Valarie Allman competes in the discus final at the Tokyo Olympic Games (© Getty Images)
As the year draws to a close, we look back at the key moments of 2021 in each area of the sport.
The series continues with a review of the throws events and will be followed over the coming days by reviews of other event groups.
Women’s shot put
Season top list
| 20.58m | Gong Lijiao 🇨🇳 CHN | Tokyo | 1 August |
| 20.12m | Jessica Ramsey 🇺🇸 USA | Eugene | 24 June |
| 19.96m | Raven Saunders 🇺🇸 USA | Eugene | 24 June |
| 19.76m | Song Jiayuan 🇨🇳 CHN | Xi'an | 20 September |
| 19.75m | Auriol Dongmo 🇵🇹 POR | Huelva | 3 June |
World Athletics rankings
| 1 | Auriol Dongmo 🇵🇹 POR | 1364 |
| 2 | Gong Lijiao 🇨🇳 CHN | 1355 |
| 3 | Maggie Ewen 🇺🇸 USA | 1323 |
| 4 | Valerie Adams 🇳🇿 NZL | 1307 |
| 5 | Fanny Roos 🇸🇪 SWE | 1307 |
Olympic medallists
| 🥇 | Gong Lijiao 🇨🇳 CHN | 20.58m PB |
| 🥈 | Raven Saunders 🇺🇸 USA | 19.79m |
| 🥉 | Valerie Adams 🇳🇿 NZL | 19.62m |
| Full results | ||
Major winners
Olympic Games: Gong Lijiao 🇨🇳 CHN 20.58m
South American Championships: Livia Avancini 🇧🇷 BRA 17.34m
European Indoor Championships: Auriol Dongmo 🇵🇹 POR 19.34m
Wanda Diamond League: Maggie Ewen 🇺🇸 USA 19.41m
World U20 Championships: Mine de Klerk 🇿🇦 RSA 17.40m
Season at a glance
For the first time since 2016, more than one shot putter went beyond 20 metres, with China’s Olympic champion Gong Lijiao again leading the way and the USA’s Jessica Ramsey joining her in breaking the barrier. Two-time world champion Gong has now surpassed 20 metres in 11 of her competitive years in the shot put and produced the best of the lot in Tokyo, where her PB of 20.58m got her gold to add to her 2012 silver and 2008 bronze medals.
USA’s Raven Saunders improved from her fifth place in Rio to secure silver in Tokyo, while New Zealand’s Valerie Adams added a bronze to the Olympic titles she won in 2008 and 2012 and the silver claimed in 2016 and so became, at her fifth Olympics, the first woman to win four Olympic medals in a single field event.
For Ramsey, the 20.12m meeting record she recorded to win the US Trials in June added almost a metre to her previous best and put her second on the outdoor season list. Both she and Saunders improved the meeting record of 19.59m which had been set by Michelle Carter in 2016, with Saunders throwing a PB of 19.96m to secure third spot on the season list.
As well as impressive leading marks, the discipline featured strong depth, too, with 14 athletes launching the implement beyond 19 metres this outdoor season, compared to nine in 2019 and 10 in 2016 – the most since the 15 in 2012.
The world indoor-leading 19.65m by Portugal’s Olympic fourth-placer and European indoor champion Auriol Dongmo in Karlsruhe helped her to top of the World Athletics rankings ahead of Gong, while USA's Diamond League winner Maggie Ewen, Adams and Sweden's Fanny Roos all tied on the same points score.
At U20 level, not only did South Africa’s Mine de Klerk win the world shot put title, but she also secured silver in the discus in Nairobi.
