Finally

After taking third place at the 2022 USATF Indoor Championships with a toss of 18.70m this February, shot putter Jessica Woodard told me that she was “close” to some 19 meter throws. 

Ahhh, but the best laid plans. 

After hitting 18.77m in Walnut, California, in April, Jess traveled to Brazil for two meets. Unfortunately, when she arrived in Miami her connecting flight had been canceled. She got out the next day, but arrived in Brazil at 12:30am and then had to compete that evening. Exhausted, she went 17.98m and 17.94m in two meets in São Paulo, then returned home with a case of Covid.

Her best mark during May was 18.54m. In her final competition prior to the US Championships, she threw 17.65m. That was at a meet in Canada on June 8th.

Jess knew she’d have to find a way to get past the 19 meter mark at USAs to have any chance of making the team for the World Championships but felt stuck, she says, “in a little bit of a funk. It felt like everything was hard. Usually that time of year things fall into place and the ball starts going far, but the ball wasn’t going far and I felt like I was drowning a little bit going into the championship season.”

With the support of her coach, Ryan Whiting, and boyfriend/training partner Darrell Hill, Jess finally found some rhythm a week before the US Outdoor Championships, but then in her final squat workout a few days before the comp she “tweaked her back pretty good.”

She flew to Eugene shortly after, and was able to get physical therapy there while gutting her way through her final practices. 

With Maggie Ewen holding a wildcard as defending Diamond League champion, Jess needed to finish among the top three throwers without the last name Ewen in order to make the Worlds team.

That did not turn out to be easy.

She had her best opener ever, 18.79m, then fouled her next two attempts as Chase Ealey (20.51m), Adelaide Aquilla (19.45m), and Raven Saunders (18.95m) passed her. That’s a formidable trio, and in the past Jess might have wilted. “I had always struggled,”she says,” to move into that top group.”

A ten-minute break between rounds three and four seemed to last “forever,” and when the comp resumed she tossed another 18.79m.

A week earlier in practice Jess realized that most of her missed throws were the result of her not being aggressive enough, so she decided to “push it” a bit in round five. 

The result was a 19.40m PB. 

Some anxious moments ensued, as Raven–the Olympic silver medalist–still had two more whacks at overtaking her. But Raven went foul, 18.72m, and Jess was on the team.

How did that feel? 

“I kind of blacked out on that throw,” she says, “but afterwards, I felt joy. And relief!” 

Back on the attack

Shot putter Joshua Awotunde finished fifth at the 2022 World Indoor Championships, opened his outdoor campaign with a 21.63m toss at Mt. SAC, then essentially disappeared from competition.

A strained pec was the culprit. 

It came during an April training session when he tried to “go for it” on his last attempt of the day. It turned out to be a serious strain, and when he resumed throwing after two weeks of rest and rehab, Josh had to content himself with using a 12-pound shot. It took him four weeks to work up to the 14, and he did not attempt a full throw with a 16 until early June. 

Josh missed two Diamond League comps during that span, which is not ideal if you are trying to eke out a living as a shot putter, but he did not want to risk aggravating the pec and possibly having to shut down for the season.

Two days before the Champs in Eugene, Josh threw a practice PB of 23.40m with the 14, an indication that he had not lost his pop, but two months without a competition left him wondering if he’d be able to find his rhythm in the heat of battle.

“I just wanted to throw 70 feet again,” he says. “ I just wanted to execute my technique.”

A 21.50m warmup throw made him think he might be in better shape than he’d thought, and a 21.24m opener put him in the hunt for the Worlds team. The situation for the dudes was the same as it had been for the ladies. One thrower–in this case Joe Kovacs–had a bye, so the US would be allowed to send four competitors to Worlds. That turned out to be a good thing, as Joe, playing with house money, opened with a 22.87m bomb.

Josh went 20.68m in round two, which left him in fourth behind Joe, Ryan Crouser, and Tripp Piperi. 

That was not a comfortable place to be, considering that Roger Steen, Jordan Geist, and Darrell Hill all looked capable of jumping ahead of him.

Josh needed to shake off the rust, pronto. He took a minute to confer with Crouser before taking his third attempt.

“I’m slow today,” Josh told him.

“Yeah,” Crouser replied. “You’re not attacking like you did indoors.”

Josh’s coach, Mike Sergent, agreed, so Josh entered the ring for round three with one thought in mind–push harder out of the back.

It worked. He went 21.51m, nowhere near his PB of 22.00m, but a satisfying result after not competing for two months, and good enough to move him into third. 

