No male discus thrower has won more international championship medals than the eleven Gerd collected during his long and storied career. Now, for readers of McThrows, Gerd has agreed to share memories, opinions, and observations on the sport in a monthly feature called Discus Days. In this month’s edition, Gerd talks about Daniel Ståhl’s remarkable victory at the World Championships in Tokyo,
Daniel Ståhl’s winning throw of 70.47m in Tokyo was, if you take the circumstances, the all time best throw in discus history.
If he made that throw at a place like Ramona, it might have been 77 or 78 meters. And Daniel did it under the pressure of trying to win a World Championships.
This performance reminds me of what Al Oerter did in the 1968 Olympic Games when Jay Silvester—who set the World Record of 68.40m earlier in the season—probably should have won. But it rained that night in Mexico City, and Silvester only threw 61.78m, while Al Oerter took the gold with a PB of 64.78m.
Al Oerter was always prepared for any conditions, and he probably knew when it was raining for the final that it gave him his chance to win.
It was the same with Daniel in Tokyo. You saw how he acted during the competition. Daniel looked happy and comfortable, and that was half the battle.
Daniel and I both learned the discus from Vésteinn Hafsteinsson, who was always telling us we had to be ready no matter what.
During his own career, Vésteinn beat Lars Riedel one time, and it was because Vésteinn was ready to throw in the rain and Lars wasn’t. Vésteinn used to have a shoemaker who would take the soles off a pair of throwing shoes and replace them with a material that gave a firmer grip, so he was able to keep his balance while Lars fell on his ass.
I don’t know what shoes Daniel used in Tokyo, but for sure he was prepared, and that is how it is supposed to be when you are a professional. I liked to have a couple of different types of rain shoes, one with the hard plastic plate removed and soles made out of stickier material. In another pair, I would leave the hard plate in but still have the soles changed to the grippier rubber. In a dry ring, you would not be able to spin in those shoes, but in the rain they gave you a lot of traction.
When we were preparing for the 2005 World Championships in Helsinki, we knew the ring there could be slippery if it rained, so I had some fresh shoes prepared. It turned out that the weather was fine, and I got silver by throwing 68.57m in my normal Nikes. But the shoemaker I used spoke to the press and bragged that his special shoes were the reason I took a medal. The people from Nike did not like that. A few days later I received a package from the Nike dealer in Estonia. It was a pair of Nikes in a glass box with a note that said, “Maybe there was some help from us, also?”
While it is the responsibility of the athlete to always be prepared, I do think that World Athletics should do a better job of requiring a standard throwing surface for championship events. It is quite possible to make a surface that is fast in dry weather—the way many throwers prefer it—but that also has some traction in the rain. World Athletics should develop specifications for that kind of surface and inspect the facilities before championships to be sure they meet the requirements. That would help prevent competitions like the shot put at last year’s Paris Olympics and the men’s discus in Tokyo where safety became a big issue.
In the meantime though, congratulations to Daniel, Mykolas Alekna, and Alex Rose for reaching the podium under very difficult conditions.
We’ll publish another piece by Gerd next month. In the meantime, check out his book, Gerd Kanter: Five Championship Moments to learn more about his fantastic career.
With eleven career medals in international championships, Gerd Kanter had lots of reasons to celebrate.
One of history’s great discus throwers, Gerd Kanter was also a hell of a coach, guiding Kristjan Čeh to World Championship gold in ’22 and silver in ’23. Once a month, he will analyze a different phase of his technique for readers of McThrows.
The Windup
I started working with Vésteinn Hafsteinsson not long after the 2000 Olympics where the three medalists—Virgilijus, Lars Riedel, and Franz Kruger—were all taller than me with longer wingspans. In order to compete with guys like that, we experimented with ways to maximize my path of acceleration. A German discus thrower from the 1960’s and 1970’s named Hein-Direck Neu had done this by setting up with his right foot well back from the ring during his windup.
For a while, we tried a similar starting position with my right foot set back maybe 40 centimeters, and biomechanical analysis showed that it helped me to create more power and speed on the implement. But it was hard for me to consistently achieve a balanced entry from this position, so we returned my feet to a normal starting position and settled for using a long windup in the style of Mac Wilkins.
With this windup, I improved my PB by ten meters between 2000 and 2004. Unfortunately, I was rarely able to produce a big throw under the pressure of a major competition such as the World Championships or Olympic Games. After I failed to advance beyond qualification at the 2004 Olympics, we knew that if I was ever going to compete for a medal I had to solidify my technique so that I could throw at least 65 meters under any circumstance.
The biggest flaw that was holding me back was my tendency to “break” my left hip as I began my right leg sweep.
In order to stay on balance when the right foot leaves the ground, the left hip must remain strong. You’ll see how this works as we progress through the throw over time.
The first and most important step in correcting my tendency to “break” my left hip was adjusting my windup so that I would stay perfectly on balance at the start of the throw. Rather than shifting my weight to my right leg and swinging the discus back as far as possible as Mac Wilkins had done, I would simply sit down into a half squat with my upper body erect and put the discus directly behind me as you see in the picture. We also limited the movement of my left foot during my swing. As you can also see from the illustration, my left foot and right arm are at the same angle at the end of my swing and the left heel is fairly low to the ground. This made it much easier to stay on balance and transition smoothly into the throw.
Another advantage to this shorter windup was that it helped me to feel relaxed and coiled like a loaded spring. When I put the disc back and felt tension in the adductor muscles of both legs, I knew I was ready to begin the throw.
Did this windup limit my path of acceleration a bit? Yes, but for me it was worth the tradeoff.
Going for the longest path of acceleration made it difficult for me to consistently enter the throw on balance, and once you lose your balance at the start of a throw it is almost impossible to regain it. There is simply no time. The throw plays out too quickly.
And it turned out I did not need to achieve the maximum path of acceleration in order to throw far. I was fast and explosive enough so that I could generate plenty of power with a short windup–as long as I maintained my balance.
Next month, Gerd will examine his approach to setting up a successful entry. In the meantime, check out his book, Gerd Kanter: Five Championship Moments to learn more about his fantastic career.
The 2026 A-Z Clinic, presented by Throw Big Throw Far Chicago will take place at Wheaton North High School in the suburbs of Chicago on Sunday, January 25th from 9am to 1pm. Small group instruction will be offered in discus and shot put technique.