Men’s shot put
Season top list
| 23.37m | Ryan Crouser 🇺🇸 USA | Eugene | 18 June |
| 22.72m | Joe Kovacs 🇺🇸 USA | Columbus | 1 May |
| 22.47m | Tom Walsh 🇳🇿 NZL | Tokyo | 5 August |
| 22.34m | Darrell Hill 🇺🇸 USA | Walnut | 9 May |
| 22.17m | Michal Haratyk 🇵🇱 POL | Warsaw | 15 May |
World Athletics rankings
| 1 | Ryan Crouser 🇺🇸 USA | 1553 |
| 2 | Tom Walsh 🇳🇿 NZL | 1437 |
| 3 | Joe Kovacs 🇺🇸 USA | 1429 |
| 4 | Armin Sinancevic 🇷🇸 SRB | 1380 |
| 5 | Filip Mihaljevic ğŸ‡ğŸ‡· CRO | 1362 |
Olympic medallists
| 🥇 | Ryan Crouser 🇺🇸 USA | 23.30m OR |
| 🥈 | Joe Kovacs 🇺🇸 USA | 22.65m |
| 🥉 | Tom Walsh 🇳🇿 NZL | 22.47m |
| Full results | ||
Major winners
Olympic Games: Ryan Crouser 🇺🇸 USA 23.30m
South American Championships: Welington Morais 🇧🇷 BRA 19.87m
European Indoor Championships: Tomas Stanek 🇨🇿 CZE 21.62m
Wanda Diamond League: Ryan Crouser 🇺🇸 USA 22.67m
World U20 Championships: Juan Carley Vazquez Gomez 🇨🇺 CUB 19.73m
Season at a glance
What a year it has been for Ryan Crouser, who has set world records both indoors and outdoors, retained his Olympic title and continued his incredible consistency in 2021.
Undefeated since 2019, the US 29-year-old has now thrown beyond 22 metres a remarkable 163 times, meaning he has achieved more than a third of all the 22-metre throws in history.
Twelve of those came during the 2021 outdoor season and he recorded nine of the top 10 marks, capped by his incredible world record of 23.37m thrown at the US Olympic Trials in Eugene. The result added 25 centimetres to the global best set by Randy Barnes back in 1990, two years before Crouser was even born.
Indoors he had four of the top five marks, topped by his world indoor record of 22.82m set in Fayetteville in January, a mark which improved the 22.66m recorded by Barnes in 1989.
Second to him on both season lists is his fellow US thrower Joe Kovacs, the two-time world champion who secured his second consecutive Olympic silver behind Crouser in Tokyo with a throw of 22.65m.
The standard has been raised across the board, with six athletes surpassing 22 metres this outdoor season compared to eight in 2019 and three in 2016 but 33 having gone beyond 21 metres outdoors in 2021 – an increase on the 27 from 2019 and 18 from 2016.
Many nations have shared in that success, too, with athletes from nine different countries having reached the Olympic final, and five of the six continental areas represented. US throwers dominate the outdoor season list, however, with 25 athletes in the world top 100 and 18 of those having thrown 20 metres or further.
Women’s discus
Season top list
| 71.16m | Valarie Allman 🇺🇸 USA | Berlin | 12 September |
| 70.22m | Jorinde van Klinken 🇳🇱 NED | Tucson | 22 May |
| 68.99m | Yaime Perez 🇨🇺 CUB | Havana | 22 May |
| 68.31m | Sandra Perkovic ğŸ‡ğŸ‡· CRO | Florence | 10 June |
| 67.05m | Shadae Lawrence 🇯🇲 JAM | Tucson | 22 May |
World Athletics rankings
| 1 | Valarie Allman 🇺🇸 USA | 1438 |
| 2 | Sandra Perkovic ğŸ‡ğŸ‡· CRO | 1404 |
| 3 | Yaime Perez 🇨🇺 CUB | 1380 |
| 4 | Kristin Pudenz | 1306 |
| 5 | Liliana Ca 🇵🇹 POR | 1280 |
Olympic medallists
| 🥇 | Valarie Allman 🇺🇸 USA | 68.98m |
| 🥈 | Kristin Pudenz 🇩🇪 GER | 66.86m PB |
| 🥉 | Yaime Perez 🇨🇺 CUB | 65.72m |
| Full results | ||
Major winners
Olympic Games: Valarie Allman 🇺🇸 USA 68.98m
South American Championships: Izabela da Silva 🇧🇷 BRA 62.18m
Wanda Diamond League: Valarie Allman 🇺🇸 USA 69.20m
World U20 Championships: Violetta Ignatyeva ANA 57.84m
Season at a glance
Valarie Allman described her 2021 season as “a dream come true” and it’s easy to understand why, with the US 26-year-old counting Olympic and Diamond League titles plus a North American record among her achievements this year.
