{"id":3738,"date":"2023-07-07T13:57:34","date_gmt":"2023-07-07T18:57:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mcthrows.com\/?p=3738"},"modified":"2023-07-07T13:58:05","modified_gmt":"2023-07-07T18:58:05","slug":"2023-toyota-usatf-outdoor-championships-preview-maggie-ewen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mcthrows.com\/?p=3738","title":{"rendered":"2023 Toyota USATF Outdoor Championships Preview: Maggie Ewen"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a>
Maggie Ewen celebrating her victory and world-leading throw at the LA Grand Prix meet in May. Photo courtesy of USATF.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Look up \u201chuge breakthrough\u201d in any dictionary worth its salt and you\u2019ll find a link to the video of shot putter Maggie Ewen<\/a> launching a 20.45m rocket earlier this year at the LA Grand Prix<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She added another 20-meter toss that day, and in her next four comps went 19.61m, 19.26m, 19.52m, and 19.68m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keep in mind that her previous outdoor PB was 19.47m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to her coach, Kyle Long, the impetus for this Great Leap Forward can be traced back to the 2021 Olympic Trials<\/a> where Maggie threw 18.92m and missed making the squad by three centimeters. During that comp, she had a front row seat as first Raven Saunders<\/a> then Jessica Ramsey<\/a> produced historic distances for female rotational putters. Saunders\u2019 19.96m blast briefly put her second all-time behind Jill Camarena-Williams<\/a> on the list of rotational women. A few minutes later, Ramsey went 20.12m to become the only female spinner besides Camarena-Williams to surpass 20 meters at that point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Camarena-Williams threw her 20.18m PB in 2011, and as is often the case with visionaries (Did you know Ben Franklin invented swim fins in 1717 at the age of 11?), the world was not quite ready to follow her lead. The glide technique continued to predominate among women for another decade, until the success of Saunders and Ramsey heralded a major shift in the event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2022, Chase Ealey<\/a> (20.51m), Jiayuan Song<\/a> (20.38m), Sarah Mitton<\/a> (20.33m), and Jessica Schilder<\/a> (20.24m) all breached the 20-meter barrier using the rotational technique. Each of those ladies also finished ahead of Maggie at the 2022 Worlds<\/a>, as did two more up-and-coming spinners, Jessica Woodard<\/a> and Maddie-Lee Wesche<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maggie too had always been a rotational putter, and a successful one at that. She won the 2018 NCAA title in the shot while competing for Arizona State, and that same year raised the NCAA record to 19.46m. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After graduating that spring, Maggie, according to Coach Long, \u201cseemed to be in a great place. She chipped away and got points at Diamond League meets. She finished fourth at the World Championships in 2019<\/a> (with a throw of 18.93m). But when Ramsey threw 20.12m at the Trials, and then Chase threw 20.49m at Worlds last year, it was a reality check. The women\u2019s shot put world had moved forward, and Maggie could either move forward as well or be left behind.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kyle noticed when they began training for the 2023 season that Maggie was on a mission. \u201cShe has always wanted to do her best,\u201d he says. \u201cBut now, she\u2019s focused on making sure her best puts her up there with the world\u2019s best.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So far in 2023, mission accomplished. Maggie\u2019s 20.45m PB has her ranked number one in the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Going into Saturday\u2019s USATF women\u2019s shot comp, Maggie says she is in a good place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAfter the season ended in 2022,\u201d she said in a recent appearance on the Throw Big Throw Far Podcas<\/a>t, \u201cwe made some changes to my strength training, and Kyle got the job as throws coach at the university of South Dakota, so we moved to Vermillion. The move helped give me a fresh start in a new place, and now I\u2019m in a much better place in my life and my mindset\u2026a place where I have the ability to thrive and accomplish the things I want to accomplish.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First on that list of accomplishments will be securing a spot on the squad for Budapest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chase has a bye this year after winning the 2022 Worlds, so three spots will be up for grabs with Maggie, Woodard, and Adelaide Aquilla<\/a> as the favorites. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comp will begin at 6:15 pm Pacific time. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Look up \u201chuge breakthrough\u201d in any dictionary worth its salt and you\u2019ll find a link to the video of shot putter Maggie Ewen launching a 20.45m rocket earlier this year at the LA Grand Prix.  She added another 20-meter toss that day, and in her next four comps went 19.61m, 19.26m, 19.52m, and 19.68m. Keep … Continue reading 2023 Toyota USATF Outdoor Championships Preview: Maggie Ewen<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11,18,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rotational-shot","category-shot-put","category-usatf"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8knIb-Yi","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcthrows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcthrows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcthrows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcthrows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcthrows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mcthrows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3738\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcthrows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcthrows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcthrows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}