2023 T&FN Men’s Athlete Of The Year — Ryan Crouser

“I’M REALLY HAPPY,” Ryan Crouser declared after the DL Final when his election through the vote of our expert panel had not yet crowned him our 64th Men’s Athlete Of The Year.

Not even having just racked up his only loss of the year at that season finale in Eugene — by just ¾ (2cm) to event great Joe Kovacs — could seriously dent his satisfaction.

“This year’s had ups and downs — setting the World Record, and then with the blood clots and all that, I had a lot of adversity and stress up to and through the World Championships. This felt like kind of getting back out there and competing again.”

And full perspective, Crouser more than just competed at the DL Final. He launched a 75-2 (22.91) boomer that just 4 years before in September of 2019 would have equaled the No. 2 all-time put.

The 6-7/313 (2.01/142) giant whose command of the ATL only strengthened further in ’23 assessed that a split-second of mistiming on his 75-0 (22.86) final throw of the afternoon had perhaps cost him victory and an undefeated campaign. “I just didn’t stay on that ball quite long enough,” he said.

What Crouser had said 3 minutes earlier evidenced his respect for the craft and the competition: “Hats off to Joe. I mean, he had a huge throw out there. Just being a dad, traveling, all that, to still come out and finish the season like he did, hats off to Joe. He won today.”

At season’s end in 2021, the year of Crouser’s first AOY coronation, he was responsible for 8 of the 11 longest throws on the ATL, with the best 7 of these having come in that campaign.

In the year just concluded he took the World Record into 77-foot territory (77-3¾/23.56) in May and then threw just 2 inches (5cm) short of that for the next-longest all-time mark at the World Championships. He had arrived in Budapest after developing painful blood clots in his legs three weeks earlier. (Continued below)