This is our third repost from the Sports Examiner, an important Olympic news service founded by Rich Perelman, a long-time Olympic journalist. The following piece was written by David Miller, a guest columnist for The Sports Examiner, and his column is on a potential Olympic Boycott in Paris 2024. It makes for fascinating reading. We encourage all to subscribe to The Sports Examiner. After this column, we will post a subscription offer.
Crouser smashes WR again: 77-3 3/4 at L.A. Grand Prix.
A world-class invitational meet in the Los Angeles area hadn’t occurred since 2008. The last major invitational at UCLA’s Drake Stadium was in 1990 when Randy Barnes set a world record of 23.12 m (75-10 1/4) in the men’s shot put.
On Saturday, Ryan Crouser had the best meet in the history of shot putting, scaring and then surpassing his own world record – and the 77-foot mark – with a staggering fourth throw of 23.56 m (77-3 3/4) at USATF’s L.A. Grand Prix.
This was using his new “step-across” throwing motion – also known as the Crouser Slide – designed to help generate more speed in the ring, and did it ever. Throwing at the north end of the field, in what was originally designed as a practice ring, Crouser nearly hit the concrete retaining wall at the far back of the dirt landing area, way beyond the 22 m marking line.
Crouser was on fire from the start:
● 1: 23.23 m (76-2 3/4), equal-3rd performance all-time
● 2: 23.31 m (76-5 3/4), no. 2 all-time
● 3: 22.94 m (75-3 1/4)
● 4: 23.56 m (77-3 3/4), World Record
● 5: 22.80 m (74-9 3/4)
● 6: 22.86 m (75-0)
He had three of the top six throws in history in the same series, not counting his 23.38 m (76-8 1/2) indoor mark at the Simplot Games on 18 February, which was not ratified as a world record and classified as an “irregular measurement.”
Gold Label track & field meet
May 26, 2023, Los Angeles, USA, photo by Kevin Morris
His six-throw average was a staggering 23.12 m (75-10 1/4), a distance that only two others – Americans Joe Kovacs (2022) and Barnes (1990) – have ever reached once! He was the first to reach 76 feet and now the first to 77.
Just sensational; Crouser said afterward that this was the first time he had been able to get his new technique working in the competition after seeing promising results in training. And he said there is more in the tank.
Former World Champion Tom Walsh of New…
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