’”
That mother-son connection would extend to Joe’s athletic endeavors. Growing up in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, he attended Bethlehem Catholic High School, a parochial school so small it didn’t have a football field, much less a regulation track. Joanna Kovacs was a teacher and field hockey and basketball coach at another high school. One afternoon, she arrived at her son’s school to watch him and some of his teammates trying to throw the shot and discus. Having been a high school thrower of note in her earlier days, she offered guidance to these erstwhile throwers, and soon, Bethlehem Catholic had a “throws coach.”
The school’s facilities were nonexistent to the point that each day, Joanna used chalk to draw shot put and discus circles on the edge of a paved parking lot. She was ultimately allowed to spray paint more permanent ovals on the pavement, circles which survive to this day. Under his mother’s tutelage, Joe blossomed as a thrower, winning Pennsylvania state titles in the shot put and discus his senior year.
But even his development in track and field followed his tendency to be a late bloomer. As he recalled over a decade later, “I knew I always had trouble putting things together when it mattered. When I played football in high school, I went from starting behind a coach’s son and never being able to play, and then I was All-State my senior year. Everything happened in the last minute; same thing in track. I threw 56 feet my junior year, which was a solid mark, but I ended up throwing just over 65 by the end of my senior season. It was a very last-minute-put-together feel, which I don’t like, but now I’m realizing that’s one thing I love about the sport, too, that the best years are still ahead.”
Kovacs moved on to Penn State University, where he competed in track and field and studied energy economics and petroleum and natural gas engineering. He had a solid track career, earning Big Ten titles and finishing as high as third in the NCAA shot put. But there was little in his competitive record as a collegian that suggested a bright future as an athlete, and Kovacs knew it. “There was a point where I had to decide is it with throwing this ball, or should I move on with my life,” he recalled regarding the period after ending his eligibility at Penn State.
He decided he would train for one more meet, the 2012 Olympic Trials, and then seek a position in the petroleum industry. What happened in that competition altered the trajectory of his life.
In those Trials, as Kovacs stepped into the ring for his third attempt, Reese Hoffa and Ryan Whiting had largely wrapped up spots on the team heading to London. In the twilight of a stellar career, Christian Cantwell had struggled but was in a tenuous third-place position. Kovacs spun quickly and launched the shot to a huge personal best, 69-2, leapfrogging Cantwell in the standings. Such a fairy tale ending for Kovacs lasted just a few minutes, as Cantwell on his third throw surpassed the new Penn State alum by a scant seven inches. Neither athlete could improve, and Cantwell was on his second Olympic team and Kovacs finished in the dreaded fourth-place position.
Except Joe Kovacs wasn’t devastated; he was ecstatic. “I always joke that I was probably the happiest fourth-place person in history.” He had answered the question of whether he should move on with his life. As he reasoned, following this unexpected performance, “It was no question for me. It wasn’t just my love for competing and being the best. Being one spot off the team—I mean, if you make the (Olympic) team in the US, we have so many good shot putters that you’re almost expected to medal. Something in the back of my mind knew that if I walked away, it would be a regret.” So he continued, with 2022 marking his tenth season as a professional shot putter. Had he not performed so well in that one competition in 2012, by his reckoning, his career would have come to an inauspicious end.
Kovacs began working with Art Venegas, the venerable former UCLA coach who is a legend in the throwing community. Venegas’ style of coaching has largely revolved around telling his charges what to do and then expecting them to do it, a drill sergeant approach many younger athletes find unappealing. But in desperate need of high-end coaching to help him reach the next level, Kovacs found such an approach to be just what he needed. “He’s a very old-school coach, very simplistic, not going to overanalyze everything. He’s just going to tell you what to do. Some people told me he’s a dictator coach, his way or the highway. To some people that might sound bad. To me, that sounded great. We just clicked right away.” Kovacs soon moved to the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, where Venegas was working at the time, and the two would work together for the next six years. Even when Kovacs was practicing in Chula Vista, near San Diego, and Venegas was home in Los Angeles, technology allowed the coach to watch video and analyze every practice throw each evening.
Improvement under Venegas’ coaching wasn’t instantaneous, as Kovacs’ best throw in 2013 was 68-3¾, nearly a foot under his PR at the Olympic Trials a year earlier. But he broke through in 2014, breaking the 70-foot barrier during the indoor season and then throwing 72-3½, the best throw in the world that year, to win his first USATF national title.
In a 2015 season in which he extended his personal best to 74-0, Kovacs won his second national championship, which qualified him for a spot on the US team traveling to the World Championships in Beijing. Though with that mammoth toss Joe Kovacs traveled to Beijing with the longest throw of the year, he was not the favorite. In the eyes of most informed prognosticators, that role belonged to two-time defending world champion, David Storl of Germany off his titles in 2011 and 2013.
In Beijing, after the throwing order was reshuffled for the final three third rounds, unexpectedly, Storl was in second and Kovacs in third behind O’Dayne Richards’ surprising 71-2, a Jamaican national record. Then, with three throws over 71 feet, Joe Kovacs took charge in the latter half of the competition, his fifth-round 71-11½ securing the win. David Storl leapfrogged Richards in the penultimate round, his 71-4 earning the silver medal as the Jamaican held on for a surprise bronze.
As Kovacs described his best throw of the day, he said, “Bizarrely, my winning throw in the fifth round was actually the throw I tried the least on. That’s the annoying thing about throwing, but when you’re in shape, that’s how it works.” Then perhaps channeling his inner-Art Venegas, he added, “You’ve just got to get out and hold your positions.”
Joe Kovacs had won his first world shot put title; it would not be his last.
Kovacs followed his world championship 2015 season with a solid Olympic year, winning the silver medal in Rio despite not being in what he characterized as a “good rhythm.” In 2017, after living at the Chula Vista Training Center for four years, he moved to Northridge, near Los Angeles, and began working with a new coach, former training partner Eric Werskey, meeting with Art Venegas every other week. He reached a seasonal best of 74-¾, adding a half inch to his personal best, and finished second to Tom Walsh at the World Championships.
Then came 2018, perhaps the most challenging year of his professional career and a season of poor performances that led him to consider leaving the sport. He finished fifth in the USATF Championships after finishing first or second the previous four years. He never cracked the 69-foot mark, resulting in a 2018 seasonal best that was more than five feet shorter than his personal best of just a year earlier. And after ranking no lower than third in the Track and Field News annual rankings the previous four years, he was unranked in the world and only fifth-ranked in the United States. Inexplicably, the wheels had fallen off the fast-rising shot put phenom who had rightly been considered the best in the world just a couple of years earlier. Joe Kovacs was frustrated, devoid of answers, and on the verge of retiring from the sport he passionately loved.
Ashley Muffet had been a thrower of renown at the University of Kentucky, winning Southeastern Conference titles in the shot put and discus and earning All-American honors at the national level. But it was in the coaching of throwers that she would experience her greatest success. After serving as a graduate assistant at Murray State University, Muffet spent two years coaching throwers at Western Kentucky before moving on to Ohio State where she served as the throws coach for seven years. She is now associate head coach and throws coach at Vanderbilt University.
At Ohio State and now at Vanderbilt, she coaches all of the throwers in the track and field program, regardless of gender. Though male coaches guiding female throwers is relatively common, female coaches mentoring male throwers is still a bit of a rarity. Regarding coaching young men, she reflected, “When I first started coaching guys, I had a couple that I feel were tripped out by it. And I was just like, ‘Listen, when you throw farther than I did, then you can stop listening to me.’” Most likely, that quickly ceased being much of an issue.
In time, Coach Muffet and Joe Kovacs developed a budding relationship, and after living in Southern California since 2013, following the 2017 World Championships, Kovacs moved to Columbus, Ohio. Their relationship continued to develop, and in late 2018 they were married.
At this point in his career, that Joe Kovacs was struggling was obvious after completing a 2018 season in which technical tinkering had gone awry. That he was pondering leaving the sport demonstrated the depth of his challenges. That he needed a coach who understood him, who knew when and how to push him and when to trust him was clear as well. But it took some time for a rather obvious solution, having a world-class shot putter coached by a world-class throws coach who just happened to be his wife, to come to fruition. As Joe Kovacs said, “When I came here (to Columbus), I didn’t have any intention of having Ashley coach me.” For her part, Ashley Kovacs reflected, “It was never my intention to be Joe’s coach. It just kind of happened and made sense.”
A turning point that contributed to that decision occurred just eight months or so before the 2019 World Championships. Joe Kovacs seemed lost and rudderless, so he gathered his mother, stepfather, and new wife for what he calls the “Kitchen Talk.” He shared with these important people in his life that he was thinking about retiring. In a response that would help set the tone for their coach/wife-athlete/husband relationship, and with a bit of blunt tough love that only someone in her unique role could provide, Ashley Kovacs said, “If you want to quit you can, I’m going to support you either way. But I don’t really understand why you think you can’t throw far anymore. Either way, this half-in, half-out stuff has to go. I’m tired of looking at it.” Joe Kovacs stayed in, and eight months later he was at the peak of the men’s shot put world. Regarding her role in her husband’s return to form, Ashley Kovacs recalls with a modesty common to great coaches, “He was in a dark place, he was at a low point, and he fought his way out of that. And I think my role was just believing that he could.”
Predicting the medalists for any major international track and field competition is always rife with challenges, as unanticipated forces can make those form charts irrelevant. But as the men’s shot putters traveled to Doha, Qatar on the coast of the Persian Gulf, informed analysts in the sport reached some consistent conclusions. Ryan Crouser entered the meet with three throws over 74 feet, including a huge throw at the USATF Championships that earned him a spot on the US team. Most considered him a solid favorite to win his first world championship gold medal. Tom Walsh had three meets over 73 feet, including his win at the Diamond League Final, was the defending world champion, and was considered a solid favorite to win the silver. Darlan Romani had had a breakout season, with a huge 74-foot throw to beat a stellar field at the Diamond League meet at Stanford. Many believed he was ready to break into the medals for the first time at a major competition. Not considered by many as a favorite to medal was Joe Kovacs. Following a challenging 2018 season, Kovacs had struggled early in 2019, not reaching 70 feet until June. But working with his new coach and wife, he was starting to show signs of the Joe Kovacs of old, reaching 73 feet to finish second to Crouser at the USATF Championships. Still, no one outside his inner orbit could have predicted how he would perform in Doha. In fact, no one could have predicted that the competition would be one of the greatest in the history of the sport.