The A-Z is a great opportunity for athletes to receive instruction from top area coaches in a small group, learn-by-doing environment.
Coaches are also encouraged to sign up and attend to observe and film their athletes as they go through drills and take throws with indoor shots and discus training balls.
The cost of the clinic is $75 for those paying in advance, $100 at the door. Follow the QR code on the photo below to register.
If you enjoy roller coasters, I encourage you to check out Laulauga Tausaga’s career stats on her World Athletics profile page. Let’s start with 2019 when she made a huge breakthrough by winning the NCAA title, a huger breakthrough by making the US team for the Doha Worlds, a monumental breakthrough by throwing a 63.94m PB in qualifying there…and then fouled all three throws in the final. In 2021, she finished second at the NCAA…but did not record a mark at the Olympic Trials. In 2022, she threw 64.49m at the US Championships to finish second and qualify for the Worlds in Eugene where she once again advanced to the final…only to go 56.47m, 55.93m, foul, and finish twelfth. The following year, she made the final at the Worlds in Budapest…then threw a 4-meter PB and won the damn thing! Last season, after opening with a solid 65.38m in April, she struggled most of the summer and had another disastrous Olympic Trials where, as in 2021, she did not record a mark.
Last weekend, Lagi began her 2025 campaign with a solid 62.85m for the win at the Florida relays. This week, she will appear for the first time at the Throw Town World Invitational in Ramona, Oklahoma, where Joe Frontier and I will serve as commentators on a broadcast produced by the fine folks at Throws University. In this interview, she reflects back on a difficult 2024 season and expresses optimism about finally finding the consistency she has worked so hard to achieve.
It had to be tough on you to struggle last year after having such an epic 2023 season.
After 2023, a lot of people were looking for me to do something amazing last year, but I was just craving consistency. I knew those big throws at Worlds and in the Diamond League final were outliers. Not that I wouldn’t be able to reach those distances again, but what I really wanted was to put together a season where I was always hitting 62 to 64 meters no matter what. But a lot of things changed last year. My coach, John Dagata ended up moving to the Bay area while I stayed in San Diego and did a lot of training on my own. Both of us were very busy and it was sometimes difficult to set up sessions where he could coach me over Facetime. I would go to him for training camps, and we did our best, but after a while I had to face the fact that it wasn’t working.
After the two meets in April in China (Note: Lagi went 60.61m to finish tenth at the Xiamen Diamond League meeting, then no-marked a week later in Suzhou), I was like, “We are in crisis mode.”
My training was going better later in the summer, but I still wasn’t consistent. I knew I could make the team for Paris, but the other girls got it done that day and I didn’t. Missing out on the Olympics put me in a position to look at my career and say, “Do we want to do this again? Do we want to go through another season of craving consistency and not finding it?” There had to be a better way to move forward.
And that’s when you started thinking about making some changes?
After the Olympic Trials, I decided to end my season. Someone told me at the time that it was a stupid move, but how was that stupid if I wasn’t feeling right physically or mentally? No amount of, “You got this!” was going to make it better, so I took six weeks off, sat down and was like “Alright, this was the second team you haven’t made. This was the third season in a row of trying to find consistency.”
I did some soul searching. I was craving the kind of consistency I had in college in 2019 when on my worst days I still usually threw 58 or 59 meters. Since then, I’d had too many meets where I was throwing like 55 meters. I took six weeks off, then told Dagata I was ready to get back on the horse, but there were things I needed to do to actually ride it and not let it take me wherever. I couldn’t afford to live in Oakland, and I wasn’t in an emotional state to drop everything and move anyway. Some athletes might have done it, but I’m an emotional thrower, and if I don’t feel comfortable it affects my training. I wanted to stay closer to home, and I told Dagata I wanted to bring on my high school coach Jorge Reyes, so I’d have someone to be here with me to bounce ideas off of and to give me immediate feedback. I realized that throwing was a social sport for me, and I thrived around other people. In 2024, I was alone for probably eighty percent of my training, and that just didn’t work. I had stayed close with Jorge through college and my pro years, and he was always easy to communicate with and good to bounce ideas off of. I did that with teammates in college. When the coach said something, I might ask the other throwers, “Do you understand what he’s saying?” I just always enjoyed training in a place where I had other people to interact with.
So it helped having Coach Reyes around, but I was also thinking back to my time at Iowa. I had three amazing years throwing for Eric Werskey, and we kept in touch after he took the job at Florida after the Olympic Trials in 2021.
After the 2024 season, I got to a point where I felt a little lost in the situation I was in, so I sat down with Coach Reyes and told him I was considering contacting Werskey and asking him to work with me again. I went back and forth on it and couldn’t make up my mind, and I must have been driving Coach Reyes crazy, because one day after practice he gave me an ultimatum. He looked at me and said, “You are going to call me tonight and tell me what you’re doing. You are going to make a decision and we are going to move on from there and never talk about this again.”
So that’s what I did. I went home and made my decision.
Which was?
I decided to ask Coach Werskey to take over my training. But first, I had to talk to Dagata. We won a medal together, and I respect him as a coach, but the situation just wasn’t working for me. So I told Dagata, then I had to reach out to Werskey. I guess I probably should have called him first, but…
Anyway, I called Werskey and at first I avoided asking him what I wanted to ask him. I was like, “How are you? How is everything at Florida?” Finally, I got around to it and asked if he’d be my coach for the 2025 season.
He said he would, so we set it up where I still work with Coach Reyes, but we send Eric videos right after practice and he gives me feedback every day as soon as he can. Maybe a text message. Maybe a voicemail in our coaching chat. “Hey, here is what I see…” Those quick responses and Eric and Coach Reyes’ ability to work together have made a big difference for me. Over the course of the last few months, I’ve seen so much growth. And I’ve been able to make it to Florida around once a month to work with him in person.
Are you excited to get a chance to compete at Throw Town?
Yes. I’ve never been there before, but I’m excited to see how I do in the wind. I know people freak out about “wind this” and “wind that,” but let’s be real. Isn’t that why we go to meets like Triton? I actually prefer less wind most of the time because if you have a strong wind and don’t find your rhythm it will eat you. But sometimes the wind can also show you what’s possible, like last year with Joe Brown and Veronica Fraley. They both threw well at Throw Town then ended up in the Olympics, so are you going to tell me those throws in Oklahoma weren’t real?
Because you won in 2023, you have a bye for this year’s Worlds, right?