And there he stayed, in spite of a great day by Piperi (six throws over 21.00m) and Steen (a 21.14m PB). 

Meanwhile, Crouser and Joe waged a titanic battle for the title. Some have speculated that the way to beat a healthy Crouser is to throw a haymaker early to knock him off his rhythm. Joe did that and more when he hit 22.87m again in round two. 

But it didn’t matter. Crouser wasn’t able to extend his World Record of 23.37m, but check out this series: 22.42m, F, 23.12m, 23.01m, 23.11m, 22.98m.

Apparently, he can take a punch.  

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the Darrell Hill situation. “Nightmare” might be more accurate. “Recurring nightmare,” actually, because a similar scenario unfolded at the US Indoor Champs. In both comps, Darrell got called for a questionable foul on a throw that might have put him on the podium. In both comps, he protested and was allowed to throw in the finals while the protest was being adjudicated. In both comps, his protest was denied and he was removed from the final. 

Friday’s situation contained a bizarre twist. Darrell was originally told that he’d fouled his first attempt by brushing the top of the toeboard on his reverse. After reviewing the video, though, the officials changed their mind. They agreed with Darrell that he had not touched the top of the toeboard, but claimed instead that he had fouled at the back of the ring.

The whole thing devolved into a huge mess with Darrell maintaining a running debate with the officials while also trying to remain composed enough to get off a solid throw. Afterwards, he posted an Instagram video in which he explained all the crazy and frustrating details. It’s worth watching.

I am told that he’s not going to let the matter drop and is intent on forcing USATF to find a more consistent way to determine fouls. If he succeeds, Darrell will have done the sport a great service. In the meantime, it looks like he will not make the squad for Worlds.

In his absence, the US will still send a formidable crew of putters. Crouser and Kovacs will likely resume their Godzilla v. Destoroyah battle, and Josh believes he can improve on his World Indoor finish.

“I know I need to work on reversing and confidently getting through the shot,” he says. “But my experience at Indoor Worlds will help me. And it will be great to have home court advantage. I know we are going to want to put on a show. I asked my coach, ‘Can we sweep?” and he said, ‘Yeah.’ We’ve got some work to do, but it would be fun to make history.” 

Dammit!

It could have been any number of things.

He’d blasted a PB of 85.67m less than three weeks earlier, so there was no reason to doubt his fitness.

But sleeping on an uncomfortable bed and walking everywhere in the Olympic village made him feel a little tight in the hips. Having to wake up at 4:00am the day of the qualification round was not ideal, nor was the 90-degree temperature and 96 percent humidity that morning.

There is also a lot of sitting and waiting involved at a major championships. He felt good at the warmup track, but then had to chill out for nearly an hour in call room number one, and again in call room number two before being taken into the stadium.

Also, the runway was falling apart. The Tokyo organizers had installed a super special Mondo track surface designed to propel runners to Olympic and World records, which it did. But when subjected to the one-ton of pressure exerted each time a javelin thrower slammed his blocking foot into the ground, the spongy top layer of that surface shredded, creating a very dicey situation for the athletes.

It could have been any of those things, or none of them. The fact is that sprinting twenty meters then hitting the breaks while whipping a light spear as far as you can is none too good for the joints.

Whatever the case may be, Michael Shuey was not thinking about the hazards of his chosen profession last August when he stepped up to take his first throw as an Olympian. He was thinking about his technique.

 “My cue on round one,” he recalled recently, “was to run down there easy, then drop my right knee into the throw as hard as I could.”

That’s a common cue for javeliners, a simple way to make sure they get the most out of their right hip as they blast into the throw. But on this attempt Mike’s right heel got stuck, and his knee paid the price.

“I felt like I dislocated my kneecap,” he says. “All I could think about was that everyone back home just watched me blow out my knee.”

The kindness of strangers

“I went back to my seat and wrapped it. The Romanian guy, Novac, was like ‘Hey Mike, you need my tape?’ He lent me some, and one of the Finnish guys said, ‘Hey, I’m not using my knee brace. Do you want to use it?’ I really appreciated that. It was a cool experience. I just hope I never have to have it again.”

Kindness, part two

“Getting injured at Olympics is a whole different realm. They scheduled me for an MRI, and I thought ‘Oh good, I’ll get to see some of Tokyo on the way to the hospital.’ But the hospital was right there in the village, next to the cafeteria. They had orthopedic doctors. Physical therapists. Even a dentist. I was talking to them, and they told me that since some countries don’t have access to health care, they let athletes get stuff taken care of at the Olympics. For example, a guy from Africa had a decayed tooth in back of his mouth that was completely hollowed out. They pulled it, and I asked him how long he’d been dealing with that tooth. He said two years!”