As the first thrower in the competition, held in a new air-conditioned outdoor stadium in sweltering Doha, Olympic gold medalist Ryan Crouser wanted to get a good early throw that would put pressure on his rivals. He succeeded, extending the World Championship record to 73-4½. It was the longest throw in World Championships history but would end up being only the seventh-best throw of the night. Kovacs responded with a modest 68-7, Romani with a 70-10¾, and Darrell Hill with a 67-6¾. Then the last thrower in the initial round, Tom Walsh clad in the black New Zealand singlet and long black warm-up pants, stepped into the ring. Spinning with characteristic quickness, Walsh launched a huge throw down the middle of the sector, and the crowd immediately knew it had witnessed something historic. The measurement was 75-1¾, the longest throw in the world in nearly two decades that moved the Kiwi to fourth on the all-time list.
In the second round, Crouser and Walsh fouled and Kovacs moved into third place with a 70-11¾. Vying to become the first Brazilian to win a shot medal in a major international competition, Darlan Romani reached a big 73-11 to leapfrog Crouser into second place.
In the third round, Crouser replicated his first-round distance and Darrell Hill had his best throw of the competition, 71-½, to temporarily move into fourth.
As the order was reshuffled for the final three rounds, Walsh was in first followed by Romani, then Crouser, Hill, and Kovacs. That order would be dramatically changed by the time the medals were determined.
In the fourth round, Kovacs continued to improve, moving back into fourth with a 72-¼. Crouser moved closer to Walsh with a big 74-6¼ to move back into second. Walsh continued to have big throws, but as with every attempt since his huge first-round effort, he couldn’t keep from fouling.
In the penultimate round, none of the top throwers improved, though Walsh had what would later be ruled only his second legal throw of the competition. His throw was initially ruled a foul and Walsh briefly but vociferously protested. Later, after the competition had ended, officials overruled the foul call and allowed the throw, measured at 74-¼, to stand. The second-best effort of both Walsh and Crouser would gain great significance in the determination of places.
While the competition had been spirited from the first round, in some respects it really began with the final throws. Out of the medals and still trying to put the challenges of the previous year behind him, Joe Kovacs stepped into the ring for his final attempt. Clad in the all-blue uniform with “USA” emblazoned across the chest and with chalk caked on the right side of his neck, the former world champion had a particularly intense look on his face. Spinning quickly, he released the shot in a fairly low arc and knew immediately that it was a good one, loudly yelling “woo, woo” as he exited the ring. The throw measured 75-2, surpassing Walsh by a quarter of an inch, a mere centimeter.
Seasoned track fans were in shocked awe as they attempted to put what they had just witnessed into perspective. But with Romani, Crouser, and Walsh still waiting to complete their final throws, the competition was far from over.
Darlan Romani’s sixth attempt fell just short of the 22-meter line, and he deliberately fouled. Incredibly, the Brazilian had thrown 73-11 but finished out of the medals in fourth.
As he prepared for his final throw, Ryan Crouser knew he needed the best throw of his life to win his first world title; he got it, but it wasn’t quite long enough. Spinning deliberately, he released the shot in a high arc and watched as it landed in the right side of the sector well past the 22-meter line. Like Joe Kovacs before him, he knew it was a good throw, yelling “Come on, let’s go!” as he strutted out the back of the circle. On NBC Sports, analyst Trey Hardee asked with astonishment, “What is happening?” as he waited for the measurement of Crouser’s long throw. The throw measured 75-1¾, equaling Tom Walsh’s first round mark and falling just a quarter inch short of Kovacs’ bomb of just a few minutes earlier. With a superior second-best throw of 74-6¼, Crouser surpassed Walsh and moved into second place.
But the Kiwi still had his last throw to complete. Having led through virtually the entire competition, Walsh had in the span of just a few minutes been moved to second by Kovacs’ throw and then into third by Crouser. After the longest throw of his career, he now had to surpass that effort to defend his world title. He gave it a game effort, with the shot landing past the 22-meter line, but he again could not stay in the ring. Tom Walsh had thrown over 75 feet but would receive the bronze medal, a significant accomplishment in this greatest of shot put competitions.
After his winning throw, Joe Kovacs had walked around the area behind the shot put circle as he pointed to the wedding ring on his left hand, the proudest of proud husbands whose new wife had played such a significant role in his resurgence. Then he watched intently as his rivals completed their last throws, clapping as Tom Walsh fouled on his last attempt. After greeting and hugging the other throwers, Kovacs jogged over to the nearby stands where his wife and coach was seated. After climbing over a short fence, he met Ashley on a ledge in front of the seats. The husband and wife/coach and athlete team kissed and hugged, the significance of what had just transpired just beginning to sink in. Ashley helped her husband drape an American flag over his shoulders, and as the throng of photographers took countless photos, Joe Kovacs struggled to contain his emotions. With the help of his new wife, he had come so far from the previous year.
Pundits quickly proclaimed this as the greatest shot put competition in the history of the sport, and there was plenty of evidence to support that claim. Never before had multiple athletes exceeded 75 feet; here, three had reached that mark. Never before in a major men’s shot put competition, Olympics or World Championships, had one centimeter, or one-quarter inch, separated the top three athletes. Never before in any men’s shot put competition had an athlete thrown farther to finish in second, third, fourth sixth, seventh, and ninth places. Add to that the drama that came with the top throws occurring in the first and last rounds, and this competition was truly historic and beyond memorable. As Ryan Crouser commented afterward, “It could have been the greatest field event or track and field competition in history.”
In post-meet comments, Tom Walsh expressed pride in having been a part of such an amazing competition. He said, “When Joe threw that I just smiled and thought, ‘This is why I do the sport.’ I do it to be challenged and I love that challenge.” But he also expressed his amazement at throwing a huge PR over 75 feet and finishing third. “I still a little disbelieve it, these two guys, these huge PBs, I cannot believe it.”
Ryan Crouser also expressed his amazement at what had just transpired. “It was an unbelievable competition with a lot of fireworks in round six. This final was crazy and I was so happy to be a part of it.” As he continued, “I wanted gold, but to see Joe throw a personal best on his last throw, I can’t complain. Across the board it was unbelievably deep. I cannot be disappointed about silver. I think I would not have thrown 22.90 (75-1¾) if I hadn’t seen Joe throwing 22.91 (75-2).” Continuing his respectful comments about his friendly rival, Crouser continued, “I know for Joe, he’s battled through a lot. There were times where a lot of people wrote him off and I kept saying, ‘Hey, he’s the only guy out there who has three medals in the last three majors.” Now, that would be the last four.
Recounting the challenges posed by such a deep and amazing competition, Joe Kovacs said afterward, “I’m just proud I was able to stay in my own head and not watch Ryan and Tom throw far. Being a shot putter, it’s really easy to get tense but you just want to be intense and loose.” Then, as was expected, Kovacs turned his attention to his wife and coach. “I wasn’t throwing far and I was hearing everyone tell me that I was washed up and that I was done,” he reflected. “I honestly thought that maybe I should hang it up and that I’d had a good ride. My wife and I just talked and we said, ‘Let’s go full speed ahead to the Olympics in Tokyo.’ We put together this plan and I’m so excited that we executed it at this level. It’s so satisfying to not only be back on top but to be better than I was before. I owe it all to her and I’m so thankful.”
With the Tokyo Games less than a year away, track fans pondered what these amazing athletes could accomplish in 2020 as they sought even more prestigious medals. Little could they know at the time that the upcoming season would largely end before it even got started.
Particularly as the analytical student of the event that he had become, Ryan Crouser had planned out training cycles and competition schedules for 2020 that he believed would best position him to defend his Olympic title in Tokyo. He opened his indoor season at the Millrose Games, completing a solid series that included a 72-9¾ toss that bested Joe Kovacs by nearly three feet; it was the sixth-best indoor mark in US history. A week later at the USATF Indoor Championships in Albuquerque, he exploded out to 74-1¾, the second-best indoor mark in history and less than three inches short of Randy Barnes’ 31-year-old world indoor record. “I was real happy with it and even surprised myself a little bit.” Then commenting regarding his state of fitness as the Olympics approached, he added, “It’s just my second time throwing hard all year. I’m working on what I need to fix, and I felt like I did a good job of it. I still have stuff to work on. There are definitely some signs of some farther throws in there. . .” Close to the world indoor record while still in a period of intense training, and still working on “stuff,” technical flaws that impeded him from throwing even farther. . . Ryan Crouser seemed poised for some incredible performances during the coming Olympic season.
Then, almost overnight, everything seemingly came to a halt.
When the (Track and Field) World Shut Down
As 2020 began, media reports continued to filter out of China regarding something oddly named the “coronavirus.” Though epidemiologists warned that this new virus had the potential to turn into a pandemic, potentially killing millions worldwide in the process, life in the United States continued largely unaffected. That changed in early March when the NCAA and several professional sports leagues announced protocol changes that limited spectators and attempted to reduce contact between players and the media. Still, the notion that seasons would be delayed, much less canceled, seemed outlandish.
Then, during the second week of March, collegiate conferences began canceling their end-of-season basketball tournaments, in some instances in the middle of games. The NCAA would soon cancel the remainder of the winter sports seasons and all spring activities. Major League Baseball postponed all spring training activities and announced that season openers would be delayed. Both the NBA and NHL suspended their seasons with no indication of when they would resume. Most believed that after a few weeks, everything would be back to normal; it would be months, and when activities resumed, everything was far from normal.
Predictably, in time Olympic sports followed suit, and virtually all track and field competitions scheduled for the spring and early summer of 2020 were postponed, with most outright canceled. By the end of March, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics were postponed a year, with a healthy skepticism about whether they would be held at all.
Countless athletes had geared their training and competitive careers toward the most important competition of their lives, the 2020 Olympics, and now that schedule was postponed a year. And there was fear that, as had occurred in the world war years of 1916, 1940, and 1944, the entire Olympic cycle would be canceled, resulting in eight years between opportunities to compete at that highest of levels.
Further complicating this abrupt development for athletes was the almost universal implementation of a quarantine. Like most others in the world, athletes were forced to hunker down at home, limiting contact with others outside their immediate families, particularly in the months prior to the availability of vaccines. Most coaches could consult with their athletes only through video or phone, contact that was in some cases made relatively effective but still less impactful than face-to-face coaching.
For throwers like Ryan Crouser, training centers, weight rooms, throwing circles, and other necessary facilities were suddenly off-limits, forcing athletes to improvise or simply wait and resume training in the fall, or whenever everything opened up again.