Throwing 71.16m at Berlin’s ISTAF meeting in September, Allman capped her season with a performance which improved the area record that had stood to Cuba’s Hilda Ramos since 1992 and moved her to 18th on the world all-time list. Making the top 20 on the world all-time list is a feat that only she and two-time world champion Sandra Perkovic have achieved since 1993.
As a result of her record throw and consistency – as she possesses seven of the top 10 performances this year – Allman easily tops both the season list and world rankings.
Perkovic – who was world No.1 for seven successive years between 2012 and 2018 – ranks second. The two-time defending champion had been aiming to become the first woman to win three Olympic gold medals in an individual athletics event in Tokyo, having become only the second woman to ever win back-to-back discus golds at the Olympics, and although she wasn't able to top the podium again, she did finish just outside the medals with 65.01m.
No.2 on the season list is Netherlands’ Jorinde van Klinken thanks to her 70.22m thrown in Tucson in May – a performance that saw her head to the Olympic Games as the world leader.
It is the first year since 2015 in which two athletes have surpassed 70 metres, while five beyond 67 metres compares to four in 2019 and also five in 2016. Athletes have achieved great depth this year, with the 100th best mark of 56.96m the best recorded this century.
Men’s discus
Season top list
| 71.40m | Daniel Stahl 🇸🇪 SWE | Bottnaryd | 10 July |
| 70.35m | Kristjan Ceh 🇸🇮 SLO | Kuortane | 26 June |
| 69.48m | Simon Pettersson 🇸🇪 SWE | Vaxjo | 29 May |
| 69.04m | Lukas Weisshaidinger 🇦🇹 AUT | Eisenstadt | 9 June |
| 68.62m | Andrius Gudzius 🇱🇹 LTU | Birstonas | 20 May |
World Athletics rankings
| 1 | Daniel Stahl 🇸🇪 SWE | 1453 |
| 2 | Kristjan Ceh 🇸🇮 SLO | 1361 |
| 3 | Lukas Weisshaidinger 🇦🇹 AUT | 1340 |
| 4 | Andrius Gudzius | 1337 |
| 5 | Simon Pettersson 🇸🇪 SWE | 1327 |
Olympic medallists
| 🥇 | Daniel Stahl 🇸🇪 SWE | 68.90m |
| 🥈 | Simon Pettersson 🇸🇪 SWE | 67.39m |
| 🥉 | Lukas Weisshaidinger 🇦🇹 AUT | 67.07m |
| Full results | ||
Major winners
Olympic Games: Daniel Stahl 🇸🇪 SWE 68.90m
South American Championships: Lucas Nervi 🇨🇱 CHI 63.18m
Wanda Diamond League: Daniel Stahl 🇸🇪 SWE 66.49m
World U20 Championships: Mykolas Alekna 🇱🇹 LTU 69.81m
Season at a glance
Since the last Olympics in Rio, Daniel Stahl has been the dominant force in the event, and this Olympic year was no different. Surpassing 69 metres in six competitions, the world-leading 71.40m he achieved in July was his third-best ever mark and he won 18 competitions throughout the season, including the Olympic Games and Diamond League final. His 68.90m to win in Tokyo was the fourth furthest throw in Olympic history.