I do have the bye for Tokyo, and it probably saved my career. It was crushing not to make it to the Olympics last year, and during those six weeks after the Trials I spent a lot of time contemplating whether or not I was done. But then I’d think, “Well, I have the bye, so I might as well keep going and see how much ass I can kick before I give it up.”
Note: The World Invitational will take place at Throw Town from April 10-13. Check out Throws University for a livestream featuring Joe Frontier and yours truly as commentators!
Rachel Dincoff at the 2021 Olympic Trials. Photo Courtesy of USATF.
In 2021, Rachel Dincoff came from nowhere–well, New Mexico anyway–to seize a spot on the US team for the Tokyo Olympics. She’d moved to America’s 36th most populous state three years earlier to work with Coach Doug Reynolds, and her sacrifice–New Mexico is home to 47 different types of snakes for god’s sake–had finally paid off. She followed that success by making the US team again in 2022, this time for the World Championships, and as she prepared for the 2023 season, Rachel had reason to believe that her dream of becoming one of the world’s top discus throwers might be coming true.
Then disaster struck. And re-struck. And struck again.
I’ll let Rachel tell the story, but suffice it to say that when she enters the ring next week at the World Invitational in Ramona, it will be a meaningful moment for her and for the sport to which she has given so much.
The last time I saw you was in Eugene for the 2022 Worlds. You finished your season a few weeks later at the ISTAF meet in Berlin, and have not competed since! What happened?
In early March of 2023, I was back in Florida where I live after doing a training camp with Doug in Kansas, where he coaches now. I’d been sick for a few days, and was still not feeling well when I got up for a Sunday morning workout. My intuition told me to take a rest day, but the athlete inside of me said, “No! You must work out!” I was doing a plyometric exercise and Boom! It felt like someone had thrown something and hit me in the back of the leg.
It’s hard to say with an injury like that if it happened in the moment or it had been building over time, but I knew right away it was serious. My boyfriend, Carl Lawson, was in the gym with me. He’s a pro football player and he’d torn his Achilles a couple of years earlier. He scooped me up, put me on a bench and did a Thompson test on my leg, and he could tell right away I’d torn mine. I was in surgery three days later.
That must have been devastating, with another World Championships coming up in 2023, and the Olympics in 2024.
I was actually pretty optimistic at first. Carl and I live in south Florida, which is a big football community, and we knew players who’d recovered from a torn Achilles in the space of a year. Carl had done it himself. He tore his Achilles in August of 2021, had to have two surgeries, and still made it back for the 2022, so I saw no reason why I couldn’t do the same thing and recover in time to compete for a spot in Paris.
But a couple of months into my recovery, I felt like I still didn’t have a strong connection down there. An Achilles tear takes time to heal, but even after five months of hard work, I wasn’t making progress, and I started to feel the clock winding down on my chances to get ready for 2024. It was the most stressed I’d ever been. I just couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t getting better. I’d had an uncomfortable experience with a medical professional who was pulling on my ankle at an early stage, something which I now know should not have been done. But I couldn’t say for sure if that caused a setback, or if I was just pushing too hard in rehab. Finally, I went back to Dr. O’Malley in New York, who had done my surgery. He examined me and saw that my Achilles needed to be repaired again!
The difficult conversation this time was whether he should take part of my hamstring to repair the Achilles or use tissue from a cadaver. Carl had done it with his hamstring, and using your own tissue is better in some ways, so that’s what I chose to do. But then I had an MRI in the morning before the second surgery, and it showed that the tendon wasn’t too badly torn, and they said they could probably fix it using the cadaver tissue, which would make for a shorter recovery period because I wouldn’t also be dealing with weakness in my hamstring. So that’s what we chose to do.
And then…?
Four months later I started showing signs that my body was rejecting the cadaver tissue.
So, in December of 2023, I had my third surgery. They took, I believe, seven inches of part of my hamstring and also a tendon from my foot and used that to repair my Achilles.
How were you able to keep it together through all that?
I did a pretty good job of staying positive and focusing on my goals, even after the third surgery. I kept telling myself that I could still make it back for the Olympic Trials, which I know was kind of crazy, but I needed something to keep me going or I was going to get very depressed.
And of course, I had Carl. He’d been through two Achilles surgeries and before that two ACL surgeries, and he understood the physical and emotional toll that takes on an athlete.
Carl was dealing with some difficulties in his sport at the same time, wasn’t he?
He was. After tearing his Achilles and missing his first year with the New York Jets, he came back strong and got seven sacks in 2022. But in 2023, he had a lot of frustrations with the team. They lost Aaron Rogers right away, then for some reason they stopped playing Carl very much, which was really disappointing, so we had to be there for each other. Sometimes, it was like, “Who’s got the sunshine today?” But we got through it, and all that trauma made our relationship even stronger.
And things have finally settled down for both of you, yes?
They have. Carl signed with the Cowboys last year and had some really good games. It was a nice comeback year where he showed he’s still in the mix . In that business, they like to push out the veterans sometimes, but he was like “I’m here to stay!” And after all he’s been through, it’s amazing the way he’s moving now. The guy is a freak. I mean that as a compliment.
Of course. And you’re back on track as well?
I’m pretty much ready to go with my training. I need to give myself more grace, as hard as that is to do as an athlete, but I’m throwing well and seeing good things. I know I’m probably not going to PR in Oklahoma, but I’m excited to get started again.
Ideally, I wouldn’t want to open up this early, but my goal is to make the World Championships this summer, and this meet has points. And since I haven’t competed in two years, I need to get some meets under me to get my feel back for competing, for dealing with nerves and things like that.
What is your training setup like these days?
Doug will always be my primary coach. With him in Kansas and me in Florida, we spend a lot of time on the phone, and I send him videos. After the meet in Oklahoma, I’ll go to Kansas to train with him for a while and compete there.
I also have a few people who watch me train a little bit here in Florida. On Wednesdays, I go to the University of Miami and train with Coach Cory Young and some of the throwers there. Some days, I throw at a high school near here. Wolfgang Schmidt watches me sometimes.
Wolfgang Schmidt?
Yep. I really enjoy working with him. Doug and I are two peas in a pod in that we both love biomechanics and breaking stuff down, but that sometimes leads to me overthinking. Wolfgang is very relaxed. Are you balanced? Is the disc coming out of your hand nicely? His idea is to get the basics down–foot in the middle, good release, discus behind you–and your body will figure it out from there. At first, his approach was so simple I was wondering if I’d get anything out of it, but now I can see how it builds confidence and rhythm. I really enjoy his coaching style.