Though the months of quarantine were challenging, few improvised better or flourished more than Crouser. By this time, he had moved his base of operations to Fayetteville, Arkansas where his girlfriend, former Duke University pole vaulter Megan Clark, had moved to in the fall of 2019 after training at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista. Crouser would become a volunteer coach for the Arkansas Razorbacks. Despite the lockdown, facility closings, and the nearly constant need to improvise, Crouser missed few if any scheduled training sessions. With no gym open, he lifted weights in his garage. With no physical or massage therapists available, he did his own treatments with the use of such common modalities as a lacrosse ball and a foam roller. With no throwing facilities at hand, he built his own shot put circle from two pieces of three-quarter-inch thick plywood, a recessed ring with a regulation toe board provided by Gill Athletics. Though the circle was the regulation seven feet from front to back, it was narrower from side to side. Crouser came to view even that flaw to his advantage. As he explained, “It’s been good for me because I have a tendency for my left foot to move to the left of the toe board, so training in a narrower circle has ensured I have to have my feet lined up rather than wandering off balance to the left, which I have a bad habit of doing.”
His improvised, hand-made shot put ring and its portability was a necessity given the tight confines available where he was living. Harkening back to his early days throwing in his Grandpa Larry’s yard, he had a garden that was eighteen meters long, insufficient for an athlete who could reach at least five meters longer. So he found an empty field in the back of a nearby elementary school where from his hand-built but well-made wooden shot put ring, he completed throwing sessions up to four times a week, working on his explosiveness, timing, and rhythm.
With minimal direct contact with the outside world, like so many other athletes during this odd time, training provided a needed respite from what was happening around him. “The quarantine has been such a mental battle to stay engaged,” he explained in the summer of 2020. “Training is the highlight of your day to break the monotony. That’s what’s keeping you sane.”
There was one area, however, that Crouser could not replicate. In the summer of 2020, he had anticipated strategically selecting competitions that would best position him for a successful defense of his Olympic title. Now, there were no track and field competitions available to him, creating a competitive void that would be difficult to fill.
In an attempt to address those strong competitive urges, Crouser turned to competitive bass fishing, reverting on a more formal basis to a hobby he had acquired as a child. “Finished in the money three of the last four tournaments.” Crouser gleefully shared in the summer of 2020. “Been on a bit of a hot streak. It’s helped me from going a little crazy.” Addressing his competitive urges, he said of his bass fishing, “It’s been nice feeling like I’m competing; it might not be track and field but still getting a little competition in.”
Crouser’s approach to training was to simply extend the foundational phase he completed each year from the typical few weeks to a pandemic-driven few months, an opportunity that was never otherwise available. As he described his thought process, “Late March, first week of April, me and my training partner Eric Sullins just said, ‘We’re going to commit and train like we’re going to have a meet in the first week of September.’” As he continued, “If we can have a meet before then or even if we have meets in September, great. But we’re going to commit 100% and train like we’re going to have a chance to go all in on that. So it was a huge training block.”
Needing to train to meet both physical and mental needs, Ryan Crouser planned his schedule to allow five to six months of intense training with no competitions to specifically prepare for. As he explained, he was “. . . doing a lot of time in the weight room and kind of just maintenance throwing three days a week—which for me is quite a bit less.” Then, in an unexpected development, a competitive opportunity arose in mid-July. What followed, in what many had anticipated would be a lost year of competition, was arguably the greatest season in the history of the men’s shot put.
Just ten days before the meet was to occur, Crouser learned of American Track League competitions scheduled for back-to-back weekends at Life University, located in Marietta, Georgia just outside of Atlanta. Despite his heavy lifting cycle and with minimal full-effort throwing, he quickly committed and made the ten-hour drive from Fayetteville, Arkansas to Georgia. In an unexpected competition almost five months after his last one, he reached a modest but nonetheless impressive under the circumstances 71-9. As he recounted, “I’ve been getting a lot of work in throwing-wise, but it’s all been kind of lower intensity and mostly just trying to stay in shape, build a good strength base. And so going into the first meet, I didn’t really know what to expect and definitely didn’t execute very well technically but had a lot of power to put into the ball.”
Incredibly strong but not up to par technically, Crouser spent the following week working on rhythm and timing. What ensued was an amazing series that averaged 73-0 and included throws of 74-7 and 75-2, the latter a new personal best. That PR performance seemed almost effortless, though unlike the 74-7 throw that preceded it, Crouser struggled to remain in the ring. Realizing it was a good throw, he clapped his hands and pumped his fist as he awaited the measurement. Knowing he was incredibly strong but not necessarily sharp, the result was surprising. “So, I knew I could throw far. I wasn’t expecting to really throw that far,” he offered. “The goal was to go in and have a series with the majority of the throws over 22 meters (72-2¼).”
With competitions starting to open up, Crouser returned to Fayetteville and reverted to what was for him a more typical training schedule. As he explained, “Since I came back (from the two competitions in Georgia), it’s been more like preseason prep. A lot more running, a lot more plyos (plyometrics), backed off in the weight room a little bit. So we’re not doing such heavy lifts, but more trying to be faster and more dynamic. And then throwing more.”
A month after his personal best performance in Georgia, Crouser traveled to Des Moines for two competitions at Drake University, collectively called the Drake Blue Oval Showcase. In each session, conducted in a stadium that was virtually empty and against little real competition (he would win each competition by nearly five feet), Crouser started to demonstrate the consistency that had been lacking in Georgia. In Tuesday’s meet, he reached a best of 74-¼ to open a series that also included a 73-10 and two other throws over 72 feet. As he commented afterward, “I was here on Tuesday and had a really nice opening throw. . . and then another (73-10). So that consistency is here, starting to roll, but it has a similar feel like you would find in the season in like March or April. . .” This warm-up meet, which included two very long throws, was “kind of working the bugs out.”
As solid as was this Tuesday warm-up performance, Crouser saved his best for four days later. In a series with six legal throws, he had four throws over 74 feet, including the winning toss of 74-6½. His shortest throw of the day measured 73-¾, and the average for the series was an impressive 74-¾. Historically, only the Italian great, Alessandro Andrei, had a statistically superior series when 33 years earlier he averaged 74-3. On that eventful day, Andrei’s series included three world record throws, including a best of 75-2. In a meet that was not even on the calendar when the year began, and in a season that was interrupted by a months-long quarantine, Ryan Crouser was performing at the rarest of levels. While he was pleased with the performance, he was far from satisfied, believing that in such a consistent series there should be an outlier throw. “Yeah, I was really happy with it,” he said. “I mean, I wanted that big one, the 23-meters, and felt like it was there. But all I can really do is set myself up as best I can and just try to let it happen the day of.”
A week later, Crouser traveled to Europe for a series of competitions that were characterized by the distance of his throws and the consistency of each series. Collectively, it was arguably the most impressive string of performances in the history of the event. In Chorzow, Poland, he reached a best of 74-5¾ in a series that averaged 73-11¾, just a half inch under his stellar series in Des Moines. Two days later in Ostrava, Czech Republic, he reached a best of 73-7¼ in a series that included another 73-foot throw and two more past 72 feet. As Crouser explained, “That’s one of my farthest throws in Europe so I’m really happy with it.” As he continued, “Especially considering that day four after coming from the US is always kind of a down day. The consistency wasn’t too bad so I think if I can keep being consistent, eventually the big 23-meter (75-5½) throw will come.”
Six days later in a competition staged in downtown Zagreb, Croatia, Crouser continued his streak of outstanding throwing, winning with a 74-7¼ effort that was the longest throw in Europe in 32 years. His series included throws of 74-1½ and 73-2½. In his first competition since winning the world title in Doha almost a year earlier, Joe Kovacs finished second, almost five feet behind the winner. For his part, Crouser was again pleased but still a little dissatisfied. “I was a little disappointed that I didn’t throw a little bit further,” he commented. “I was really hoping for the 23.”
Two days later, he was back in action in a street competition in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Again winning easily against a field that included Kovacs, Crouser again showed tremendous consistency at an amazingly high level, winning with a throw of 74-1½ in a series with five legal throws that included another 74-footer and three more throws beyond 73. Commenting on the last outdoor competition of the year, his fifth in twelve days, he said, “I’m happy overall with my throws, especially the three throws over 22.50 (73-9). It shows consistency and good distances, and when I get consistent it usually signals I’m ready for another leap forward.” That leap forward would occur in 2021.
Yet Crouser’s 2020 competitive year was unexpectedly not yet over. In early December, two-and-a-half months after his outdoor finale in Belgrade, the Olympic champion’s agent made an inquiry to officials planning an early season indoor meet at Kansas State, the K-State Winter Invitational. According to the agent, “(Crouser) feels he is in good shape and would like to take a shot at the (indoor) world record. Can we get him in?” Though Kansas State has a rich track and field tradition, particularly in the jumping and multi-events, an early season indoor invitational leading into what was hoped would be an Olympic year would not typically generate much buzz. It can only be imagined how quickly an affirmative response was returned to Crouser’s agent.
The world indoor record of 74-4¼ was, like the official outdoor mark, held by Randy Barnes. Showing a bit of rust and lack of competition, in a series with six legal throws, Crouser had three 71s and two 72s. But on his fifth attempt, he reached 74-1, the third-longest indoor throw in history and just three-and-a-quarter inches short of Barnes’ mark. With that performance in Manhattan, Kansas, Ryan Crouser’s 2020 season came to an end. He and countless track fans would not have to wait long to see that long-standing record broken.
In the eight outdoor competitions of 2020, a season that for many months had been considered largely lost, Ryan Crouser’s average winning throw was an incredible 74-0. And that included his 71-9 performance in the first American Track League meet, his first competition in months. His dominance during what was admittedly a very atypical year could be measured in numerous ways. He ended the season undefeated and was never really pressed. His seasonal best of 74-7 at Zagreb was nearly three feet farther than the best throw of the second thrower on the yearly list, Michal Haratyk of Poland. Before 2020, no thrower had reached 74 feet more than four times in a single year; in this abbreviated season, Crouser reached that distance fourteen times. And perhaps most astounding, in 2020, Ryan Crouser had the thirty-seven longest throws of the year.
Again, it was a season completed under extraordinary circumstances, with competitions offered or rescheduled on short notice, with some athletes taking the lowest of lowkey approaches, and with stadiums largely empty save for athletes, coaches, and officials. But for Ryan Crouser, 2020 represented one of the most dominating seasons in the history of the men’s shot put event.
For shot put enthusiasts, the question was simple: given Crouser’s impressive performances of the 2020 season, would the 2021 Olympic year finally bring a new world record in the men’s shot put?