He lost just once in his specialist event, to his Olympic silver medal-winning compatriot Simon Pettersson in Vaxjo, though Slovenia’s 22-year-old Kristjan Ceh had the throw of his life to give Stahl a good challenge in Kuortane. There Ceh threw 70.35m to ensure that 2021 would be the third consecutive year in which two athletes had surpassed 70 metres. Despite the global pandemic, eight athletes surpassed 68 metres last year, with five achieving the feat in 2021, and in the last Olympic year that figure was also five.
In terms of depth, 67.36m is the furthest 10th best mark in the world since 2012.
At the World Athletics U20 Championships in Nairobi, Lithuania’s Mykolas Alekna achieved the second-longest U20 throw in history to follow in the footsteps of his father – 2000 and 2004 Olympic gold medallist Virgilijus – and become a global champion.
Women’s hammer
Season top list
| 80.31m | DeAnna Price 🇺🇸 USA | Eugene | 26 June |
| 78.48m | Anita Wlodarczyk 🇵🇱 POL | Tokyo | 3 August |
| 78.18m | Brooke Andersen 🇺🇸 USA | Wichita | 10 April |
| 77.03m | Wang Zheng 🇨🇳 CHN | Tokyo | 3 August |
| 76.79m | Gwen Berry 🇺🇸 USA | Tucson | 22 May |
World Athletics rankings
| 1 | Anita Wlodarczyk 🇵🇱 POL | 1473 |
| 2 | Malwina Kopron 🇵🇱 POL | 1400 |
| 3 | Alexandra Tavernier 🇫🇷 FRA | 1351 |
| 4 | DeAnna Price 🇺🇸 USA | 1329 |
| 5 | Wang Zheng | 1315 |
Olympic medallists
| 🥇 | Anita Wlodarczyk 🇵🇱 POL | 78.48m |
| 🥈 | Wang Zheng 🇨🇳 CHN | 77.03m |
| 🥉 | Malwina Kopron 🇵🇱 POL | 75.49m |
| Full results | ||
Major winners
Olympic Games: Anita Wlodarczyk 🇵🇱 POL 78.48m
South American Championships: Mariana Grasielly Marcelino 🇧🇷 BRA 66.16m
World U20 Championships: Silja Kosonen 🇫🇮 FIN 71.64m
Season at a glance
Poland’s Anita Wlodarczyk made history once again in Tokyo, the hammer legend becoming the first woman to win three Olympic titles in the same event.
It was a remarkable return for the four-time world champion, who sustained a knee injury and underwent surgery, causing her to miss much of the 2019 season. She timed her 2021 season peak to perfection, throwing 78.48m in Tokyo to get gold and add to her victories in 2012 and 2016.
World record-holder Wlodarczyk led the global lists for six consecutive years between 2013 and 2018, and then USA's DeAnna Price took over at the top. The 2019 world champion also launched herself into the lead in 2021 as she became only the second woman after Wlodarczyk – who threw her world record 82.98m in 2016 – to surpass the 80-metre mark. At the US Olympic Trials, she twice broke her own North American record, improving to a world-leading 80.31m. She also threw beyond 76 metres at another three competitions through the season. An injury took its toll at the Olympics, however, and she placed eighth.
In terms of depth, a total of 10 athletes threw beyond 75 metres this year – one more than in 2019 and seven more than in the last Olympic year. The last time that figure was higher was in 2012.
Like Wlodarczyk and Price in the senior event, Finland’s Silja Kosonen has been rewriting the all-time list at U20 level and this season she improved from 71.34m to 73.43m to break the 16-year-old world U20 hammer record.
By the time she lined up at the World Athletics U20 Championships in Nairobi, the then 18-year-old had thrown beyond 70 metres in six competitions throughout the season and she added another to that tally to gain her first global gold in Kenya.