Note: The World Invitational will take place at Throw Town from April 10-13. Check out Throws University for a livestream featuring Joe Frontier and Moi as commentators!
Shot Put & Discus Coaches & Throwers All Levels of Development
We have all sat through endless presentations at clinics, listening to dry, boring talks about the theory of throwing technique or some special new drill. BUT how can you Apply this to your sophomore thrower who just came out from basketball?
What’s a Practical Application of all this theory that will work for you AND your thrower?
Monday April 15, 2024 – Two Sessions – 6:00 pm Eastern & 6:00 pm Pacific
SPECIAL INTRODUCTORY PRICING
Clinic Attendance Free: – Sign up for one or both
Video Analysis – Limit Four Throwers each Session $35
The first four throwers accepted per session will be the subjects of Mac’s Learn by Watching.
Select the session(s) you prefer from these options
Click Hereto Register for the Webinar – 6:00 pm Eastern time
Click Here to Register for the Analysis – 6:00 pm Eastern time
Click Here to Register for the Webinar – 6:00 pm Pacific time
Click Here to Register for the Analysis – 6:00 pm Pacific time
Agenda:– 60 minutes or less
Key Technical Point Discussion
10-12 minutes of the Basic Checklist Points to watch for during the season
Basic Points to watch for that you can have your athletes use to coach themselves.
Learn By Watching
Mac will analyze the throws of four throwers providing live Q&A
Summary
Mac will summarize and engage in live Q&A with the group.
There will be a replay available of the session for those in attendance.
Survey
How can I better share my passion for the shot and discuss with you?
The annual ITCCCA clinic will take place on January 12-13 at the Eaglewood Resort in Itasca, Illinois, with arguably the best lineup of throws presenters in ITCCCA clinic history. Dave Astrauskas of the University of Wisconsin will open the proceedings on Friday with a presentation on developing discus technique. I saw Dave give a version of this talk at the recent National Throws Clinic in Portage, and I think coaches will find a lot they can use in Dave’s approach.
The second session on Friday will feature two throws speakers. Pat Trofimuk of Waubonsie Valley High School will conduct a session titled “Fundamentals of the Throws” in which he will demonstrate a series of simple drills that can be used to teach and sharpen rotational throwing technique. Feel free to take out your phone and record during this one, and you’ll walk away with a small library of extremely useful drills.
Also during session two, ITCCCA is proud to present Kara Winger, the four-time Olympian, national record holder, and 2022 World silver medalist in the javelin. Her first talk of the weekend will be titled “Train Hard and Stay Healthy: Incorporating Rehab into throws training.” In this presentation, Kara will explain some simple and effective exercises that can be incorporated into your throwers’ daily workouts to help them stay healthy over the course of a long season.
Kara will take the stage again in the third and final Friday evening session to offer advice on how to help your athletes deliver their top performances at the biggest competitions. We’ve all seen how tough it can be for a young thrower to find their rhythm at a major comp. Kara faced those challenges at four Olympic Trials, four Olympics, and five World Championships, and learned much in the process. If you are on speaking terms with coaches from other events, you’ll want to give them a heads up about this presentation as Kara’s advice will be applicable to all sorts of athletes.
On Saturday, the ITCCCA clinic will feature four sessions you won’t want to miss. Josh Freeman, former Illinois state champion and collegiate all-American, will team with his wife and current world-class discus thrower Alex Morgan to detail and demonstrate shot put fundamentals.
Kara will take the stage again for session two to discuss the qualities that make an effective coach. Over her long career, Kara worked with some outstanding mentors, and she’ll give tips on how to be your best self when dealing with your athletes. This is another presentation that will appeal to coaches of all events.
Josh and Alex take over again to present on the discus for session three, with Alex demonstrating the approach that made her 2023 Oceania champion.
The final season on Saturday will feature a panel discussion with Josh, Alex, Kara, and long time collegiate throws coach Scott Cappos, who recently authored an excellent book on shot and disc technique and training which will be available for purchase at the ITCCCA clinic. During this session, you’ll be able to ask the panelists anything you’d like about technique, training, and/or life at the highest levels of our sport.
In addition to Scott’s shot and disc manual, the book “Training for Gold: The Plan that made Daniel Ståhl an Olympic Champion” will also be available for purchase for $25 at this year’s clinic. This is a book that longtime Illinois high school throws coach Roger Einbecker and I put together with Vésteinn Hafsteinsson who coached Daniel to Olympic and World Championship gold medals in the discus.
The book details the training plan Vésteinn used during the 2020-2021 Olympic year, and is full of insights into how to devise and execute a lifting and throwing program that will bring out the best in your athletes.
If you have been wavering about signing up for this year’s clinic and wondering if it will be worth the time and effort, wonder no more. You won’t find a better lineup of presenters anywhere.
One last thing.
I mentioned having seen Dave Astrauskas present at the 2023 National Throws Clinic, and I just wanted to give folks an early heads up that Mark Harsha and the National Throws Association will host another event next December featuring top throws coaches. The 2023 clinic featured John Smith, Jerry Clayton, Dave, and JC Lambert. It won’t be easy to top that lineup in 2024, but Mark is determined to try. Stay tuned for more details!
Photo courtesy of Matthew Quine for Diamond League AG
What is it that makes Australians so nice? Do the crocodiles eat all the mean people there? Or does growing up around koala bears naturally make folks more relaxed and outgoing?
We’ll never know.
One thing’s for sure, though. I greatly enjoyed speaking with members of the Australian contingent at the 2023 Diamond League Final.
The women’s jav kicked off the comp at 11 a.m. on a lovely Saturday morning in Eugene. At that moment, it was 5 a.m. Sunday in Sydney, which is where 2023 World Championships bronze medalist Mackenzie Little lives and trains. I might have been a tad grouchy were I experiencing the level of jet lag that Mackenzie and her coach, Angus McEntyre, must have been feeling at that moment, but they appeared to be having a wonderful time, smiling and laughing whenever she bopped over for a quick chat at the rail between attempts.
Photo courtesy of me.
