Spin putters finally cracked Olympic women’s finals in 2016
Shot put asks athletes to shove a heavy metal sphere as far as possible from a 2.135-metre circle. Men have contested it at every modern Olympics since 1896; women joined in 1948. Open men’s shots weigh 7.26 kilograms; women’s weigh four.
Homer’s Troy tales mention rock throwing by soldiers, yet Greek games lack weight-throw records. Highland stone events appear around the first century; Henry VIII was famed for court weight and hammer contests. Modern-style puts likely grew from medieval cannonball hurling, with Scottish records in the early 1800s and British Amateur Championships from 1866. Distance is measured from the circle’s inner rim to the shot’s first mark, rounded down to the centimetre under IAAF and WMA rules.
Legal puts keep the shot tight to neck or chin, release above the shoulder with one hand, stay inside the circle and toe board, land in a 34.92° sector narrowed from 40° in 2004, and exit via the rear half. Two styles dominate: the glide, popularized when Parry O’Brien faced backward then turned 180° from 1951, and the spin, which Aleksandr Baryshnikov used for a 22.00-metre world record in 1976—the first past 22 metres. Until 2016 no woman reached an Olympic final with the spin; Anita Márton then medaled.
Most elite men now spin, though gliders such as Tomasz Majewski still win titles for consistency. Ryan Crouser’s world-record class marks used spin, including a “Crouser Slide” variant at the 2023 Los Angeles Grand Prix. Ideal release sits slightly under forty-five degrees. The cartwheel-style vertical spin is banned in major meets. Power and height, not fashion alone, usually decide glide versus spin.
Source: Shot put