Men’s hammer
Season top list
| 82.98m | Pawel Fajdek 🇵🇱 POL | Chorzow | 30 May |
| 82.71m | Rudy Winkler 🇺🇸 USA | Eugene | 20 June |
| 82.52m | Wojciech Nowicki 🇵🇱 POL | Tokyo | 4 August |
| 81.58m | Eivind Henriksen 🇳🇴 NOR | Tokyo | 4 August |
| 80.78m | Mykhaylo Kokhan 🇺🇦 UKR | Szekesfehervar | 5 July |
World Athletics rankings
| 1 | Wojciech Nowicki 🇵🇱 POL | 1418 |
| 2 | Pawel Fajdek 🇵🇱 POL | 1408 |
| 3 | Mykhaylo Kokhan 🇺🇦 UKR | 1348 |
| 4 | Rudy Winkler 🇺🇸 USA | 1341 |
| 5 | Eivind Henriksen 🇳🇴 NOR | 1321 |
Olympic medallists
| 🥇 | Wojciech Nowicki 🇵🇱 POL | 82.52m PB |
| 🥈 | Eivind Henriksen 🇳🇴 NOR | 81.58m NR |
| 🥉 | Pawel Fajdek 🇵🇱 POL | 81.53m |
| Full results | ||
Major winners
Olympic Games: Wojciech Nowicki 🇵🇱 POL 82.52m
South American Championships: Humberto Mansilla 🇨🇱 CHI 75.83m
World U20 Championships: Jan Dolezalek 🇨🇿 CZE 77.83m
Season at a glance
Not since 2007 had more than two athletes surpassed 82 metres in the same season, but Pawel Fajdek, Rudy Winkler and Wojciech Nowicki all achieved the feat in 2021. Poland’s four-time world champion Fajdek led the way with his 82.98m – the fifth-best winning mark of his hugely successful career – recorded on home soil in May.
He backed that up with throws of 82.82m and 82.77m also in Poland in June, but Winkler also made a statement as he broke the 25-year-old North American record with 82.71m at the US Olympic Trials.
Fajdek’s compatriot Nowicki was waiting until the Olympics to peak, however, and in Tokyo he improved to a PB of 82.52m to get gold after the series of bronze medals he had claimed at the previous four successive global championships.
Two other athletes – Norway’s Eivind Henriksen and Ukraine’s Mykhaylo Kokhan – also surpassed the 80-metre mark in 2021, with Henriksen joining the 80-metre club in Tokyo, eventually achieving a best of 81.58m to secure silver. Fajdek’s 81.53m was the longest ever Olympic bronze medal-winning throw.
The last time five or more athletes threw beyond 80 metres was 2012.
Women’s javelin
Season top list
| 71.40m | Maria Andrejczyk 🇵🇱 POL | Split | 9 May |
| 69.19m | Christin Hussong 🇩🇪 GER | Chorzow | 30 May |
| 67.40m | Maggie Malone 🇺🇸 USA | East Stroudsburg | 17 July |
| 66.55m | Lyu Huihui 🇨🇳 CHN | Chengdu | 2 April |
| 66.34m | Liu Shiying 🇨🇳 CHN | Tokyo | 6 August |
World Athletics rankings
| 1 | Christin Hussong 🇩🇪 GER | 1378 |
| 2 | Maria Andrejczyk 🇵🇱 POL | 1342 |
| 3 | Kelsey-Lee Barber 🇦🇺 AUS | 1321 |
| 4 | Nikola Ogrodnikova 🇨🇿 CZE | 1288 |
| 5 | Lyu Huihui 🇨🇳 CHN | 1271 |
Olympic medallists
| 🥇 | Liu Shiying 🇨🇳 CHN | 66.34m |
| 🥈 | Maria Andrejczyk 🇵🇱 POL | 64.61m |
| 🥉 | Kelsey-Lee Barber 🇦🇺 AUS | 64.56m |
| Full results | ||
Major winners
Olympic Games: Liu Shiying 🇨🇳 CHN 66.34m
South American Championships: Laila Ferrer 🇧🇷 BRA 59.97m
Wanda Diamond League: Christin Hussong 🇩🇪 GER 65.26m
World U20 Championships: Adriana Vilagos 🇷🇸 SRB 61.46m
Season at a glance
Poland’s Maria Andrejczyk launched herself into the spotlight with her very first competitive throw of the season, with the 25-year-old recording 71.40m in Split in May to move to third on the world all-time list behind only Barbora Spotakova with her 72.28m world record and Olisdeilys Menendez with 71.70m. Her previous best had been the Polish record of 67.11m she set in 2016.