Chasing a “Tainted” World Record
Since the 1970s and reaching an apex in the 1980s before an effective, comprehensive drug testing regimen began to clean up the sport, world records in the heavy throwing events had been a thorny issue for track and field fans, athletes, and the organizations governing the sport. In those throwing events, the use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs (PED) was so rampant that many athletes believed they could not be competitive without resorting to the use of such banned substances. As a result, records set in the 1980s, most of which still stand today, are considered tainted whether or not the record-holder had been implicated in PED use.
To illustrate the extent of this issue, entering the 2021 season, the world record in the men’s shot put had been on the books for thirty-one years and the men’s discus and hammer world records for thirty-five years. These records had been in place for over three decades despite advances in training, nutrition, technical analysis, throwing surfaces, shoes, and countless other areas. Were the athletes who set those marks of such superior athletic ability that none since has been able to even match those performances? Most would suggest that they were not, leaving other factors as the primary difference. And chief among those other factors were, in the eyes of many informed observers, performance-enhancing drugs.
Perhaps the most problematic example of this issue involves the men’s shot put world record. In 1990, Randy Barnes of the United States, who had won a silver medal at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, broke Ulf Timmerman’s world record with a mammoth throw of 75-10¼. A few months later, Barnes was suspended from competition by the IAAF after he tested positive for a banned anabolic steroid. Barnes disputed the test and subsequent suspension and ultimately sued for reinstatement. After a lengthy period of litigation, the suspension was upheld and he was ineligible to compete in the 1992 Olympics. Regarding his suspension, Barnes said, “I’ve sacrificed my life to this sport, and the IAAF has taken away my name and reputation. Anything I do now is tarnished. Those people essentially ruined my life.”
Barnes did return to competition and competed in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, winning the gold medal with a throw of 70-9. Two years later, he tested positive for androstenedione, a banned over-the-counter supplement that is perhaps most closely associated with baseball slugger Mark McGwire, and was banned from competition for life.
Because he had tested positive after he had broken the world record, the IAAF continued to recognize that performance for over thirty years. In an odd juxtaposition, given what was considered the suspect nature of Barnes’ record-breaking performance, Track and Field News refused to recognize Barnes’ throw as the world record, all despite the official sanction of the IAAF. Instead, the respected periodical recognized as the record the 75-8 throw from Ulf Timmerman in 1988. Ironically, and as a further testament to the influence of performance-enhancing drugs on the event during this era, many considered Timmerman’s mark to be almost as suspect. Timmerman never tested positive for PEDs and consistently denied using such substances. Still, documents uncovered after the unification of West and East Germany confirmed what many had long suspected, that East German officials had maintained a state-sponsored program of performance-enhancing drugs beginning for the most promising athletes in their early teenage years. Listed as having participated in such a program, under duress from the government or otherwise, was Ulf Timmerman (as well as Jurgen Schult, the East German athlete who still holds the men’s discus record). But because, unlike Randy Barnes, Ulf Timmerman never tested positive for steroids or other banned substances, his record was recognized by Track and Field News.
The frustration with “tainted” records and desire to replace them with “clean” ones led to proposals that would erase all records established prior to 2005, the year the IAAF began storing urine and blood samples taken from athletes, allowing for future analysis when more advanced testing protocols become available. Concern from athletes whose “clean” records would be erased helped stall serious consideration of such proposals.
As a result, for decades, track and field was in an odd sort of limbo, with world records that were widely considered to be suspect but with the sport lacking the ability, or will, to do anything about it. And in no events was this issue more critical and relevant than the throwing events, with the shot put at the forefront.
As the delayed Tokyo Olympics approached, the only viable solution to eradicating possibly tainted records was to break them, exceeding decades-old performances with better ones from athletes determined through a comprehensive testing program to be clean. Particularly in the men’s shot put, discus, and hammer, such a “solution” was more practical in concept than in practice.
Few had a clearer perspective on this issue than the American great, Adam Nelson. In a stellar career that included what was originally a silver medal at the 2004 Athens Games to accompany the silver he won four years earlier in Sydney as well as one gold and three silver medals in the World Championships, Nelson can lay claim as one of the greatest American shot putters in history. It was, however, the 2004 Olympics that brought for the former Dartmouth thrower a frustrating turn of events. In Athens, with the shot put competition held at the ancient Olympia Stadium, Nelson took the lead in the first round and then fouled on his next five attempts. On his final throw, Yuriy Bilonog of Ukraine matched Nelson’s first-round distance, effectively tying the American thrower for the lead. But given IAAF tie-breaker protocols, in which ties were broken based on each athlete’s second-best effort, because Bilonog had four legal throws and Nelson had only one, the Ukrainian was awarded the gold medal and Nelson the silver.
Bilonog and Nelson both passed drug screenings in 2004, but doping detection was continuing to advance in both scope and accuracy. As a result, the International Olympic Committee adopted a practice of keeping samples for eight years and retesting them when deemed appropriate as “more sophisticated detection methods become available or new substances are added to the list of banned substances.” After a retesting of Bilonog’s sample from the Athens Olympics found evidence of a banned steroid, in December of 2012, he was stripped of his gold medal.
From childhood, athletes dream of being crowned the Olympic champion, having the gold medal draped around the neck, and hearing their country’s national anthem as their flag is raised above the Olympic Stadium. Though he was later honored as Olympic champion at the 2016 US Olympic Trials in Eugene, Nelson originally received his gold medal in an inauspicious encounter in front of a McDonald’s restaurant in Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport. Additionally, in the years after receiving the silver rather than gold medal in Athens, Adam Nelson was without a sponsorship deal, resorting to wearing a shirt emblazoned with the message, “Space for Rent.” It’s likely sponsorship deals would have been more readily available to an Olympic champion.
Amazingly understanding given those harsh circumstances, Nelson expressed few hard feelings toward Bilonog; “It’s hard for me to be angry at someone like Yuriy,” he offered after one of the last competitions of his storied career. “I don’t think he had a choice.” Adam Nelson did, however, understandably become even more strident in his anti-doping stance.
Given that the lore and history of the throwing events were etched into his DNA, the confluence of the issue of performance-enhancing drugs and the shot put world record was readily apparent to Ryan Crouser. He recognized Randy Barnes’ mark as the world record, “just because that’s what he threw.” But as he commented in 2021 regarding the thirty-one-year-old record, “The sport has changed so much since then. Drug testing has cleaned up the sport exponentially. The level of clean competition now is phenomenal. Nothing against the. . . world record holder. It was a different time in track and field.”
No less an authority than Adam Nelson believed that the best approach to ridding the sport of tainted world records was to have those records broken by athletes determined to be clean. “There’s a lot of records that should not be there by today’s books,” he commented in 2016. “To single one of them out is probably not fair. More importantly, we have some athletes right now that can break that world record and set a new standard for athletes going for it.”
Aside from any negative connotations about a mark many considered to be suspect, Ryan Crouser wanted to break that world record. And beginning during the 2017 season, he began to believe he was capable of such a record-breaking performance. “I’ve known it was possible since 2017 and I went into meets expecting to break it and I didn’t between six and eight occasions.” In time, he came to feel pressure to break the record. As he explained, in warm-ups or during practice sessions, he had “six or eight” throws that landed beyond the world record. But then in the actual competition, he tried to break the record and failed. “Every time I tried to break that record in a meet, it didn’t happen,” he reflected. “You dedicate and work and work and work. And when you think it’s all there, it’ll blow up in your face.”
In 2018, he commented, “The world record is definitely a goal for me this year. It has always been in the past but this year I feel that it is much closer than before.” In an interview later that year with Track and Field News, Crouser expanded on that thought and discussed how he and other throwers were getting closer to that mark. “It’s definitely getting closer. I mean you can see the throws are creeping up slowly. . . You can see people closing in. He’s (Tom Walsh) made a big jump this year in terms of what his maximum distance is. I’m just kind of hoping for one of those.” He then made a rather bold prediction, stating, “I would say we see that world record go down before Tokyo, if not this year.”
For his part, Joe Kovacs had similar aspirations. As he said in 2017, “. . . the world record is something I think is attainable and it’s obviously one of my goals because of that.” And also like Crouser, Kovacs realized he wasn’t the only thrower capable of exceeding Barnes’ long-standing mark. “I’ve seen the ball go past the world record in practice before,” Kovacs offered after winning the world title in Doha in 2019. “I know Crouser has too and I can only imagine Tom (Walsh) has seen the same thing. I know we are all capable of it. It’s just a case of putting it together when it counts.”
From 2017 on, a sense of inevitability existed regarding the world record in the men’s shot put intertwined with growing frustration that it had not occurred sooner. But as the now Olympic year of 2021 began, based on his amazing string of performances in 2020, most informed observers believed that Ryan Crouser was best positioned to finally end Randy Barnes’ tenure as the record holder.
When track enthusiasts spoke of Randy Barnes’ world record, they were typically referring to his outdoor mark from 1990, a performance not recognized as the world record by Track and Field News. But Barnes also held the long-standing indoor record, a 74-4¼ throw from 1989. In January of 2021, with the Tokyo Olympics on the horizon, Ryan Crouser set about removing Randy Barnes’ name from all world record lists.
In January 2021, the world was still being ravaged by the Covid pandemic, making travel cumbersome and potentially dangerous. So, it was welcome news to Ryan Crouser when a series of indoor meets sponsored as part of the American Track League was scheduled in Fayetteville, Arkansas, his new hometown. Just a month and a half after scaring the record in a hastily scheduled appearance at a meet in Manhattan, Kansas, Crouser stepped into the ring for his first throw of 2021. Spinning with characteristic smoothness and letting out a loud grunt at release, he launched the shot in a high arc that reached the far edge of a protective mat that had been placed on the infield landing area. The throw measured 74-10½; by more than six inches, Crouser had erased Barnes’ long-standing indoor mark from the world and American record books. Showing great early season form, he also had throws of 74-¾ and 73-9 in this record-breaking performance.
As he analyzed his performance, Crouser said, “I executed really well in the first round, which is one of the things that I tend to have a little bit of trouble with. So I did that really well, but it put a lot of pressure on myself to build from there.” Adding significance to this early season performance just over seven months before the rescheduled Tokyo Games, Crouser shared that he was also in an early season phase of training. “We’re still in heavy training,” he shared. “We haven’t really backed off too much. We haven’t really started tapering at all. We’re lifting heavy in the weight room, throwing a lot, and throwing heavy shots.”
Unstated was a very simple question: if Ryan Crouser could throw nearly 75 feet during a period of heavy training, how far could he throw at the Olympic Trials in June and the Olympic Games in August when he would be in peak form?
For now, though, he had reshuffled the all-time list of best indoor throws. Following this first American Track League competition, Crouser had six of the ten longest indoor throws in history (including three at this meet) and four of the top five. From all indications, it was going to be an exciting year.
