Pre Classic 2023 x Throws Preview: Shot Put
2023 World Champions Chase Ealey and Ryan Crouser will compete for the Diamond League titles this weekend The Prefontaine Classic. Photo by Thomas Windestam and Matthew Quine for Diamond League AG
By Kara Winger
Ah, the Wanda Diamond League Final. The vibes in the dining rooms of this competition are so special. You can feel how important it is to everyone to do well, absolutely know in your bones that they’re all ready to perform, and also understand the undertone of celebration: Of being almost done with yet another long season in which every athlete there has done at least one thing that they’re proud of. If they hadn’t, they wouldn’t have made it onto the start list of this most prestigious event in the track and field world.
Everyone has a general understanding of your season, and you of theirs, and the supportiveness of that open conversation is unmatched. As an athlete, you can’t help but be elevated by the atmosphere of the last - and best - meet of the season. This year, it’s the always incredible Prefontaine Classic.
Hey! I’m the reigning Diamond League Champion in the women’s javelin, Kara Winger. Zurich in 2022 was the final meet of my career, and earning that gorgeous Diamond Trophy (the first American in my event to do so) as the sun set on my career was the cherry on top of the incredible icing on the delicious cake that my last season was. Now that I’m a full year out of my athletic career, I have an even more fun perspective than 20 years of competition afforded on the events I love the most - the throws. I’ve always been a wild fan. Here’s what I’ll be cheering for this weekend from the Citius Mag Superfan Section!
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Women’s Shot Put
Two-time World Champion and defending Diamond Trophy winner Chase Ealey (United States) will compete for the Wanda Diamond League title at Hayward Field on Saturday, September 16. Photo by Thomas Windestam for Diamond League AG
Field: Auriol Dongmo, Chase Ealey, Maggie Ewen, Sarah Mitton, Jessica Schilder, Danniel Thomas-Dodd
One of the things everyone loves about the shot put is how absolutely stacked every competition is. This start list is the true top of the World Top List, minus 11-time global medalist Lijao Gong, whose only competition outside of her native China this season was her bronze medal performance in Budapest. In order of season’s bests, Maggie Ewen (20.45m), Chase Ealey (20.43m), Sarah Mitton (20.08m), Danniel Thomas-Dodd (19.77m), Auriol Dongmo (19.72m), and Jessica Schilder (19.64m) will all have a real battle on their hands to win the Diamond trophy!
I want to start with Dongmo. She finished fourth in Tokyo. She won indoor Worlds in 2022 with a massive Portuguese National Record of 20.43m (the same distance Chase threw to win gold outdoors this year). She took fifth in Eugene. Then fourth again in Budapest. She’s taken two of the regular season Diamond League victories this year, and rumor has it she had a massive foul that maybe wasn’t a foul in Hungary. You could say she’s hungry. I would actually love to see a Pre Classic win for Dongmo propel her into the Olympic year. I cannot help but root for women who have been so close, so many times.
Speaking of close many times, world leader Maggie Ewen ended up fourth at World Championships in 2019, and ended her Budapest run in 6th place. Before this season, her shotput PB was 19.47m from 2019 (in winning the inaugural USA vs. Europe competition), and she has been over that mark in 7 total competitions in 2023, including her May WL and a massive series to win her second career U.S. title in June. This extremely talented thrower across multiple events has hit a new stride in shot this year after enjoying a hammer PB of 75.10m on the season as well, and I’d love to watch her crack the 20m barrier again in Eugene.
Danniel Thomas-Dodd of Jamaica threw a personal best in the same competition Maggie did this season: 19.77m at the Los Angeles USATF Grand Prix. The Doha silver medalist and multiple-time Worlds finalist is always dangerous when she steps into a ring, as her consistency throughout her career and this season mean there’s perpetually a breakthrough possible.
Seeing Canadian record holder Sarah Mitton get on the podium in Budapest (silver) after finishing an extremely close fourth in Eugene in 2022 made my heart sing. Her 2023 hasn’t been as consistent as 2022, but she has performed when it matters, picking up both that hardware and a victory at the Bislett Games this year. She seems to be the one who can put the pressure on Chase Ealey at the biggest outings, taking the early lead at the most recent DL meeting in Brussels. I’d expect her to start strong here!
In a more extreme example similar to Sarah’s, the very young Jessica Schilder (she’s 24) had an incredible 2022, and has relatively struggled in 2023. To still be 7th on the world list and earn her place here though, a) she’s already a professional, getting the job done even when it’s not easy, and b) there’s more in the tank. Earning bronze at last year’s Worlds will give her good sector vibes!
