Crouser Pushed Through Pain Into Unknown For Third WC Gold

EVEN WHEN RYAN CROUSER is subpar, he’s still the favorite to win. After all, Crouser’s par is so much better than everyone else’s.

But make no mistake: this was not Crouser at his historic best. After winning his third World title in Tokyo — his first legitimate competition in more than a year — he talked with reporters backstage about his long, patient battle to rehabilitate injuries and keep his position atop the shot putting world.

“Every World Champs or Olympics is different, but this one was definitely the most challenging from a momentum side and from a physical side,” Crouser said. “This is the first time I’ve really thrown hard since last September, and so the elbow has really lingered. I did, I don’t want to say permanent damage, but some long-lasting damage in preparation for the Paris Olympics.

“With it being the Olympics, we threw it, but then paid the price for it into October, November, December, January, and I didn’t really start to see progress until May, so it was just a bit of a nightmare in terms of getting the elbow healthy.”

The injury was serious, but once improvements started happening, he finally believed that he could make Tokyo happen. “There wasn’t really any point where I thought, ‘I’m not going to go,’ but it was like, ‘If I’m going, I want to at least be able to perform.’ I don’t want to go out there and throw 18m [59-¾].”

He had an MRI in May in which his elbow was injected with contrast dye, and the imaging showed the dye had leaked down into his forearm.

“I had a fully compromised elbow capsule, so no synovial fluid, no lubrication in that joint. I had thrown like that for a long time and did some damage to the joint. A PRP [platelet-rich plasma] injection has helped, but it’s just been a slow process.

“Phase 1 was getting the elbow to close and having a joint that actually functions instead of just a dry, creaky elbow, so it’s been a long process for sure. At least we’re trending in the right direction and did hopefully minimal long-term damage to the elbow during the last year. Finally, in May and June we started to see progress, but it was one baby step forward and make sure we didn’t take two steps back.”

Training-wise, that meant backing off and “trying to maximize efficiency instead of just hitting the shot…