A week later, Crouser was back at the Tyson Indoor Track Center in Fayetteville for the second ATL meet. The new world record holder came within six inches of matching his still-fresh mark, throwing 74-4¼ in another stellar series that also included throws of 74-3¾ and 73-½. Not satisfied, he suggested, “I had the energy last week, I had the execution today. . . we’ll be back in two weeks and hoping we can put those two together.”
There was one ATL meet in Arkansas still on the calendar, and with no American or world indoor championships on the Covid-shortened schedule, Crouser was pointing to this competition. As he explained, “I had probably one of my best practices ever on Friday in preparation for this meet (on the same weekend as the canceled US indoor championships) and this has been my whole peak for indoors.” Then that evening, Crouser and his father Mitch, who was in town for the meet, went out to dinner. Both contracted food poisoning, and in the next two days before the Sunday meet, the younger Crouser lost fifteen pounds. Undaunted, he showed up on Sunday still feeling ill but otherwise ready to compete. He and his father had decided to plow forward despite his obvious distress, using the competition as a learning experience in case he ever had to deal with illness at a major competition. He still won by nearly two feet, reaching what was for him a pedestrian 71-11½ that was impressive given the circumstances.
With that, arguably the greatest indoor season in the history of the men’s shot put event came to a close.
After competing sparingly indoors, Joe Kovacs opened his outdoor season with a stellar performance in his new hometown. He and his wife and coach had debated whether or not to enter this May 1 event at Ohio State University, but both were ultimately glad he competed. On the second attempt in a series with no fouls, he reached 74-6½, a mark he had exceeded only once when winning the world title in Doha. It was the best series of his career, averaging 72-9. Clearly, though Crouser had largely dominated the event for the past two seasons, Joe Kovacs was not ready to cede the Olympic title to the defending gold medalist.
Ryan Crouser is not the type to “respond” to the performance of a rival, at least not publicly. But leading up to the Olympic Trials in mid-June, he laid down a series of performances that reinforced the predominant opinion that he was the thrower to beat in Tokyo. Six days after Kovacs’ big series in Ohio, at a lowkey event in Arkansas, he reached a solid 74-5½. Two weeks later in Tucson, he threw 74-1¾. Then, back in Tucson two days later for the USATF Throws Festival, Crouser eliminated any doubt that he was one of the greatest men’s shot putters of all time. Against a field that included Joe Kovacs, Tom Walsh, and Darrell Hill, Crouser opened with 73-7½, a throw long enough to win the competition. He followed that with 74-1½, 72-10, and a foul. Then in the penultimate round, he put it all together, a high arc throw down the middle of the sector. He knew it was a good throw well before it landed and excitedly waited for the measurement. His 75-6 had been exceeded only by Randy Barnes and Ulf Timmermann. Crouser closed out the competition with a 75-0, the only time in history a thrower had exceeded 75 feet twice in the same competition. Joe Kovacs finished second, over three feet back.
With the top American athletes heading home for a month of well-planned training before the Olympic Trials, track fans were excited about what performances they might get to see in the Trials and Olympics. In the men’s shot put, many believed that, after more than three decades, a new world record was virtually inevitable.
Countless stadiums in the world have become known for their history, atmosphere, knowledgeable fans, and prodigious performances—the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, Bislett Stadium in Oslo, Norway, and Letzigrund Stadium in Zurich to name a few. Perhaps the most iconic track and field venue is Hayward Field on the campus of the University of Oregon. It’s a stadium where Steve Prefontaine ran, Mac Wilkins threw, Bill Bowerman coached, and some of the best track fans in the world faithfully attended. Named for the legendary track coach Bill Hayward, who led the Oregon Duck program for most of the first half of the 20th century, the stadium was originally opened in 1919 and maintained its old-time charm and traditional grandstands until 2018. In that year, the original facility was leveled to make room for a sterling new facility that had helped secure for Eugene the 2021 World Championships, the first time that meet was held on American soil.
Some traditionalists decried the destruction of the old stadium, and the new facility admittedly lacked the nostalgic allure of the original Hayward Field. Largely funded by philanthropic donations, primarily from Oregon alumnus Phil Knight and the company he co-founded, Nike, the new Hayward replaced that old-time charm with arguably the best track and field facility in the world.
For Ryan Crouser, who had first competed at Hayward when he was in fifth grade, the most important benefit of returning to Eugene was the opportunity to see family and friends. Largely hunkering down in Arkansas during the pandemic, he had not been in Oregon since Christmas of 2019, almost two years earlier. Though he had not lived full-time in the state since he graduated from high school, for the Olympic Trials in 2021, Ryan Crouser was coming home. As he said, “I have so many memories of Hayward Field. Words can’t describe coming back to a brand-new Hayward Field after a pandemic. Not even knowing if we would have an Olympics to coming back to the Olympic Trials after not seeing my family since 2019. To come back to the place where track started for me. . .”
Qualifying rounds for a thrower like Ryan Crouser are seldom a dramatic event. Get used to the ring and surroundings, get into a competitive groove, throw far enough to qualify for the final, and possibly make a competitive statement—those are the typical objectives of a top thrower in the preliminary rounds. Crouser checked off all of those boxes and created a little drama in the process.
The fifth thrower in the first preliminary flight, he took what seemed to be a conservative approach. On such efforts, rather than making an “easy” throw, Crouser often utilized what he calls a “static start.” As he described his first qualifying throw, “That was not a safety throw, but it was a static start. It was not my full wind and shift, but it was safer.”
Despite the “static start,” on a qualifying throw that simply allowed him to compete in the actual event later in the day, Ryan Crouser reached a mammoth 75-2½, a new Olympic Trials record. It also eclipsed the old mark for the longest qualifying throw by over a foot-and-a-half. It was the second-longest throw of his career, surpassed only by the 75-6 bomb at Tucson earlier in the year. All with a particularly controlled throwing motion. He followed up his first qualifying throw with a second-round 74-3½ and then passed on his third attempt.
As Crouser said after the qualifying rounds, “I am really excited based on the fact that I was able to throw my second farthest throw ever.” As he further explained, “It was a static start throw. I can add a chunk to that with a full throw. It was really easy.” Then as he assessed what he needed to do for the final, “Iron some stuff out this evening, and find some patience.”
“Static start” and the need to “iron some stuff out,” throws enthusiasts could only anticipate what Crouser would do when he and the other eleven finalists reconvened for the final.
Not all shot put rings are the same, particularly for throwers using the spin technique. Some differences are largely imperceptible to athletes with less experience and ability. Regarding the throwing circle at Hayward Field, Crouser said, “It’s definitely a faster ring than what I’ve been training on in Arkansas, definitely one of the faster rings I’ve been on.” Oddly enough, the fast ring, his selection of shoes, and World Athletics rules related to world records all intersected to complicate Crouser’s approach to the qualifying rounds.
Crouser had planned to throw in the qualifying rounds in a new pair of throwing shoes but found they didn’t sufficiently grip the fast surface of the Hayward Field shot put ring. He had also brought to the event an older pair that was more broken in and offered him greater control; he wore those shoes for his huge qualifying throw and the shorter toss that followed. He had pressed a bit harder on that second attempt and knew that he had an even longer throw in him, perhaps even a world record, if he could just relax. But then the analytical athlete thought a few moves ahead. As Crouser explained, “After that (second qualifying throw), I knew there was a big throw there, and I actually went over and talked to my dad and realized with World Athletics, the new rule is they take your shoes if you break the world record. I told my dad, ‘I don’t know, if I throw a WR, I won’t have shoes for the final.’” So for that reason, a fear that he would break the record in the qualifying rounds and not have his shoes for the final, Ryan Crouser passed on his third qualifying attempt.
All of the top throwers had made it out of the qualifying rounds, and as the twelve finalists walked onto the Hayward Field infield, the pandemic-limited crowd seemed poised for something special. The atmosphere was electric, and those fortunate fans on that first evening of the Trials would not be disappointed.
Ryan Crouser was dressed in a navy-blue Nike short sleeve shirt and tights, his long hair contained by a blue headband. He opened with a 74-2¼ throw that would be good enough to win but would seem increasingly short as the evening progressed. He followed in the next two rounds with 73-11¾ and 74-7. As he reflected afterward, “Those first three rounds I was like, ‘I’m totally in line and I’m getting a big one.’” With three throws remaining, he was confident he had a longer throw in him.
In the fourth round, Crouser stepped into the ring and gathered himself in front of the toe board. Then he raised his right arm a couple of times, extorting the avid fans to support him. With the sparse crowd clapping loudly, he prepared to begin his spin; this would be no static start. Rotating with his characteristic control, he got a long pull on the shot and exploded at the end. He knew it was a long throw, raising his arms almost immediately upon releasing the shot. He clapped his hands and pumped his right fist as he exited the circle, yelling, “That’s it.” He waited for the measurement, and when it was posted, he raised both arms and broke into a huge smile. He had thrown a colossal 76-8¼, breaking Randy Barnes’ record from thirty-one years earlier by ten inches. Concluding with a foul and a 74-2½ throw, the new world record holder’s phenomenal series averaged an astounding 74-8.
Though the day clearly belonged to Crouser, who won the competition by nearly three-and-a-half feet, two other spots on the Tokyo Olympic team were up for grabs. With three throws over 72 feet, Joe Kovacs reached 73-3½ to finish second. In a surprising battle for the third and final spot on the team, recent North Dakota State grad Payton Otterdahl reached a personal best of 71-11 to edge out veteran Darrell Hill by one inch.
In his post-meet comments, Ryan Crouser showed evidence of excitement and relief, having finally reached a goal he had been chasing for the past four years. Speaking technically about his record throw, he said, “As soon as I set myself up and found my position out the back and attacked through the finish, I knew it was good. I think if you watch the video you see me celebrate about the moment it left my hand.” (Hill, Garry, “Ryan Crouser Crushes World Record,” Track and Field News, August 2021, p. 21) Then, harkening back to his youth, the long-time thrower spoke of his time in his grandpa’s yard and other shot put rings of his youth when he would visualize breaking the world record, he said, “It feels good to finally do it after doing it a thousand times in practice.” He discussed his quest for the record and his goals for the future. “The biggest thing to getting the world record was getting out of my own way and just letting it happen,” he said. “I felt really confident coming in, but it wasn’t an expectation. I felt like I stayed loose, stayed relaxed, and executed the game plan I had coming in . . .” Describing the relief that came with his record-breaking performance, he said, “I felt like I was ten pounds lighter as soon as that went up on the leader board. I didn’t realize how much that had been weighing on me.” Speaking about the future, he stressed that he was far from satisfied with the distance he had reached. “That was nowhere near the perfect throw. . . It’s always about going out and trying to further my PR. I think I can go farther, I think 77 is definitely possible. If I can move up to 77 or even just higher in the 76s then I’ll be happy.”