The road back

It turned out to be a posterolateral corner injury, which is Latin for “a really messed up knee.” Torn meniscus. Torn cartilage. Sprained lateral ligaments.

Once he arrived back home, Mike underwent microfracture surgery, which involves drilling small holes into the ends of the bones near the damaged cartilage. The holes are meant to stimulate the production of fresh cartilage cells.

After the surgery, Mike was told that he would need to rest his knee for six months. That meant rehab and walking throws only.

The knee swelled up a lot. He had PRP (platelet-rich plasma injection) therapy and did his best not to lose his feel for making a javelin go far.

“It was a lot of trial and error,” he says. ” I will definitely try to get my rehab plan published after this.”

And now…

Mike has competed once this season, producing a toss of 75.25m at the USATF Throws Fest in Tucson in May. Before that meet, he’d had a total of two practices during which he’d gone beyond walking throws and threw using a short approach.

His training continues to be a mix of rehab and throwing drills, with the knee a constant consideration. He uses a variety of javs when he throws, everything from a 1-kilo down to a 600-gram implement.

Mike says his knee feels “moderately okay” right now, and that he is working to find the feel on his throws.

“I have my footwork down now, I just need to get connected with the jav and hit solid, line drive throws.”

In terms of qualifying for the World Championships, Mike’s big toss from last July has put him in a great spot. He is currently the only American man to have hit the World Athletics qualifying mark, which makes him a virtual lock to make the squad. Tim Glover and Curtis Thompson are likely to join him on the Worlds team, based on their current WA ranking.

What’s the meaning of this?

Assuming he makes the team, Mike says that qualifying for Worlds “will give me self validation that regardless of what hardships happen to me, I can come back better. It might not bring me fame and riches, but emotionally it will do a lot for me. My big goal is to make finals at Worlds, and I think I can do it.”

Ready to take a chance again

Mike is cognizant of the risk he will be taking when he once again unleashes his full technique at full speed. He says that a javelin thrower’s body has to be comfortable enough with that range of motion you need to make a big throw. “When you put yourself in that elongated, somewhat treacherous position, your body can be like ‘Noooo!’ and bail out of it. That’s why you always throw farther in a meet than in practice. You need that adrenaline to help you push your limits.”

Limit pushing time in the men’s javelin will take place on Sunday at 11:35am Pacific.

An inauspicious beginning

Marcus Gustaveson left his mark on Wheaton North High School in the suburbs of Chicago. Lots of marks, actually. The dents in the support post on the right side of the discus cage there bear silent testament to his ferocious and–in those days–uncontrolled power.

I coach the throws at Wheaton North, and was very excited when Marcus decided to try the shot and disc in the winter of his junior year. He was a super nice kid and, more importantly, had long levers and great pop.

But like a lot of young dudes still in the process of sprouting upwards, he struggled with footwork and timing, and in our two years together we were never able to harness his potential. His best discus throw in high school was 144 feet, although had there been no cage or foul lines he might have gone 200.

Our first winter together I started him off as a glide shot putter, so of course one day he decided to improvise a spin. I’ve never seen a giraffe caught in a tornado, but after witnessing Marcus’s first attempt at rotational putting, I never want to.

“Dear god!” I told him. “Promise me you’ll never try that again!”

After high school, Marcus enrolled at Concordia University, St. Paul, where he competed in both football and track. Participating in spring football practices limited his throwing to one session a week that first season, but he still managed to break the Concordia freshman record in the shot with a throw of 15.98m (Fun Fact: His coach that year was hammer thrower Sean Donnelly).

He spent very little time working on the discus. “I’d take maybe two throws each practice,” he recalls. “Then Sean would laugh at me because it was so ugly, and we’d stop.” His best toss that season was 43.32m.

The next year, Donnelly left to become a resident athlete at Chula Vista, and was replaced by former University of Minnesota javelin thrower Rachel Melum. Though still mainly focused on football, under Melum’s guidance Marcus was able to improve his discus PB to 50.78m.

Melum departed after one season, and was replaced by Lina Baker, a former DIII All-American in the hammer.  Baker recognized Marcus’s potential as a discus thrower, and encouraged him to shift his focus from football to track. Marcus took her advice and did not participate in spring football during his junior year.

With the clock ticking on his throwing career, Baker also convinced him to ditch his glide and try spinning in the shot in hopes that doing so would accelerate his progress in the disc. It was not the smoothest of transitions, and Marcus competed mostly from a half turn, but he threw 15.99m and the effort he put into learning rotational shot did seem to transfer to the disc.

