Ryan Crouser, the 2016 Olympic gold medalist and world record holder in the men’s shot put, chatted with Digital Journal’s Markos Papadatos as part of a virtual press conference that was hosted by USA Track and Field.
He was able to break Randy Barnes’ 31-year-old shot put world record in his fourth attempt by over eight inches with a massive throw of 23.37 meters at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Track and Field that were held at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon. Crouser will be representing Team USA at the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games.
On the greatest lesson that shot put has ever taught him, Crouser responded, “It’s mostly about setting goals and working hard towards them.”
“Also, hard work does pay off, that’s the main thing,” he said. “It just doesn’t pay off when you want it to pay off necessarily. You dedicate yourself to working and working, and then when you think it’s all there and ready to go, it will blow up in your face.”
“So, the world record for me was a reflection of that. I’ve known it was possible since 2017, and every single time I went into a meet expecting to break the world record, but I did not. I think that happened six or eight times. I broke it in warmups, practice, and the day before, and every time I would try to break the world record in a meet, it didn’t happen so it felt like the hard work was not paying off but it was all leading off to the right moment for me,” he elaborated.
“When I finally did it and broke the world record, that instilled in me that hard work does pay off, and it will pay off, just not necessarily when you want it to. There is always a longer term goal that you need to be working towards,” he added.
To learn more about Olympic gold medalist and world record holder Ryan Crouser, follow him on Instagram.
