Throw Force
/ The Records
Throw Force
/ The Records
Two events. Four records. A rapid climb through a century of competition — and then, for the women's events, almost nothing for nearly four decades. This is where the marks stand, and how they got there.
The record climbed nearly 50 meters from 1923 to 1988 — then stopped. Valarie Allman (now Sion) threw 73.52m in 2025, the closest any athlete has come since 1989. She is still 3.28m short.
14 of the top 15 all-time women's shot put performances were thrown between 1976 and 1990. The best put since Lisovskaya's record: 21.46m by Larisa Peleshenko in 2000 — 1.17m short.
Jürgen Schult's 74.08m throw in Neubrandenburg in 1986 stood for 38 years — the longest-standing men's record in the history of athletics. Mykolas Alekna, son of two-time Olympic champion Virgilijus Alekna, finally broke it in 2024 at age 21, then improved it twice in 2025.
Randy Barnes's 23.12m throw in 1990 held for 31 years before Ryan Crouser broke it in 2021. Crouser has since broken the record he himself set — his 23.56m in 2023 came at Drake Stadium in Los Angeles. He has thrown beyond 23m on more occasions than any other athlete in history.