Mackenzie did not have her best stuff on this day. She set a PB of 65.70m at the Lausanne Diamond League Meeting earlier this season, and went 63.38m in winning her Budapest bronze, but she reached the 60-meter line only once in Eugene and settled for a best of 61.24m to take third behind Worlds champ Haruka Kitaguchi and fellow Australasian Tori Peeters.
That did not, however, harsh Mackenzie’s mellow. She was happy and gracious during a post-comp chat.
“I had a good time,” she admitted. “Not because I got the throws I wanted necessarily, but this core group of throwers has gotten quite close and I was excited watching them.”
When asked why the javelin ladies seem to get on so well, Mackenzie explained, “You can’t have an ego when you throw jav. I think we all know how frustrating it can be sometimes, so we understand each other.”
The most frustrating time for Mackenzie came when she returned to Australia after a stellar career representing Stanford, for whom she was NCAA champion in 2018 and 2019.
The transition from collegiate to pro athlete can be tricky, and Mackenzie had trouble finding her footing. Lingering shoulder and elbow problems did not help. She reached out to McEntyre on the recommendation of the head Australian jav coach, but her level of frustration gave him pause.
“I think we can make this work,” he told her at the time, “But I can’t do much if you’re stuck in a negative headspace.”
“She was,” McEntyre recalls, “a bit lost. I was coaching one of her good friends, a javelin thrower named Chrissie Grun, and Mackenzie told Chrissie, ‘I don’t know if I can do this anymore.’ But Chrissie said, ‘Yes, you can, and Angus is someone you can work with.’”
It was a plus that Coach McEntyre’s “day job” was running a chiropractic clinic, so he was able to help Mackenzie mend as they got to know each other. Looking back, he says “it was the chiropractic that started the relationship. During the Covid period we built up her shoulder and elbow, which also helped us build trust.”
In October of 2020, she reached 60 meters for the first time in two years, hitting a PB 61.47m at a comp in Sydney.
She PB’d again during the Olympic qualification round a year later in Tokyo, and ended up finishing eighth in the final. McEntyre says they’ve been “on cruise control since,” with only the occasional “hiccup” along the way.
At the 2022 Worlds, Mackenzie squeaked through qualifying in 12th place, then hit a 63.22m PB on her opener in the final. She was unable to build on that though, and finished in fifth, just five excruciating centimeters short of the podium.
This summer, she started slowly in the Budapest qualification round before bashing 63.45m on her third attempt, then started slowly again in the final. A best of 61.41m had her in fifth after three rounds, but this time she was able to keep climbing. “I learned a lot over the past year,” she said later. “And I was not going to be fifth again.”
Mackenzie produced her best throw on her last attempt, a 63.38m toss that won her the bronze.
And here I will tell you something crazy.
Mackenzie fought her way to the top of her sport while at the same time attending medical school. She is preparing for a career as a surgeon, and took her final exam on the flight from Sydney to Eugene for the DL final.
When asked how she managed this seemingly impossible task, Mackenzie shrugged. “Everyone in athletics has their passions outside. Mine just happens to be a little more structured. But I have a little more help than the average person with my coach taking care of me.”
Having played rugby at a high level while undertaking his chiropractic studies, McEntyre says he was able to relate to the challenges Mackenzie faced trying to balance athletics and academics.
“The biggest challenge for me,’ he says, “is to make sure she doesn’t get cooked or exhausted. I’ve always been careful around exam weeks, but it helps that the study side is more highly strung for her, so it can be a bit of a break when we switch to jav mode.”
McEntyre’s duties have included helping Mackenzie on practice quizzes, sometimes at unlikely moments. During early warmups prior to competing in Budapest, for example.
“We were having a contest to see who could get the most questions right,” he explained. “I guess most people might think that’s weird.”
Not as weird as being lucid and engaging while jet-lagged, as both “Macs” were on this exquisite afternoon.
“I’ve come to comps a little jet lagged and a little tired before,” Mackenzie told me. “It just builds my confidence. There’s no excuse for not throwing well. I am ready, though, for a big sleep.”
And with that, she left the shade of the media tent and strode off into a sun almost as bright as her future.
Photo courtesy of Marta Gorczynska for Diamond League AG
Another amicable Aussie competing in Eugene was discus thrower Matt Denny, a man who has mastered the art of throwing big when it counts. In 2018, for example, he produced a lifetime best of 64.03m to win the Australian Championships. A year later, he repeated as Australian champ with another PB, this time 65.28m, which he topped at the Doha Worlds by launching 65.43m to take sixth. He broke 67 meters for the first time during the Olympic final in 2021, and 68 meters for the first time this summer in Budapest.
Denny’s coach, Dale Stevenson, says that some people are just “exceptional competitors,” and Matt is one of them. “His happy place,” according to Stevenson, “is out there competing against the top athletes. It brings the best out of him.”
That was evident in Eugene, where Denny injected some much-needed brio into an otherwise subdued competition. He did his best to engage the crowd before each attempt, and refused to take it personally when they ignored him prior to his third throw. (The men’s 800 meters was about to begin and this was, after all, Eugene.)
The 66.36m he produced on that attempt put Denny in third place behind Kristjan Čeh and Daniel Ståhl, the twin Everests of the event.
A lesser individual might have been content with such a throw, coming as it did at the end of a loooong season. For unexplained reasons, winter here is summer in Australia, and Denny’s first comp took place way back on February 11th.
But Coach Stevenson knows his man, and throwing against giant World Champions (Kristjan, Daniel and Andrius Gudžius have won every World title since 2017) did in fact bring out the best of Denny on this gorgeous afternoon in Eugene.
He jumped ahead of Ståhl by a centimeter with a 67.37m toss in round four, then blasted a new PB of 68.43m on his final attempt to barge past Čeh for the title of 2023 Diamond League Champ, a win Denny described afterwards as “really satisfying.”
“You idolize the greats,” he explained. “You put them on a pedestal. Especially Daniel, who is probably the greatest ever as a competitor. So it was a special moment to get the win and have Daniel be the first guy to give me a hug and congratulate me. It reminded me of how good a community this is, for them to be like, ‘Lets go get some beers!’”
As to the varying levels of crowd support, Denny said he learned from Olympic and World champ high jumper Gimbo Tamberi that it’s best to get people’s attention by yelling before asking them to clap. He tried this before his sixth attempt and drew a spirited response. The extra bit of energy he absorbed from the crowd was all Denny needed on a day when he felt ready to rumble.
