Paris Olympics preview: shot put

Men's shot put

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• World record-holder Ryan Crouser is trying to win an unprecedented third consecutive Olympic shot put title
• US teammate Joe Kovacs, silver medallist behind Crouser at the past two Games, owns the world-leading throw
• Consistent Italian Leonardo Fabbri enters Paris having recently beaten both Crouser and Kovacs

For nearly a decade, Ryan Crouser has made throwing the shot farther than anyone in history look easy. But in his bid this season to win an unprecedented third consecutive Olympic gold medal, the shot put champion has faced several difficult injury recoveries that opens up the field of contenders in Paris.

Crouser set the Olympic record to win in Rio, then reset his own mark three times in Tokyo to successfully defend his title with 23.30m. Two years later in 2023, Crouser changed his technique and threw a world record of 23.56m three months before winning another global title at the World Championships.

This season, however, he has battled a slew of injuries that began with the ulnar nerve in his elbow he first felt at the World Indoor Championships in March before tearing a pectoral muscle in April and later dealing yet again with his elbow nerve. In all, Crouser was not cleared medically to throw until May – and yet, in a sign of his sheer talent, Crouser threw 22.84m less than one month later at the US Trials, a mark that, while well behind his world record, would otherwise be enough to rank eighth on the world all-time list.

At the London Diamond League meeting in late July, he finished second to Italian Leonardo Fabbri and said that with two weeks to go until Paris, “I can see myself rapidly improving after injury.” On social media, Crouser added that the result was “not what I was hoping for, but back feeling a semblance of healthy.”

At 35, USA’s Joe Kovacs may be the oldest competitor in the field, yet no one has thrown farther this year since his world-leading 23.13m at the Diamond League meeting in Eugene in May. A two-time world champion whose 23.23m throw from 2022 stands second on the world all-time list, Kovacs already owns nearly every accolade within the event, except for Olympic gold, after earning silver in 2016 and 2021. Kovacs was fourth at the London Diamond League meeting on 20 July when he surpassed 22 metres on just one of his three throws.

Italy’s Fabbri arrives in Paris with proof that he can beat both Kovacs and Crouser, having done so in London in July, and has been perhaps the most consistent athlete in the event this season. Fabbri has won all 12 of his outdoor competitions this year, topped by the 22.95m PB he set in mid-May to move to fifth on the world all-time list.

Of this season’s 20 farthest throws, Fabbri is responsible for 11, including four that are 22.88m or farther. Unlike challengers such as Crouser and Kovacs, however, Fabbri owns far less experience competing in global championships. These are Fabbri’s second Olympics, though he will attempt to make his first final.

Tom Walsh, seventh on the shot’s all-time list and Olympic bronze medallist in 2016 and 2021, is a medal contender yet again with the season’s sixth-best throw (22.16m).

USA’s Payton Otterdahl, who ranks ahead of Walsh this year with a personal best of 22.59m, will be competing in his second Olympics.

Other contenders include Jamaican record-holder Rajindra Campbell, Nigeria’s three-time African champion Chukwuebuka Enekwechi, New Zealand’s Jacko Gill and Croatia’s European silver medallist Filip Mihaljevic.

 

Women's shot put

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• Defending champion Gong Lijiao of China returned to 20-metre form in final competition before the Games
• Two-time world champion Chase Jackson of the United States is making her Olympic debut
• Canada’s world indoor champion Sarah Mitton owns the world lead at 20.68m

With the retirement of New Zealand’s Valerie Adams, a fixture of every Olympic shot-put podium since 2008, there is increased opportunity for new faces to earn a medal in Paris and many who could be in prime position to take advantage.

This season, there are nine competitors who have thrown between 19.81m and Sarah Mitton’s world-leading 20.68m.

Sixteen years after her Olympic debut in Beijing, China’s Gong Lijiao will attempt to defend her 2021 gold medal in Paris. Five women have thrown farther this year than Gong, a two-time world champion who also earned Olympic bronze in 2008 and silver in 2012, but the 35-year-old is a proven championship performer and rarely leaves a big event without a medal around her neck.

The six women to exceed 20 metres this year are led by Mitton, whose mark of 20.68m in May was a 35cm improvement on her own national record. These will be Mitton’s second Olympics, but in Tokyo she did not advance out of qualifying. Her past two years have seen a breakout for the Canadian, including a silver at the 2023 World Championships and gold at the World Indoor Championships in March.

No one can claim to have thrown farther and more consistently in recent years than Chase Jackson, the US thrower who won the world titles in 2022 and 2023. Jackson, who holds the national record at 20.76m, has won six of her eight competitions this year, throwing beyond 20 metres in five of those.

Like fellow Tokyo medallist Gong, USA’s Raven Saunders has shown form that suggests she could challenge for a podium finish in Paris. She threw 19.90m at the US Trials, the second-best mark of her career behind the 19.96m PB she set in 2021.

Jackson and Saunders are joined on the US team by 22-year-old NCAA champion Jaida Ross, who has thrown 20.01m this year.

At the US Trials in June, Jackson said she believed the US contingent of Saunders and Ross had the potential to sweep the podium in Paris. No country has ever swept the medals at an Olympics since the women’s shot put began in 1948.

The US trio ranks behind Germany’s Yemisi Ogunleye (20.19m), Jessica Schilder of the Netherlands (20.33m) and Mitton on this year’s world list. Schilder won her final three competitions before heading to Paris – a run that included taking gold at the European Championships and an outright PB of 20.33m at the FBK Games in Hengelo.

Ogunleye set her outright best at the World Indoor Championships in March and hasn’t been beyond 20 metres since then, but she set an outdoor PB of 19.53m in her final competition before the Games.

New Zealand's Maddison Lee-Wesche has consistently featured in global finals over the past few years and heads to Paris in PB form.

Andrew Greif for World Athletics