The recurrence of a shoulder problem meant she wasn’t in top shape when the Olympics came around and there world silver medallist Liu Shiying threw 66.34m to win China’s first javelin medal of any kind at the Olympics, and the first for an Asian country. Andrejczyk, who had finished fourth in Rio five years earlier, secured silver.
They were two of five athletes to throw beyond 66 metres in 2021, with seven athletes having achieved that mark in both 2019 and 2016.
Germany’s Christin Hussong tops the World Athletics rankings, helped by her Diamond League win as she threw 65.26m to triumph in Zurich, while Serbia’s Adriana Vilagos threw a world U20 lead and national U20 record of 61.46m to win the world U20 title in Nairobi. The 17-year-old had broken her own world U18 javelin best with the 500g implement just five days earlier.
Men’s javelin
Season top list
| 96.29m | Johannes Vetter 🇩🇪 GER | Chorzow | 29 May |
| 89.55m | Marcin Krukowski 🇵🇱 POL | Turku | 8 June |
| 89.12m | Keshorn Walcott 🇹🇹 TTO | Kuortane | 26 June |
| 88.07m | Neeraj Chopra 🇮🇳 IND | Patiala | 5 March |
| 87.57m | Gatis Cakss 🇱🇻 LAT | Eisenstadt | 9 June |
World Athletics rankings
| 1 | Johannes Vetter 🇩🇪 GER | 1430 |
| 2 | Jakub Vadlejch 🇨🇿 CZE | 1361 |
| 3 | Julian Weber 🇩🇪 GER | 1326 |
| 4 | Neeraj Chopra 🇮🇳 IND | 1315 |
| 5 | Andrian Mardare 🇲🇩 MDA | 1314 |
Olympic medallists
| 🥇 | Neeraj Chopra 🇮🇳 IND | 87.58m |
| 🥈 | Jakub Vadlejch 🇨🇿 CZE | 86.67m SB |
| 🥉 | Vitezslav Vesely 🇨🇿 CZE | 85.44m SB |
| Full results | ||
Major winners
Olympic Games: Neeraj Chopra 🇮🇳 IND 87.58m
South American Championships: Arley Ibarguen 🇨🇴 COL 75.62m
Wanda Diamond League: Johannes Vetter 🇩🇪 GER 89.11m
World U20 Championships: Janne Laspa 🇫🇮 FIN 76.46m
Season at a glance
There was another historic javelin moment achieved in the men’s event at the Tokyo Games as Neeraj Chopra became the first Indian athlete to win an Olympic gold medal in athletics.
Recording the two top throws of the competition, his best was 87.58m and he won by almost a metre, with Czech throwers Jakub Vadlejch and Vitezslav Vesely joining him on the podium.
While there was great joy for Chopra, there was disappointment for Germany’s world leader and 2017 world champion Johannes Vetter, who threw 96.29m in May for the third-best performance of all-time, but as he was unable to improve on 82.52m after the first three rounds, he missed out on a top eight place and a further three throws and placed ninth.
He was part of an impressively deep final, however, as for just the second time in history a total of 10 men threw beyond 82 metres in the same competition.
Vetter rebounded to win the Diamond League final and ended the season with the eight best performances of 2021 to his name.
World Athletics