Finally, two-time World Champion and defending Diamond trophy winner Chase Ealey. I’m painting my face for this, even though I’ll do a much worse job than her makeup routines all season! Chase has now been over 20m in three meets on the year: It was so, so cool to see her put the series together that she did to win her second straight global Gold in Budapest after being open about technical changes she had been making, a lackluster North American tour (she lives in the UK now) at the end of June, and then a month and a half of going back to training, routine, reps, and ultimately excellent throws. Maybe this meet is where she’ll break Michelle Carter’s U.S. National Record of 20.63m? Chase was close multiple times in her undefeated season last year. My eyes are peeled!
So many solid things to root for in the women’s shot! I can’t pick a favorite.
Men’s Shot Put
2023 World Champion Ryan Crouser will compete for the Wanda Diamond League title on Sunday, September 17. Photo by Matthew Quine for Diamond League AG
Field: Ryan Crouser, Leonardo Fabbri, Joe Kovacs, Filip Mihaljevic, Payton Otterdahl, Tom Walsh
There are an astounding eleven men in the world who have put the shot over 22 meters this season. In the last five years, the most there has been in a single summer is eight, in 2019, the year of the best shotput competition of all time. That is the Ryan Crouser (and Joe Kovacs, and Tom Walsh) effect.
Leonardo Fabbri, the young Italian now-World Silver medalist, is rumored to have had a foul beyond the 23m mark in Budapest. If you haven’t listened to his interview with Joe Frontier on the Throw Big Throw Far podcast, you should! His whole story is delightful, but the description of that particular moment especially so. He won the inaugural Firenze Diamond League meet this year, in his hometown, and hasn’t stopped improving since. I can’t wait to watch him throw in person! Seeing a 23m toss at this year’s Final like we did last year would be fabulous.
The guy who broke the 23m tape in Zurich to earn the Diamond Trophy last year was not RC23 (Ryan Crouser), but Joe Kovacs. His 23.23m PB is the second furthest distance all-time, and Joe has not finished a global championships off of the podium since he started going to them in 2015 (and happened to take the gold in that Beijing debut). Budapest was his first bronze (his worst global finish) across two Olympic Games and five total outdoor Worlds. Amazing. Twin babies with wife and coach Ashley have seemed to hamper his consistency just a bit this season, but I be the Kovacs had a plan all along: Joe started the year strong, performs when it matters, and dropped a casual 22.40m just after Budapest in Italy.
Tom Walsh, the Kiwi with the sixth-furthest distance in World history at 22.90m, finished in Budapest in the agonizing fourth spot, made all the worse that he was one place out of the medals in Eugene in 2022 as well. Six competitions in the mid-22m range this season though, make me confident that he’ll turn that frustration into distance, as he did recently in Zagreb with 22.46m. This four-time Diamond League Final winner likely wants a reason to dust his collection by adding one more: The 2015, 2016, 2018, and 2019 trophies have been on his shelf a good while now.
The Croatian National Record holder, Filip Mihaljevic, is the only athlete in this field with a PB below 22m at 21.94. He performs at big meets though, winning European Championships last year and earning top 8 at global championships indoor and outdoor. Like we’ve said in other events: Everyone on these start lists earned their place here at Pre! And there have been many U.S. shotputters to surpass 22m in this circle for the first time: Let’s get Filip over that line, too.
It was so fun to watch Payton not only throw 22.09m to earn his spot in Budapest and throw 22m for the first time at USAs, but then go on to PR again on a European circuit before World Championships. His very solid showing to earn fifth at Worlds gets even more impressive when you remember that he had hip labrum surgery last fall. Sometimes, even though that process is so invasive and your body is never quite the same, the slow re-set and re-patterning of movements, little bit of extra rest and attention to detail, and forced patience that comes with recovery turns into the magic we’ve seen from Payton this year. I bet he has a little more, especially at Hayward.
Finally, the Ryan Crouser legend just keeps growing. Along with everyone else, I’m so amazed that the World Record holder continues to push his own boundaries, every season, with such wild relentlessness. He’s a true prodigy. And then he goes and becomes a medical marvel, too. After announcing mere days prior to the Budapest competition that he had small blood clots in his left leg, he went and threw 23.51m (the second-furthest in history to his own 23.56m PB from earlier this year) to win his second straight World Championships gold. Ryan’s early season Diamond League victories were actually mediocre compared to his ridiculous standards, but 23.07m in London right before Worlds was a good indicator of what was to come, despite major interruption in training due to blood clots. It’s clear that he went right back home to take care of himself from Hungary, and I can’t wait to see what he puts together in one of his favorite venues (first World Record, first World title, home state advantage).
We all know what to expect from the greatest shotputter of all time, but it’s so fun to watch the level of the entire field rising: Each year after the gauntlet was thrown in 2019 in Doha and every competitor realized what it would take from then on to medal, they’ve edged closer to the new standard set by Ryan, Joe, and Tom’s consistency at the top. I’m already amazed!