“I had some warmups of around 65 meters,” he explained. “And I know I’m in good nick if I’m doing that. When the comp began, I kept falling out of my delivery, but I knew there was something there.”
The next step will be getting on the podium at an Olympics or Worlds, no easy task with Čeh, Ståhl, and Mykolas Alekna throwing at historically high levels. With those three in the mix, it could conceivably take 70 meters to get on the stand in Paris and Tokyo.
In an effort to raise his game, Denny added a wrinkle to his technique this season by setting up for the throw with his right foot offset a bit then stepping forward after his windup. You’ve heard of the “Crouser slide”? Let’s call this the “Denny step.” If you say it fast like it’s one word it sounds pretty cool. Denny-step. Denny-step. Denny-step. See?
Matt and Dale, if you pursue a trademark, I’d like a t-shirt.
Dale says the Denny-step evolved to help Matt keep his hips “underneath his shoulders on entry,” and it might not be the end of their tinkering.
“We’re playing around with other variations, too,” he explained. “We’ll experiment with some of those during the Aussie domestic season from January to April.”
Dale did not divulge the exact nature of what they’ll be trying, but according to internet sources, he and Denny are considering everything from learning to cuss in Lithuanian to a never-before-seen discus move known as the “Kick-the-Crotch-of-Kristjan.”
In the meantime…
Are you free on 10-12th November?
If so, join me in beautiful Tallinn, Estonia, for the 2023 European Discus Conference which features excellent beer and major insights into the technique and training of guys like Daniel Ståhl, Sam Mattis, Kristjan Čeh, and Mykolas Alekna.
The coaches you see in the above photo will share their knowledge through a series of lectures and live demonstrations and, even better, you can ask follow-ups or just shoot the breeze with them and other coaches from all over the world while dining or maybe doing the backstroke at the amazing Tallink Spa and Conference Hotel where the conference is held. Here’s a bird’s-eye view:
And see this person popping out of the water?
On November 10-12th that might be Gerd Kanter or Kristjan Čeh or Dane Miller. I’ll end here so you can start checking flights.
Laulauga Tausaga hit a big PB in Eugene. Photo courtesy of TrackTown USA.
Confidence!
Many throwers have a rough time during their first year as a professional, but in 2022 Laulauga Tausaga made the transition from amateur to pro look easy peasy lemon squeezy by breaking 60 meters in fourteen of her nineteen comps and smashing a PB of 64.49m at the USATF Championships. She also qualified for her second World Championships and first Diamond League final.
Still, she was not satisfied.
“That’s how it is,” explained John Dagata, Lagi’s coach for the past two seasons. “With high-level athletes, nothing is good enough. When we looked back at her accomplishments in 2022, her reaction was, ‘Why didn’t I medal at Worlds?’”
With another World Championships coming up in 2023, Lagi pushed hard during fall sessions at the Chula Vista Elite Athlete Center, where she and Dagata train. By January, according to Dagata, Lagi was “throwing farther than ever,” on a daily basis.
“Some of the Chinese athletes I coach, who didn’t really know her, saw Lagi throw and were like, ‘How is her PB only 64.49m?’ That’s how good she looked.”
Then, Lagi’s progress was interrupted by, of all things, a bout of gout, the cause of which, according to the Mayo Clinic website, can be hard to pin down.
Coach Dagata says that Lagi had experienced some mild gout-like symptoms in 2022, but never missed a day of practice because of it. Then, one morning in February of this year, she called to say that her ankle was swollen and so “locked up” that she could not walk.
That forced them to shut down her training for several days, and to limit the number of throws she took for the next several weeks. Essentially, Dagata says, they “lost the month of February.”
A 63.92m toss in her season opener at Triton in April was encouraging, but Dagata says that all the lost practice time made Lagi’s technique unstable. Instead of throwing consistently well as she had in January, they started having “one good practice, then one bad practice.”
After Triton, Lagi went 60.43m at the Pacific Coast Invitational, followed by 62.74m at Mt. SAC, and 60.37m at Tucson.
Matters came to a head when she threw 60.34m at the USATF LA Grand Prix in late May.
“We had a serious meeting afterwards,” recalls Dagata. “I told her I was not happy with the way the season was going, that we had to find a way to get consistency back in our training, and that with only a month before USAs, we had to do it immediately.”
Lagi agreed, and they decided to “go backwards to go forward,” which in Lagi’s case meant switching to a “static start” where she would pause for a moment after winding up at the back of the ring. The pause would limit the amount of speed she could create at the start of her throws, but it would also make it easier to keep her balance and hit sound positions as she moved through the ring.
As is often the case with technical adjustments, this one did not pay immediate dividends. Lagi dropped to 59.84m at a comp in Chula Vista before departing for Europe where she dropped even further to 55.34m in Italy before rebounding to throw 62.62m at the Paris Diamond League meeting.
Back in the States, she went 58.65m at another Chula Vista comp on June 18th, then 56.61m a week later in New York.
It was about that time, though, that the static start throws began to feel more comfortable.
“Practices started getting better,” says Dagata. “Then, during the five or six days we were in Oregon leading up to USAs, we were locked in.”
Lagi and Dagata knew that she could throw farther using her regular, more active start, but they decided to stick to the static at USAs.
Dagata explained that “with the disc, you have to be consistent. If Lagi loses control and starts to rip it out of the back, she might end up with a great throw or it might go 50 meters, and then she starts to doubt herself. Consistency gives her confidence, and the static start gave us the best chance for consistency.”
With Val Allman receiving a Budapest bye as Diamond League champion, the US had four spots to fill in the women’s disc and Lagi used her modified start to stake her claim to one of them. During the first five rounds she went 62.13m, Foul, 62.67m, 60.96m, Foul. That was good enough to ensconce her securely in second place, and when she walked into the ring for her sixth and final attempt, Lagi was guaranteed a spot on the team for Worlds.
That being the case, she and Dagata decided to have another go at using a full windup.
“Her confidence on that last throw was so good,” Dagata says. “She had made the team, and while she was waiting she did a couple of dry throws off to the side and looked really good. Then, she got in and rushed her entry and only used three quarters of the ring. I have no idea how she kept that throw from going into the cage. It was unreal.”
And far.
A 65.46m PB to be exact.
Which windup will she use in Budapest?
At the 2022 Worlds, it took 61.21m to get through qualification, a distance that Lagi surpassed twice using the static start at USAs.