Inevitably, the discussion turned to the significance of breaking a long-standing record most educated fans had associated with performance-enhancing drugs. Perhaps reflective of his personality, Crouser was measured in his comments about Randy Barnes’ thirty-one-year-old world mark. When asked if he found satisfaction from removing a thrower with Barnes’ history from the record books, Crouser responded, “It’s a difficult question to answer. . . All I can say is with the regimen of drug testing we go through, I’m happy to say the world record is under the current system. . . It’s awesome that we have a 100 percent clean world record in the shot put now.”
Crouser would strictly focus on training during the six weeks between the Trials and the Games. To more casual fans and observers, the setting of a world record creates the expectation of another record at each subsequent competition. When asked about the possibility of breaking the world record in Tokyo, Crouser politely demurred, stating simply, “The main thing at the Olympics or any major championships is winning.”
A Second Olympic Gold Medal
Since 1896 when they were restored, the Olympic Summer Games have continued largely uninterrupted. On only two occasions, in 1916 and then again in 1940 and 1944, have they been canceled because of world wars. Athletes gear their training and often their competitive careers around these quadrennial events. And though any cancellation of the Games pales in importance when compared to the tragic reasons behind such a decision, to the athletes involved, lost Olympic opportunities can be seen as almost catastrophic.
As 2020 began, there was no indication that a major problem existed, and multi-billion-dollar preparations in Tokyo continued as did the training schedules of countless athletes across Olympic disciplines. But as the new year continued, news out of China suggested the increasing possibility that a pandemic would be declared. News regarding this building health crisis became incrementally available, more and more cases were identified in every corner of the world, and international health officials were issuing warnings about the growing crisis. On March 11, the World Health Organization declared a pandemic, and soon thereafter nations began declaring travel bans and eventually much of the world shut down. Some governments, initially including both Australia and Canada, announced that their nations would not participate in the Olympics if they were not postponed.
In March 2020, relatively little was known about this new virus, except that it was potentially deadly, and a vaccine would not become available for many months. On March 24, around four months before the Tokyo Games were scheduled to begin, the Japanese government and the International Olympic Committee issued a joint statement indicating that the Olympics would be postponed to a date in the summer of 2021. Implicit in the statement was the suggestion that if the Games could not be conducted in 2021, they would be canceled. For purposes of branding and marketing, the Olympics would still be designated as “Tokyo 2020” even though they would be conducted in 2021.
Even with this postponement, there were still concerns that because of the persistence of what became known as Covid 19, the Games would still have to be canceled. These concerns were exacerbated in the spring of 2021 when Japan experienced a surge of Covid cases, and public opinion polls suggested that a large majority of the Japanese citizenry supported either cancellation or an additional postponement. Preparations continued, and as the date for the opening ceremonies approached, Japanese officials announced that all Olympic events would occur as scheduled, but that no spectators would be allowed. Travel schedules for athletes and coaches were adjusted to reduce the time they would be in Tokyo, and despite pronouncements from organizing officials in Japan and with the IOC, there was still skepticism that the Games would occur as rescheduled.
For Ryan Crouser, just as he had trained during the peak of the pandemic as if there would be meets in September of 2020, he proceeded under the assumption that the Tokyo Olympics would occur in 2021 as had been announced a year earlier. As he commented regarding the prospect of the Games actually occurring, “At this point, I’m just training. Training and just pretty much 100 percent committed as an athlete that it’s going to happen and we’re going to go forward with it.”
The Crouser family, which had been well represented in Rio four years earlier, would not be in Japan to support him as he sought his second Olympic title. As his coach, his father, Mitch, would be in attendance. Even this minor change left Crouser largely undeterred. “I feel sad for them because they’re going to miss out on the whole Olympic experience,” he said before departing for Tokyo. “I’m glad they got to be a part of it in 2016. As an athlete, strictly from a professional sense, it is like you’re in a bubble. I’ll miss them but I won’t know they aren’t there.” Adding a comment that his throwing-focused family no doubt understood and appreciated, “The main thing at the Olympics or major championship is winning or doing my best to come home with gold.” While he might wish his family could travel to Japan to experience his gold medal defense in person, his mission remained unchanged.
As Crouser prepared for his second Olympic experience, two sayings his grandpa, Larry, often offered said much about his preparation. “He (Larry) always said once you get to the competition, the hay is in the barn,” his grandson said. “The preparation is where you win meets.” Skipping potentially lucrative European meets to focus strictly on training before leaving for Tokyo, Crouser had stacked as much hay in the barn as he possibly could. Somewhat similarly, his grandpa often said, “It’s not how you end up, it’s how you get there.” As he prepared to open his gold medal defense, Ryan Crouser had done all he could to prepare for this moment, and simply needed to execute.
Unlike at the Olympic Trials six weeks earlier, there were no mammoth throws in the qualifying rounds. Crouser threw a very solid 72-4¼ to lead all qualifiers, nearly two feet beyond Tom Walsh’s second-best qualifying throw of 70-6¼. With an automatic qualifying distance of 69-6¾, or otherwise the twelve throwers with the best qualifying marks, Joe Kovacs reached the final in eleventh with a 68-8 and Payton Otterdahl in twelfth with a 68-7. Both were just ahead of the Polish champion, Michal Haratyk, whose 68-5¼ was the longest non-qualifying throw in history.
Two days later, as the twelve finalists filed into the Olympic Stadium for the final rounds, there was an air of inevitability on the sunny and sultry infield. The gold medal was Ryan Crouser’s to lose, and he would seemingly need to perform well below his potential to do so.
His performance would constitute the greatest series in the history of the shot put event.
As he stepped into the ring for his first-round attempt, Ryan Crouser wore a red short sleeve uniform top with “USA” emblazoned across the front. His long, red hair was gathered in a knot that poked out of the opening in the back of a chalk-dusted blue American flag ball cap, a hat he would struggle to keep on his head as he completed each throw. With reflective sunglasses, the mild-mannered but huge athlete looked almost menacing.
Crouser often utilized the initial attempt to get a safe throw in, one long enough to qualify for three additional attempts. But on this hot and humid day, with sunny skies and temperatures approaching the high-90s, the analytical athlete considered the impact those conditions might have on large throwers like him as the competition continued. As a result, he put much more effort into his initial attempt than was his usual practice. The throw measured 74-11, breaking his Olympic record from Rio by more than a foot. With Joe Kovacs’ initial throw of 72-9¾, Crouser led the competition by over two feet.
In the second round, Tom Walsh moved within an inch of Kovac’s second-place mark. The effervescent Kiwi raised his arms as he exited the circle, pointing at the camera and saying, “Tommie’s coming.” Kovacs didn’t improve, throwing four feet short of his initial attempt. Crouser, however, was dialed in and extended his lead with a big 75-2¾ throw, another new Olympic record.
None of the top three improved in the third stanza, though Crouser continued his torrid throwing with a 75-0 toss. As the throwing order was reshuffled for the final three rounds, Crouser maintained his large lead, followed by Kovacs, and Walsh, with the always dangerous Darlan Romani lingering a foot behind Walsh in fourth. Among the throwers not advancing to the final three rounds was the other New Zealander, Jacko Gill, in ninth and Payton Otterdahl in tenth.
In the fourth round, Walsh didn’t improve and then Joe Kovacs, like so many times before, came to life and began to threaten for the lead. Spinning quickly, the defending world champion exploded with a throw that measured 74-3¾, bringing him within eleven inches of the leader. Crouser didn’t improve but continued his string of stellar throws with a 74-7¼. Romani fouled and would not improve on his first-round throw.
In the penultimate round, only Walsh improved, reaching 72-9¼ to add a quarter inch to his second-round attempt. Kovacs threw a solid 73-1¾ and Crouser reached 73-11½, which would be his shortest throw of the day.
Not lost on either of the top two throwers, as well as knowledgeable fans around the world, was a recollection of the last championship event, the World Championships in Doha two years earlier. In that most memorable of shot put competitions, Joe Kovacs had on his final attempt exploded with a 75-2 personal best and Ryan Crouser had tried gamely to catch him, coming up with his own personal best that was a quarter-inch short.
On this day, though, both Tom Walsh and Ryan Crouser would improve, but the order of finish would remain unchanged. Tom Walsh added almost a foot to his best for the day, reaching 73-8¾, a distance that would have won every Olympic shot put event before 2016. Matching his placement from Rio, he again finished with the bronze medal.
Joe Kovacs gave it a good try, sending the shot on a long arc down the middle of the sector and giving a big yell as he exited the back of the ring. But there would be no Doha-like heroics, as the throw measured 74-1¾. Kovacs had won his second silver medal.
That left one final thrower in the competition. The gold medal was his, he had already broken the Olympic record twice, and he could have passed on his final attempt. Having discarded his pesky ball cap and replaced it with a headband, Crouser settled at the back of the ring, completed a typically controlled spin, and released the shot in what appeared to be a lower arc. Not unlike when he set the world record in Eugene, he knew immediately it was a good one, raising his arms in triumph. The shot landed well past the 22-meter line, and those few in the stadium realized it was the longest throw of the day, very close to world record distance. The measurement was 76-5½, the second-longest throw in history and less than three inches short of his still-fresh world mark.
Ryan Crouser was the first American shot putter to win two gold medals since Parry O’Brien had done so in 1952 and 1956. (Tomasz Majewski of Poland won gold in 2008 and 2012.) In fact, for the first time in track and field history, the medals went to the same three athletes in the same order in two consecutive Olympics.
But it was how he won this second gold medal that was spectacular. Crouser did not have a foul throw in the final, and every one of his six throws was farther than his Olympic record from Rio. For the first (and still only) time in history, Crouser had a series with three 75-foot throws. In fact, in an event in which only four other athletes had exceeded this distance on even one throw, the now two-time Olympic champion averaged 75-½.
Though Ryan Crouser’s win in Tokyo was not unexpected, his level of performance on this day was still astounding.
The euphoria of his final round throw beginning to subside, Crouser walked over to where he had placed his bag and warmups. With the cameras still focused on him, he pulled out of the bag a handwritten sign with the words, “Grandpa, we did it. 2020 Olympic Champ.”
