TOKYO – On his first of what was certainly going to be six throws in the men’s shot put final, Ryan Crouser set a new Olympic record at 22.83 meters. That’s just under 75 feet. That’s like throwing a palm-sized bowling ball across almost an entire tennis court.
The blue baseball cap with an American flag on it that had been attempting to contain an unruly mane of red hair, flew off in the process. His sunglasses, however, stayed on.
The record he broke was his own, set when he won gold in Rio at 22.52 meters. Crouser also owns the world record, set in Olympic trials just a couple of months ago at 23.37 meters.
In case it wasn’t abundantly clear at that point that Crouser was competing largely against himself, he bested his barely 15-minute old Olympic record again on the second throw: 22.93 meters, just over 75 feet. That time, his hat stayed on.
On the last throw of the day, he did it again. A new record. This one: 23.30 meters. Over 76 feet.
So, uh, yeah. Ryan Crouser won gold.
In the qualifying round, Crouser had out-thrown the second place finisher by .56 meters — the other 11 athletes to advance were separated by .59 meters. In the finals, nearly everyone who advanced improved.
And yet still, of Crouser’s six throws only one was not far enough to win it all. Amid a disappointing and, at times, embarrassing showing from the American men at Tokyo Olympic Stadium this week — including a failure to advance out of the prelims for men’s 4×100 relay — it was just the first men’s track and field gold.
If it wasn’t for Crouser, American Joe Kovacs would have had his own Olympic record. Instead, his 22.65 meters was enough to take home silver, behind his teammate. New Zealand’s Thomas Walsh took bronze with 22.47 meters.
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