Dagata says they will wait and see how the next couple of weeks of training play out before deciding on their plan of attack for Worlds, but as at USAs, the most important factor will be Lagi’s confidence.
“One thing a lot of people don’t understand,” Dagata explained, “is that athletes like Lagi live their lives by every competition. Most throwers don’t get great funding, and they feel like they are one bad meet from losing what they do get, and that puts them under a lot of pressure. I try to balance that out by keeping a positive outlook and reminding her all the time of the great things she’s done.”
Tom Walsh at last year’s Diamond League final in Zurich. Photo courtesy of me!
Can’t you hear me knocking?
Speaking of maintaining a positive outlook, did anyone else notice that Tom Walsh went 22.58m at the recent London Diamond League meeting?
That was Tom’s best mark since his 22.90m bomb at the 2019 Worlds, and a sure sign that the man cannot take a hint.
If he could, he’d have accepted by now that Fate has no intention of letting him be the World’s Greatest Shot Putter. To many, that would have been clear after he shattered the World Championships record by 67 centimeters that night in Doha and ended up finishing third.
Tom got another reminder at the 2021 Games when he hit 22.47m–tied for the best ever pre-Crouser throw at an Olympics–and once again finished third.
He was faced with even more discouragement at the 2022 Worlds when an American sweep kept him off the podium at an Olympics or outdoor Worlds for the first time since he finished fourth in Beijing in 2015.
What keeps him going? In an interview conducted last year, Tom told me that he takes a lot of motivation from proving people wrong. “Plenty of people over my career have told me I’m not the guy,” he explained. “I love showing them I am the guy.”
Tom also credited his support team, two members of which–strength coach Angus Ross and sports psychologist John Quinn–have been with him for years. “They challenge me,” Tom said. “Whether it’s by changing up my training programs or getting me to think outside the box.”
His ultimate goal?
“Being the best thrower of all time.”
And if you think he was taken aback by the rise of 2022 Worlds bronze medalist Josh Awotunde, or by Joe Kovacs breaking 23 meters last September, think again.
Tom says that seeing Kovacs–his elder by three years–hit a big PB, only inspired him more.
“I love it,” he said. “I still want to throw a long way and I still believe I can. I just have to keep knocking at the door.”
A man in full
For the book about Daniel Ståhl I’ve been working on with Vésteinn Hafsteinsson and Roger Einbecker, we asked some of Daniel’s friends and colleagues to share anecdotes about the Big Fella. Many were kind enough to do so, and I think fans of the sport will enjoy reading these little glimpses into his life and career.
One especially lovely piece came from 2016 Olympic discus champ Chris Harting, who wrote about a night before a meet in Finland when he, Daniel, Simon Pettersson, and Kristjan Čeh waded out into a shallow lake and talked about life in the fading light of a late summer sun.
I thought about Chris and about that piece recently when my wife’s sister who lives in Berlin sent me a link to a newspaper interview he gave last month.
In it, Chris discusses some difficult personal issues he’s dealt with over the past couple of years, and opens up about his battle with depression.
In a world where young men are told by their favorite Youtubers or podcasters or whatever those idiots are called that the way to become popular is to embrace a version of masculinity that Neanderthals would have found regressive, it was refreshing to see Chris speak in such an honest and vulnerable way. And I know that someone, somewhere is going to read that article and realize that if it is okay for a 6’10” inch Olympic champion to seek help, it’s okay for them too.
Good things come to those who wait…and wait. Your 2023 USATF women’s shot medalists: Adelaide Aquilla, Maggie Ewen, and Jalani Davis. Photo courtesy of TrackTown USA.
Hurry up and wait
I once helped out at a middle school meet where the person in charge of the discus decided that after each throw, the athlete should remain in the ring until the measurement was recorded. This created much ridiculousness, as those who remembered to follow this new “rule” inevitably got in the way when the guy tried to pull and read the tape, and those who forgot and walked out after their disc landed had their throw nullified.
I was among several coaches who tried to explain to the man that there was no “stay in the ring until after the measurement” rule and that he’d have a much easier time running the event the normal way, but he refused to listen. He had been put in charge and would manage the ring as he saw fit.
I thought of that gentleman as I watched via the USATF.TV webcast while officials made a hash of the women’s shot at the recent 2023 Toyota USATF Outdoor Championships. Much to the relief of my wife, I’ve reached the point where I expect and forgive the inevitable laser malfunctions and no longer feel compelled to scream, “Just use a damn measuring tape!” at my laptop while watching throws comps.
And there did seem to be laser-induced delays that night in Eugene, but it quickly became clear that something else was contributing to the glacial pace of each round. The camera angle used on the webcast made it possible to see the timer mounted near the ring, and for some reason the officials would not allow a thrower to step in for their attempt until the sixty seconds allotted to the previous thrower had expired.
The existence of those timers has always struck me as extraneous. Why would a thrower, once their name is called, want to spend the better part of sixty seconds standing there thinking about throwing? That’s what NFL coaches force the other team’s kicker to do when he’s trying to make an important field goal, right? They call a timeout to give the poor bastard time to ponder and worry and get tight. That strategy is called “icing,” and again, it’s something you do to an opponent to mess them up. Why would an athlete want to ice themselves?
The answer is, they don’t. In a normal comp, each thrower is in and out of the ring in just a few seconds, except when the laser glitches and people like me start wishing they’d let the Amish run all major meets.
But that night in Eugene, the athletes had no choice but to stand by awkwardly watching the timer tick down to zero before entering the ring, which made for a maddeningly slow competition. By my estimate, it took fifty minutes to complete the first three rounds, twice as long as normal.
Afterwards, I messaged a handful of coaches and athletes to ask if they knew whose idea it was to run the women’s shot that way.
Kyle Long, coach of Maggie Ewen, said that Maggie told him an official showed up as the comp began and–for reasons unknown–ordered the person running the ring to wait the full minute between attempts.
“We always prepare for something weird at every meet,” he told me. “But I had no idea why they were making everyone wait so long between throws.”
Fortunately, Maggie smashed a 19.76m opener, which made it easy to stay in relaxo mode the rest of the comp, and ended up producing the most consistently excellent series of her career: 19.87m, 19.54m, 19.80m, 19.48m, and 19.92m.