He only improved his discus PB by a meter during that 2019 season, but he and Coach Baker could tell that he was on the brink of much bigger throws. The following February, he put the shot 16.98m and felt ready to do serious damage in the disc when…the world shut down.

A career lost then found

Marcus’s parents had moved to Colorado after he graduated from high school, and he joined them there while trying to sort out his future. When it became clear that the pandemic would wipe out the rest of the track season, he told Baker that he was calling it a career.

Later that spring, though, he came across a discus in his garage and decided to toss it around a bit. He ended up taking some full throws in tennis shoes on a sidewalk, launching the disc into an open field. It felt good.

He bought a pair of throwing shoes and a few more discs. Before long, he was throwing at a local high school track and sending videos to Lina.

In the fall of 2020, he returned to St. Paul and began working forty hours a week at Enterprise while also training and taking classes toward an MBA. He lifted with Lina at 4:00am, and threw with her at 7:00pm.

Their work paid off in the spring when he threw 61.53m at the Tucson Elite meet. That got him into the Olympic Trials, and while in Eugene he was invited to become a resident athlete at Chula Vista.

It turns out that the resident athlete program for throwers was about to be phased out, so he ended up renting an apartment with hammer thrower Autavia Fluker and javeliner Mike Shuey.

Marcus spent the fall and winter working, volunteer coaching at a local high school, and training at the center under the guidance of John Dagata. It was a grind similar to his final year at Concordia, but the payoff came this spring when he opened with a 64.46m bomb at a meet in Long Beach.

The Next Step

Now a certifiably world class thrower, Marcus enters this week’s USATF Championships as a longshot to make the team for Worlds. He will need to climb into the top 32 to qualify by ranking, and that is not likely as he currently sits at 63. That means hitting the performance standard of 66.00m.

If he can do that, the impact on his career would be significant. “Everything would change,” he surmises. “If you make an Olympic or World team, you get noticed, get more funding, maybe get invited to international meets. It just makes everything more achievable.”

Easy, Big Fella

Those are exciting possibilities, but possibilities are not something you want to be mulling over as you enter the ring. Marcus has surpassed 60 meters only twice since tossing that PB in Long Beach, and he attributes his struggles to being too focused on nailing the 66.00m qualifier.

His plan for Thursday is to start easy, with maybe eighty percent effort, knowing that when the adrenaline kicks in at a big meet, staying under control and feeling positions is more important than trying to generate speed.

His goal is to “build a good series, with every throw over 60 meters. Throw a little bit better each round and ignore what other guys are doing. If I get the standard, great, but I’d really like to finish in the top three. I’ve done a lot of learning this year, and a top three finish would be a big step for me.”

A bit more on Thursday’s discus comp

The only American in the top 32 right now is Sam Mattis. Sam also has the standard, having nailed a PB of 68.69m in May.

Andrew Evans, who did not post a mark in 2020 or 2021, reappeared this season and reached 66.74m last month. He has been over 63.00m in five of his six comps this year.

Brian Williams has had an up-and-down season with three meets under 60.00m and five over. His season’s best of 66.14m came in early May, but he’s a veteran of these championship meets and made the team for Doha by throwing a then PB of 65.76m at the 2019 US Championships. His experience will make him a contender to make this year’s squad as well.

My head says those three will make the podium, but in my heart I’ll be pulling for Marcus.

The men’s discus comp will take place on Thursday at 5:45pm Pacific.

In February, Roger Steen achieved a major career breakthrough by placing third at the USATF Indoor Championships.

If he can match that finish at this week’s Outdoor Championships, he will make the US squad for the upcoming Worlds–quite an achievement for a former DIII athlete in this country’s most hellaciously competitive event.

I checked in with Roger last week to talk about his career and his preparation for this Friday’s shot competition.

Staying in the game

There are no million-dollar signing bonuses for shot putters when they turn pro, so even the most accomplished collegiate throwers have to figure out a way to support themselves as they continue training and competing. To pay the bills, Roger manages an assisted living facility in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. He has worked there since his college days and says his employer is understanding about the need to occasionally take time off to travel to meets–an important consideration for an itinerant shot putter.