To refer to Grandpa Larry as the patriarch of the Crouser family would be understating his influence. For his sons Mitch, Dean, and Brian, and then his grandchildren Sam, Haley, and Ryan, he had been a major impetus behind their becoming throwers and a driving force behind their careers. As Ryan reflected after winning his second gold medal, “I was probably about this tall (holding his hand just above the floor) when I took my first throw with him in his backyard. He got me started in throwing. . . He played a huge role in my throwing career.”
As the Olympic Trials in 2021 approached, Larry Crouser was 87 and had been battling cancer for over a decade. But even as he had long fought that disease, he had stayed involved in his grandson’s stellar career. Locked down in Arkansas during the pandemic, Ryan had utilized a drone to film his workouts and then sent the video to his father, Mitch, who broke down each throw and provided feedback. Living nearby, Grandpa Larry would watch with his son and at times would add his comments. It was as if Ryan’s quest for the world record provided his grandfather with a spark needed to keep him fighting the cancer. As Mitch said of his father, “It’s amazing that he lived as long as he did. I really think Ryan chasing the world record is what kept him going.”
When Ryan returned to Oregon for the Olympic Trials, he had not been home in almost two years. As he continued to put the finishing touches on his pre-Trials and then pre-Olympics training, he spent a lot of time with his grandpa, passing notes back and forth because Larry had lost his hearing. When the young Crouser broke the long-standing world record, his grandpa beamed, holding up a newspaper touting Ryan’s accomplishment and having a photo taken as he gave the photographer a thumbs-up sign. As Ryan suggested, “He watched that throw on his iPad thousands and thousands of times. He’s been my biggest fan.”
Then, the day before Ryan was scheduled to leave for Tokyo, Larry Crouser passed away. While his death was not unexpected, it was a shock, nonetheless. “To lose him a week before the Olympics was obviously sad,” Ryan said. “But I feel like he was able to be here in spirit.” When the shot put was contested a week later, there was still sadness, but the super-focused athlete utilized his memories of his grandfather as more of a positive force. When he had secured his second Olympic win, it seemed natural to pay tribute to his grandfather. Hence, he proudly displayed the sign he had written just a few days earlier. “I just felt like that was the last note that I wanted to write to him, that I didn’t get the chance to. I know that he was here with me in spirit, and I know that he would be proud if he was here.”
At the post-competition press conference, much of Crouser’s focus was on his grandfather and the handwritten sign he had displayed. He talked of sitting in his room a few days before the event, feeling the stress of preparing for an Olympic event in the middle of a pandemic, and then deciding to write out that last note to Grandpa Larry. As he recalled, “I wrote that down and as soon as I did, I had a huge sigh of relief. I knew if I went in and threw how well I had prepared, stuck to my game plan, got out of my own way, and did what I had to do, I would be the Olympic champion. Writing that note to him a few days ago set my mind in the right place.” He referred to the last throw of the competition, the huge bomb that came within two-and-three-quarter inches of his world record, as the best throw of his career given the location and circumstances. As he explained, “It was a lot easier to throw 23.37 (WR) close to home. It’s really, really difficult to perform on a stage like this.”
On finishing second for the second consecutive Olympics, Joe Kovacs said, “I’m really happy coming back with a silver and Ryan coming back with a gold. That’s our job as U.S. shot putters. We’re the best country in the world at throwing, so we’ve got to make sure we don’t come back empty-handed.
Similarly a bronze medalist for the second straight Games, Tom Walsh joked, “These guys clearly didn’t get the memo it should have been a different order.” Then he got more reflective, offering, “Sometimes you just don’t quite put it together the way you would like to and that’s how good men’s shot put is right now. You’ve got to nail it to win. I was very close but no cigar.”
Crouser concluded what was no doubt one of the greatest years in the history of the men’s shot put event with multiple post-Tokyo wins in Europe, including a win at the Diamond League Final in Zurich. In that September meet, he easily defeated Joe Kovacs by over a foot, reaching a solid 74-4½; it was the closest Crouser came to losing in this long, undefeated season.
It was a stellar season of superlatives for the two-time gold medalist:
- He extended his undefeated string to two seasons (including the weird Covid season of 2020) having not lost since the epic World Championship Final in Doha in 2019;
- He won each competition he entered in 2021 by at least fourteen inches;
- He broke an indoor world record that had stood for 32 years;
- He broke an outdoor world record that had stood for 31 years, a mark some considered to have been tainted by performance-enhancing drugs;
- He added ten inches to the world record, the largest extension of the men’s shot put record in 54 years;
- He won his second consecutive gold medal, the first American to do so in the shot put in 65 years;
- He broke the Olympic record three times in that competition;
- He threw 75 feet on three attempts in Tokyo, the only time an athlete has reached that mark three times in the same competition;
- He averaged 75-½ on his six throws in the Olympic Final, a mark that had been exceeded by only five other athletes on even one throw; and
- As computed by the folks at Track and Field News, of the 84 rounds of final competition in which Crouser competed in 2021, he trailed in only four of them, and never did he trail for more than a couple of rounds.
Crouser was easily the top-ranked men’s shot putter in the Track and Field News annual rankings, with Joe Kovacs ranked second and Tom Walsh third, mirroring the podium in Tokyo. In addition to annual rankings in each event, the magazine ranked the top ten athletes across all disciplines. The “Athlete of the Year” is the most prestigious annual designation it awards,
Since it began designating an “Athlete of the Year” in 1959, only one men’s shot putter had received that award, Randy Matson in 1970. For 2021, Ryan Crouser was the clear winner of the Track and Field News “Athlete of the Year” award, garnering the top votes of 29 and the 35 voting experts. (No AOY was awarded in the Covid impacted 2020; though comparisons are difficult, Crouser would no doubt have been a strong contender for the award in that year as well.)
For the second consecutive year, Ryan Crouser in 2021 completed one of the greatest seasons in the history of the event.
“The Biggest Thing Missing From My Resume”
To be included in any discussion regarding the best shot putters in history, certain accomplishments would seem to be obvious prerequisites. One would need to have won an Olympic gold medal; Ryan Crouser had won two. Breaking a world record, making the thrower the longest in history, would seem important. After throwers had chased that possibly tainted mark for over three decades, Crouser shattered the record in 2021. The greatest in the event dominated the competition; the big thrower from Boring, Oregon was undefeated in 2020 and 2021, typically winning meets by several feet. And since the World Championships were inaugurated in 1983, the best shot putters had won at least one world title.
Winning a gold medal at the World Championships seemed to be the one item missing from Ryan Crouser’s resume. On his first trip to the Championships in 2017, he had performed poorly, didn’t surpass 70 feet, and was never in contention for a medal. Two years later, in the historic competition in Doha, Crouser had come through in the last round, setting a new personal best but falling a quarter-inch short of Joe Kovac’s mammoth toss.
If there was going to be an opportunity to win a world title, 2022 seemed to align ideally for Ryan Crouser. First, he was coming off a season in which he had completely dominated the event. Second, delayed for a year to allow for the similarly delayed staging of the Tokyo Olympics, the World Championships in 2022 would be held for the first time in the United States before a supportive American crowd. And third, the meet would be conducted in the new Hayward Field, close to Crouser’s home and a location at which the native Oregonian had competed countless times. He would also be throwing from the same ring from which he had launched his world-record throw a year earlier. If Ryan Crouser was going to win a World Championship, as many believed he inevitably would, this seemed to present a golden opportunity.
There were actually two World Championship opportunities in 2022, one indoor in mid-March in Belgrade, Serbia followed in July by the outdoor meet in Eugene. Considered to be of less prestige and importance than its outdoor counterpart, what is now called the World Athletics Indoor Championship is held every two years in the years in which the outdoor meet is not scheduled. Due to Covid changes to the World Athletics calendar, both the indoor and outdoor versions of the meet were held in 2022.
For a variety of different circumstantial reasons, Ryan Crouser had never competed at a World Indoor meet. In 2014 and 2016, collegiate commitments with the Texas Longhorn track team precluded his even competing for a spot on the US indoor team. Then in 2018, when he would have likely been considered a favorite to win an indoor title, a hand injury forced him to forego his entire indoor season. Finally, the pandemic forced the cancellation of the 2020 version of the championships scheduled in Nanjing, China. He seemed to take these odd circumstances in stride. “I like indoor track and field in general because it’s a controlled environment, so you know the weather’s going to be good,” he explained. “Reaching the World Indoors just hasn’t worked out for me in recent years, but I’m going to continue to hope that I can do one. Hopefully, I’ll make it to an indoor championships sometime before my career is done.” That time came in 2022 after Crouser threw 73-10¼ to easily win the USATF Indoor title and earn a spot on the U.S. team headed to Serbia.
If there was an athlete considered a lock for a world indoor title in 2022, it was Ryan Crouser. He had dominated the men’s shot put for two years, and his greatest rival, Joe Kovacs, had not competed at the USATF Indoor and would not be competing in Serbia. But Tom Walsh would be there as would the Brazilian champion, Darlan Romani.
Crouser opened with a 73-7½ that would be his best of the day and Walsh countered with 73-1¾. With only Romani able to reach the 71-foot mark in the first two rounds, it was assumed that this would again be a battle between the US and New Zealand champions, with Crouser likely again coming out on top.
Then in round three, the huge Romani stepped into the ring and balanced the shot on his neck, his face getting into his trademark wide-eyed focus. He exploded out to 73-11, adding nearly three feet to the Brazilian national indoor record at the beginning of the day. Crouser couldn’t improve and Walsh could add only three-quarters of an inch to his best for the day. Just like that, Darlan Romani was the World Indoor Champion. And Ryan Crouser had been defeated for the first time in two-and-a-half years. The Brazilian had won a very deep competition, the first, indoors or out, in which six throwers had reached 71 feet. And with his massive personal best, Romani leapfrogged to fourth on the all-time indoor list; only Randy Barnes, Ulf Timmerman, and Crouser had previously thrown farther undercover.
In his post-meet comments, Crouser suggested that he was pleased with his early throws. As he continued, “It was an extremely long competition. I must say congratulations to Romani on a massive PB, he did extremely well and competed well so he deserved it.” Focusing on his conditioning, he added, “The training has not been fantastic and overall I am concerned about the distance. I really wanted to perform better.”
Characteristically, Crouser was magnanimous in his comments and made no excuses for his loss. But earlier in the season, he had battled a nerve issue that prevented him from fully extending his throwing arm without causing significant pain. When he tried to respond to Romani’s big throw in Belgrade, this still lingering injury impacted his throwing motion. Regardless, with the outdoor version of the meet yet to occur, Ryan Crouser was still without a World Championship gold medal.
