Tom Walsh and the Elite Four of Men’s Shot Put
Tom Walsh didn’t do a whole lot worth bragging about at the Eugene Diamond League meet in Oregon, USA over the weekend – the resumption of the Diamond League circuit after the Olympics. He was probably still suffering from a bit of emotional Olympic hangover syndrome as his five attempts served up a best of only 21.93m. For a while it looked like that might still be good enough to nudge him into the three-man sixth round after Olympic silver medallist Joe Kovacs fouled his first three puts but then Kovacs lobbed one 21.94m at the fourth (before red-flagging the fifth) and that was Walshy’s day done. Fourth place.
It was one of those days. Darlan Romani of Brazil edged into second place with a top pop of 21.69m... nice for him after the poor bugger finished fifth and fourth at the last two Olympic Games. Tom Walsh spoke before the event about how there’s a clear top four in men’s shot put these days and Romani is often stuck as the fourth of the four as they shuffle around a podium with only three places on it.
This is what Walshy said, specifically, when asked about what motivates him in the sport...
“I think just look to my right here [points at Kovacs & Crouser]. These two guys and Romani too. There’s a big divide in men’s shot put at the moment, it’s the four of us and then the rest. And I know that if I’m not having a good day then one of these guys will... and I hate losing. That’s the big motivator for me.”
A clear top four... but there’s a clear top one within that quartet. Ryan Crouser is, at this stage, the greatest male shot putter of all time. He’s a two-time Olympic gold medallist who earlier this year broke the world record (at this very same arena in the USA Olympic trials), a world record which had stood for 31 years until he cracked it. RC launched all six throws of his all above 22.30 metres including a top shot of 23.15m which is a Diamond League record and his third longest throw ever. The longest was obviously that 23.37m world record. The second longest was the 23.30m that won him gold in Tokyo. In the presence of greatness, people.
Crouser’s win in Eugene made it 21 consecutive wins in competition for the fella with all but one of those wins coming by a distance of 60cm or more between himself and second place. That’s not just winning... that’s annihilating the field. When Crouser launches a clean one there’s nobody can compete with him. And he happens to be the most consistent dude out there in terms of his technique so there aren’t too many foul-heavy off days for the rest of the crew to rely upon.
Tom Walsh isn’t on that level (nor are Joe Kovacs or Darlan Romani). The 22.47m that he threw in Tokyo for the bronze medal is actually the fourth longest throw of his career but it’s well short of his personal best of 22.90m which was set at the World Champs in Qatar 2019. He’s thrown over 22 metres 23 times in his career and three times over 22.50m but look at the 23 centimetres gap between his best and second best throws in competition and that suggests he’s not garnered the consistency that Crouser has. At least not yet. Here’s a breakdown of Tom Walsh’s throws since (and including) the 2016 Olympics...
And here’s Ryan Crouser’s efforts over the same stretch of time...
That’s the thing about competition though, when someone is expanding the realms of what was thought possible in a sport that opens everything up. The most telling example of that came at the Tokyo Olympics. Five years after a Rio 2016 podium that read: 1) Crouser 2) Kovacs 3) Walsh... we got the exact same thing in Tokyo. The first time at any individual event in Olympic history that there the same podium standees had been repeated in the same order in consecutive Games. The only difference? The distances.
The distance that Tom Walsh threw for bronze in 2016 would have only been good enough for sixth in 2021. The distance that Joe Kovacs threw for silver in 2016 would have only been good enough for fifth in 2021. Even the distance that Ryan Crouser threw for gold in 2016 would have only been good enough for third in 2021. Five years later all six throws that Crouser made in Tokyo would have won him gold in 2016. We’re talking about a 78cm increase for gold, an 87cm increase for silver, and a 1.11m increase for bronze. Yet these were the exact same three blokes making those improvements. The Elite Four are pretty much blowing the top off this sport in a way which hasn’t been seen since the ‘roided-out eighties.
The Prefontaine Classic in Eugene was only the first stop on a busy schedule for the lads as there’s now a four-meet European tour on the cards as we close out the Diamond League season. Lausanne is up in the coming days before Zurich in the final in early September. In between those two there’s a competition in Poland and then one in Croatia afterwards. You sorta have this feeling about what it means to peak for the Olympic Games and then you see the top track and field athletes out there taking almost zero time off before picking up where they left off in their seasons and you realise that, yeah, these folks are professionals and this is their job.
Tom Walsh is actually in a decent position in the Diamond League. He may not have beaten Ryan Crouser in a competition since September 2019 but you don’t have to beat a guy if he doesn’t compete and while the Americans were distracted competing in the national trials to qualify for the Olympics, Tommy Walsh was out there in Doha and Florence winning a pair of understrength fields to take a healthy lead in the overall DL standings. Not that it matters too much, the four men’s shot put meets on the calendar are all qualifying for the Diamond League Finals in Zurich which is a stand-alone event so... Ryan Crouser’s gonna win it, basically. But maybe it’ll be Tom Walsh’s turn to finish second.
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