Navigating the pandemic

During “normal” times, finding a way to support yourself while training and competing is tough enough. Throw in a pandemic that shut down practice facilities and basically wiped out the 2020 season, and someone in Roger’s shoes could not be blamed for calling it a career. Several factors helped him stay the course. The assisted living facility where he works stayed open, so his income was not affected. He and his long time training partner Curt Jensen (21.63m PB) were already lifting in a garage, so they did not miss any strength sessions. Of the throwing events, the shot put is the easiest when it comes to improvising a place to chuck. Perhaps most importantly, Roger and Curt developed some serious camaraderie with a couple of fellow throwers who they invited to share their garage weight room. Fellow putter Adam Strouf (currently of the University of Indiana) and UW Stout hammer thrower, Jacob Bugella trained there regularly. Between those four, there was “always someone at the facility, always someone ready to throw.”

Roger recalls that “in 2020, as soon as we found out there would be no Olympic Trials, all of us started on a heavy training cycle. We suffered together, and that got us through.”

Qualifying for Worlds

To satisfy the requirements set forth by World Athletics, Roger has to either hit the qualifying standard of 21.10m, or climb into the top 32 in the World Rankings.

He is currently ranked at number 33 and has a PB of 21.07m, so he’s close on both counts.

The tougher challenge will be placing high enough at the US Championships to make the team. Joe Kovacs earned a bye into the 2022 Worlds by winning in 2019, and the US will be allowed to send three putters in addition to Joe, so that will help.

But he’ll still have to battle guys like Ryan Crouser, Darrell Hill, Payton Otterdahl, Josh Awotunde, Adrian Piperi, and Jordan Geist for one of those three spots.

That might sound like a tall order for a former University of Wisconsin Eau-Claire Blugold, but–as evidenced by his showing this winter in Spokane–Roger has gotten to the point where he throws his best against the best.

“I’ve competed against all those guys,” he told me. “I was at last year’s Trials when Ryan threw the World Record. He beat me by almost three meters, but I had my best series ever to that point. So, it’s not about what the other guys do. It all depends on if my training is right. Curt always tells me it’s best to be ‘strong like bull and smart like tractor.’ In other words, don’t waste time thinking about ifs or buts. Just get in there and do what you have to do.”

“Also, I like all the guys I’ll be throwing against. We’re all friends, and it’s fun trying to beat your friends.” 

A quick side note regarding World Championship byes. Crouser actually qualified for one as well by winning last year’s Diamond League final, but each country is only allowed to use one bye per event, and I’m told that the USATF has chosen to honor Joe’s.

So, to review, Joe goes to Worlds no matter what. Everyone else will fight for three spots as the US will be allowed to send four putters.

Don’t go changing

I asked Roger if qualifying for Worlds would have a big effect on his career. “Honestly,” he says, “it would be an awesome accomplishment, but I’ll still take things one year at a time. I’m just focused on seeing how far I can throw the shot put, and that won’t change no matter what happens at the Trials. Kurt and I both agree that we won’t ever not lift heavy. We like the pain and the sense of accomplishment of lifting and throwing, so whatever happens next week I’ll just go back to my job and back to training.”

Time to peak

I spoke to Roger on Friday, June 17th, and at that point he was one week into a tapering phase meant to prepare him for the Trials. That night he planned to do a practice competition during which he’d take 8-10 hard throws with the 16lb implement. On Saturday, he planned to do a lift featuring “top end” squats and bench in which he’d have help from bands during the concentric part of those lifts. That would be his last lifting session before competing on the 24th. 

He intended to throw both heavy and light shots on Sunday, with a 2-1 ratio of heavy to light implements, then take Monday off. 

A light throwing practice on Tuesday morning will be followed by travel to Eugene where he will do one final throwing session of 4-6 hard fulls in the competition ring. 

He will rest on Thursday before “showtime” on Friday.

With Curt’s help, Roger has been carefully tracking the way that different types of lifting and throwing workouts have prepared him for competition, and he is confident that he knows when and how to take his foot off the pedal in training without disrupting his routine. He’s feeling good right now, a “lot more responsive in the ring,” and ready to belt some big throws.

Adrenaline: frenemy of throwers

Under the right circumstances, the adrenaline that comes from throwing in a big comp can help produce huge throws. But adrenaline is a little like nitroglycerine or a pet bobcat. Handled incorrectly, it can wreck your day.

Roger says he likes the adrenaline rush he feels when competing against the best, and is confident that he can handle it.

He recalls that when he was younger he used to get tight and worry about letting people down, but now, he says he feels like “everyone” is behind him. 

He’s confident in his training, and knows that whatever happens in any given competition, he will still have his day job. 

“However I throw on Friday,” he says, “it won’t make or break me. I’m not doing this to put bread on the table. I’m doing this because I love throwing the shot.”

The men’s shot comp will take place at 6:42pm Pacific Time on Friday.