One of the things Adam Nelson talked about in our interview was the relative importance and position of the shot put among the athletics events, particularly in America. It was particularly interesting to hear him tell this, because he has been part of the renaissance of that event in America, starting at the 2000 Olympic Trials.
I included some of his quotes in the article, most notably his observation that to break through as an event in this country, you need to be breaking records constantly (think women’s pole vault) or have “awesome competition” which is what the shot put is currently delivering.
This is a point I think is often missed. The frequency with which Nelson, Christian Cantwell and Reese Hoffa compete with each other is unprecedented, I think, even in this sport. Even an uncharitable observer will put all three of those names among the top five in the world, if not the monopolizing the top three, and they go out and deliver a veritable event summit on a very, very frequent basis. Those three threw against each other more often in 2008 than Sebastian Coe and Steve Ovett faced off in their entire careers. It’s as though Asafa Powell, Usain Bolt and Tyson Gay met eight or ten times in one season.
It also doesn’t hurt that it’s the collective that dominates, not one of the three. The men’s 400m was boring when Jeremy Wariner (or Michael Johnson before him) was winning every race he entered. When LaShawn Merritt started beating Wariner, but not on a regular basis, the 400m got a lot more interesting. Which one would win this time? Same with the shot. Cantwell and Hoffa threw long in Europe last week, Cantwell longer than Hoffa, but Hoffa’s the Olympic champion. But Cantwell’s the indoor champion. And Nelson, well, he’s Adam Nelson, he’s been the diameter of a shot away from two Olympic gold medals. Which one’s going to get a grip on a good one tomorrow night?
Did you get a little excited there? Can you see why?
I suggested, and Nelson concurred, that this really sprung from the 2000 Trials. Nelson, John Godina (since retired) and C.J. Hunter (since booted from the sport in disgrace) made the team. Kevin Toth and Andy Bloom could’ve made it. I’m forgetting at least one other name. Six guys with a legitimate chance to make the team. The drama didn’t need to be manufactured, and the crowd in Sacramento recognized that.
Now add on the event itself. The shot is the heaviest of the throwing implements, and the circle it is hurled from allows the least movement of any of the throwing events, not that the spinning used by hammer and discus throwers would help putters much. Nelson describes the event as, “I’m trying to push a 16-pound steel ball as far away from myself as possible,” but that’s the reductio ad absurdum of the shot.
He also says the shot put is the purest strength event outside powerlifting. And yet he works on more than raw strength; he works on speed, balance, form. He doesn’t advertise himself as the strongest guy, and when you compare him to a giant like Christian Cantwell, he doesn’t look it. He does say, and I’m taking this out of context in a way which makes it sound immodest, “I’m stronger and quicker than most of the people I’ve competed against.” (Emphasis mine.)
And quicker.
It’s tempting to look at the shot put as a sort of sideshow, feats of strength to amuse us while we wait for the World’s Fastest Something-or-Other. It’s harder to look at it as half a dozen or a dozen men performing a precise little dance they have been perfecting for over a decade apiece, and try to determine how the subtleties of each performance affect the precisely measured outcome, but ultimately it’s a richer experience. And while track fans may good-naturedly refer to themselves as “nuts”, it’s the fact that this sport features over a dozen such events, each of which may be observed just as richly, that makes it so fascinating.