To compete for an outdoor world title, Crouser had to first make the team, typically a formality for an athlete of his stature, but a necessity nonetheless. As athletes assembled back at Hayward Field for the USATF Championships that served as the World Championships selection meet, the stakes seemed higher than usual. Those who finished in the top three would be back in Eugene in a few weeks for the first World Championships held on American soil.
In the men’s shot put, with Joe Kovacs having automatically qualified for the meet based on the title he won in the last World Championships in 2019 in Doha, there was a good possibility the United States would send four throwers in the event. And with that bye, some might have anticipated that Kovacs would train through the meet and make only a cursory, required showing. They would have been wrong.
As the first athlete in the flight with the top throwers, Joe Kovacs immediately dispelled any doubts about his approach to this meet; he had come to compete. On this first attempt, he boomed a huge throw out to 75-½, a scant inch-and-a-half off his personal best. In what had become a rarity for the world-record holder, Crouser would need to play catch-up if he was going to surpass his rival. In what would be his shortest throw of the day, he reached 73-6¾, a distance that would ensure a spot on the team but not another U.S. title.
On his second attempt, Kovacs matched his first-round distance and Crouser fouled on a throw that appeared to land beyond Kovacs’ two attempts. Josh Awotunde would finish third with a best of 70-7, so this was a clash between the two American titans.
Kovacs hit 74-2½ on his third attempt, and his last three throws declined from there. “I got a little tired,” he shared afterward. It was in that third round that Ryan Crouser took over the competition, reaching 75-10¼, 75-6, 75-10, and 75-4¾ on his last four attempts. It was a great competition, and on his five legal throws, the winner averaged 75-2½, surpassing his stellar series at the Tokyo Olympics by two inches.
In his post-meet comments, Crouser paid tribute to his main rival. “That pressure (from Kovacs’ first-round throw) helped me to pop off a few big throws,” he said. “Every time Joe steps in the ring, he’s one of the most dangerous throwers in the world. It pushes me to be better and to consistently execute both in competitions and training. It’s always an honor to throw against Joe and I feel like I definitely did well preparing if I can walk away with a win.”
Three weeks later, the best men’s shot putters in the world were warming up on the Hayward Field infield, getting ready for qualifying rounds for the World Championships finals two days later. Joining Crouser and Kovacs on the team representing the United States were Josh Awotunde, the former standout thrower at the University of South Carolina, and Tripp Piperi, who had followed Crouser as a top Texas Longhorn thrower.
To suggest that Ryan Crouser was a prohibitive favorite would be an understatement, given his dominance the past three years and considering his performance in this same venue just seventeen days earlier. But these were the World Championships, and his challenges in winning this title were widely known. As he suggested, “This is the biggest thing missing from my resume.”
All of the top entrants, including all four Americans, Tom Walsh, and Darlan Romani, moved on to the finals, with Crouser leading all qualifiers with a 73-1¼. Considered one of the marquee events of the Championships, these twelve top shot putters would reassemble two evenings later.
On a beautiful Oregon evening, with temperatures in the upper 70s, and performing on what was close to his home field, Ryan Crouser set his sights on winning his first world title. Joe Kovacs, however, would not make it easy. Crouser led early in the first round off his72-10½, a modest throw on which his momentum nearly carried him out of the ring. Then like he did at the USATF Championships less than a month earlier, Joe Kovacs came out hot, throwing a formidable 74-3 to take the lead. To win that first title, Crouser had some work to do. Near the end of the first round, Josh Awotunde threw a big personal best of 72-11¾ to nudge the world record holder down to third.
In the second round Kovacs fouled, Awotunde didn’t improve, and Crouser reached 74-6¼ to take the lead. None of the Americans improved in the third round, and as the order was reshuffled for the top eight throwers to move to the last three rounds, Crouser, Kovacs, and Awotunde led in that order, with Darlan Romani and Tom Walsh rounding out the top five.
Round four saw no movement on the leaderboard, the top throwers, apparently, conserving their energy for the pivotal fifth stanza. First in that round, Tom Walsh, the two-time Olympic bronze medalist and former world champion, reached his best of the day, 72-5¼, inching closer to Awotunde for a spot on the podium. The former South Carolina Gamecock responded with his best throw of the day, and of his career, a huge 73-1¾ that all but sealed his spot in the bronze medal position. Next up, Kovacs, showing tremendous focus and showcasing his power, threw a bomb that reached 75-1¼, taking the lead as he sought his third world title.
The pressure was on Ryan Crouser, again. A track meet, even at the highest of levels like this one, has been compared to a three-ring circus. At any given moment multiple field events might be underway, occurring simultaneously with a running event on the track. At the World Championship level, all of this action is choreographed as much as possible to showcase the superstars of the sport. Ryan Crouser was unquestionably a superstar of the sport, he had just lost the lead as he was attempting to win his first world title, and the focus needed to be on him as he sought to regain that lead.
Crouser had to wait while the contestants in an event on the track were introduced. Then as he prepared to throw, he had to wait again amid the furor that resulted from the disqualification of former Oregon Duck star Devon Allen from the 110-meter high hurdle final. But the cagey Crouser was not deterred, staring into the distance as he brought his focus to the task at hand. Dressed in a red and blue striped singlet with “USA” across the chest, Crouser rotated across the ring in a motion that resembled thousands of previous throws, then exploded at the end. The shot landed 75-3¼ away, and he had regained the lead from his rival.
Before Crouser fouled on his sixth and final attempt, Joe Kovacs reached a solid but not long enough 73-6¾ and again finished second behind his friend and rival. Ryan Crouser had won his first world title.
Though without the dramatics from Doha three years earlier, it had been a great competition, with much of the drama concentrated on just a few minutes in the penultimate round. And with Josh Awotunde having the meet of his career and hanging on to finish third, the United States team had swept the medals, the first time in the 39-year history of the World Championships that one nation had swept the men’s shot put event.
“It was so special to do it here, my home state,” Crouser said afterward. “This is such a special night, being part of the USA sweep in the shot put in the first World Championships on home soil. This is something I’ll never forget; it’s probably the proudest moment of my shot putting career.”
Evaluating a Competitive Career (In Progress)
So, what do we make of Ryan Crouser’s career, a competitive record that is only partially complete? It is rather tricky and maybe a little unfair to evaluate an athlete’s career record before it has been completed. But many have already anointed Crouser as the greatest of all time, and it is impossible to consider such claims without evaluating what he has accomplished thus far.
How long will he continue to compete? As Crouser has suggested, “I’m still enjoying it and I’m going to keep going through 2024 for sure, but I could see myself going through 2028 if it’s still in the cards.” As the recipient of a master’s degree in finance continued, “Just to get to throw a heavy ball for a living is not a bad gig for the time being.”
Will he continue to improve? That is, of course, impossible to predict. After some injury issues earlier in his career, Crouser has largely remained healthy in recent years, particularly leading up to major championships. This is possibly a by-product of his more analytical approach to training, including his tendency to avoid lesser competitions in the runup to the Olympics and World Championships. Regardless of training, most athletes face a greater susceptibility to injury as they get older, and Crouser may be no different.
Though motivation and durability will vary from athlete to athlete, the age at which a thrower set his last personal best can provide some perspective regarding how long one can perform at the highest level. As an example, Randy Matson was 22 when he set his last PR but Parry O’Brien was 34 when he set his. With some more recent examples with throwers using the rotational technique, which typically takes longer to master, Adam Nelson was 26, Reese Hoffa was 29, and Christian Cantwell was 23 when each established his last personal best. Though still competing and showing evidence of continual improvement, Joe Kovacs was 33 when he set his current PR of 76-2¾ at the 2022 Diamond League Final. Crouser will be 30 when the 2023 season begins.
The point is, barring unforeseen circumstances and events, Ryan Crouser will likely remain a force in the men’s shot put for at least the next Olympic cycle, giving him ample opportunity to add to his already formidable resume.
That resume clearly places this great athlete near the top, if not at the top, of the list of the greatest men’s shot putters of all time. As a high schooler in Boring, Oregon, he established new scholastic records in the discus (237-6) and indoor shot put (77-2¾). Injury derailed his attempt to reach his ultimate shot put goal, breaking Michael Carter’s other-worldly outdoor record of 81-3½ from 1979. At the University of Texas, he won four NCAA titles in the shot put, two indoor and two outdoor.
As a professional, he has won eight USATF shot put titles, five outdoor and three indoor. Regarding World Championships, he finished second in an epic 2019 competition before winning the title in 2022. Additionally, he finished second in the 2022 World Indoor.
Perhaps of greatest significance, Ryan Crouser won Olympic gold medals in 2016 and 2020 (contested in 2021), breaking the Olympic record four times in the process. With this last win, he became only the fourth men’s shot putter to win two Olympic titles, following the Americans Ralph Rose and Parry O’Brien and Tomas Majewski of Poland.
In 2022, he broke an indoor world record that had lasted 32 years and then the outdoor record that had been on the books for 31 years. Athletes had been chasing each of these records for over three decades, and with these marks of 74-10½ and 76-8¼, Crouser had brought the shot put world records into the “clean” era.
As a measure of his competitiveness versus contemporary rivals, using the Track and Field News “Annual Rankings,” Ryan Crouser was first world-ranked in 2014 and has been ranked every available year since 2016. (There were no rankings in the Covid year of 2020.) He was top-ranked in 2016, 2017, 2019, and 2021. Though not all athletes completed full schedules in 2020, Crouser’s competitive record that year would have made him difficult to dislodge from the top spot. Though rankings for 2022 will not be released until later in the year, it is anticipated that he will be ranked at or near the top for the season just completed.
Crouser was undefeated from the end of 2019 through early in the 2022 season. As a further measure of his dominance in recent years, he had the longest throw in the world in 2016 (by over a foot), 2017 (by three inches), 2020 (by over three feet), and 2021 (by over two feet). In the three years in which he didn’t have the longest throw, in 2018, he trailed Tom Walsh by five-and-a-half inches, in 2019, he trailed Joe Kovacs by a quarter inch, and in 2022, he trailed Kovacs by four-and-a-half inches.
Perhaps the most impressive measure of how Ryan Crouser has dominated the men’s shot put, particularly in the past three years, can be found on the list of the top fifteen throws in the history of the event. Among those fifteen longest throws, one belongs to Joe Kovacs, two to Randy Barnes, and one to Ulf Timmermann. The other eleven were thrown by Ryan Crouser.
Ryan Crouser has in a relatively short span of time assembled an incredibly impressive competitive record, largely but not completely dominating the event since rising to prominence with his first gold medal performance in 2016. But with this resume that is likely to be further enhanced, is this incredible athlete the greatest men’s shot putter of all time? Answering that question will require some additional analysis.
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