John Smith, who was there coaching Jalani Davis, thought the slow pace was per request of the TV folks, but like Kyle, he had no hard feelings as Jalani’s fourth-round toss of 18.62m earned her a ticket to Budapest.
Kara Winger, who worked all weekend as a member of the broadcast crew, said afterwards that TV did not dictate the pace of the shot comp, which made sense because…have the TV people ever wanted the throwing events to last longer? Not in my lifetime.
Strangely, though, Kara had heard that an official visited the call room prior to the event and asked the putters if they wanted the full minute between each throw. She also pointed out that most throwers would be so focused on themselves and their cues while sitting in the call room that they probably would not have had enough available brain space to process what the official was actually asking them.
We may never know the true explanation behind the Great Shot Put Slowdown of 2023, but fortunately all the other throwing events were run at the normal pace. Now, if they would just ditch the damn lasers!…Sorry, honey.
Jalani Davis. Photo courtesy of TrackTown USA.
Leveling Up
After winning the NCAA weight title in March, Jalani Davis headed into the outdoor season looking to do some damage in the hammer and shot put. And for a while, things went as planned.
She finished second at the SEC Championships in both, with throws of 67.27m and 17.94m, and seemed ready to contend for podium space at the NCAA finals in Austin.
Then regionals happened.
The University of North Florida, site of the East Regional, had recently redone their cage, and in the remodeled version the hammer ring was placed in front of the discus ring. Because of this, the cage door felt closer than normal for the hammer throwers, which bothered some, Jalani included. She lost her rhythm and maybe her composure, and finished eighteenth with a throw of 60.89m.
Jalani’s disappointment carried over to that night’s shot comp, where her best effort of 16.15m put her nineteenth.
Coach Smith assured Jalani that every thrower has tough days, and the experience would benefit her in the long run. “I told her,” he recalled recently, “the more battle scars you accumulate the better you will be in the end.”
A week later, she bounced back, going 67.00m and 18.64m at the Music City Track Carnival.
Based on that performance, and on the potential he’d seen Jalani display in training, Smith believed she had a chance to make the squad for Budapest.
But he did not say that to Jalani.
Smith worried that any talk of competing for a spot at Worlds might make it impossible for her to relax and find a flow. “Throwing,” he says, “should be a reaction. If you walk into the ring and try to think through a throw, you’re done. You’ve got to learn to be on autopilot, or you’ll never survive in a high-pressure situation.”
Luckily, Jalani went into USAs with the best U23 hammer and shot put marks in the Western Hemisphere, which made her nearly a lock to qualify for the U23 NACAC team. Smith told her to focus on that and never mentioned the possibility of qualifying for Budapest.
He also tried to put Jalani into autopilot mode during practice by having her throw into a net or over a set of bleachers that blocked her view of where the shot landed.
Blinders come in many forms: the shot ring at Ole Miss, with bleachers in place. Photo courtesy of John Smith.
Smith estimates that Jalani launched eighty percent of her practice attempts over the bleachers in the runup to USAs, including every throw during her final training session before heading to Eugene.
Smith’s plan paid off when, after fouling her first attempt in the competition, Jalani belted an 18.53m second-rounder that put her into third place. In round four, she improved to 18.62m. And then, she started to get suspicious.
“I knew,” she said later, “that to make the U23 team I only had to beat one other U23 girl. But then, after my fourth throw, I asked Coach if I’d make the team for Worlds if I stayed in third or fourth place. He didn’t say anything, so I knew that was a ‘yes.’”
The 18.62m held up for third place, so Jalani will be heading this week to Costa Rica for U23 NACACS before returning home to prepare for Budapest.
Not bad for an athlete who was not recruited out of high school. Jalani got herself on the Ole Miss squad by showing up at a practice one day with her father and convincing Smith to give her a chance.
“I was mad at walk-ons at the time,” Smith recalls. “I’d just had one who had been a problem. But I liked what Jalani’s father had to say. He’s a military guy, she’s a military kid, and they both impressed me.”
Four years later, Jalani is on the team for Worlds. She has also become the first woman ever to throw eighty feet in the weight and sixty in the shot, though Smith says she is still in the developmental stage. “She’s only been spinning in the shot for three years,” he explained. “And it usually takes four years to click. Right now, she can throw 18 meters from a non-reverse, but she’s still getting comfortable with reversing. Year four is when Jessica Ramsey broke through to 20 meters. So, we’ll see.”
In the end, though, the hammer might be her best event.
Jalani’s current PB is 69.53m, but according to Smith, she is poised for a breakthrough there as well.
This season, after three-and-a-half years of training the hammer, Jalani threw the 3-kilo implement 82 meters in practice. Smith has had other athletes reach that distance with the 3k, including 2019 World Champion DeAnna Price, 2017 US Champion and two-time Olympian Gwen Berry, and 2013 World Championships finalist Jeneva Stevens, but none did it as early in their career.
Will Jalani some day follow DeAnna’s path to a World Championships podium? Maybe, but that’s something to think about at a later date. For the rest of this summer, she’ll be on autopilot mode.
Daniel Ståhl in London back in 2017 showing off his first World Championships medal. Photo courtesy of Arwid Koskinen.
Big Man Update
Daniel Ståhl is having a hell of a season with four meets over 70 meters so far, including a best of 71.45m. After a tough 2022 campaign where he finished out of the medals at Worlds and Europeans, what more could you ask?
“I’d like,” Daniel’s former coach Vésteinn Hafsteinsson told me via a Zoom call last week, “to see him throw far outside of Sweden and Finland, which are his favorite places to compete, and to see him beat Kristjan at least one more time before Worlds.”
That would be defending World champ Kristjan Čeh, whose 71.86m toss at the Heino Lipp Memorial gave Daniel the honor of owning the farthest second-place throw (the aforementioned 71.45m) in history.
Daniel had tagged Kristjan with his only loss of the season three days earlier at the Paavo Nurmi Games, but outside of that comp the big Slovenian had been untouchable.
Then came last weekend’s Gyulai István Memorial in Hungary, where Daniel defeated all three 2022 Worlds medalists–Kristjan, Mykolas Alekna, and Andrius Gudžius–while taking the win with a throw of 68.98m.
Right now, Daniel is flourishing under his new coach, Staffan Jönsson, and the men’s discus final in Budapest should be hellacious.
We hope to have Vésteinn’s book about his years with Daniel available later this summer. Maybe just in time to celebrate another World Championships medal.
