Curiously , when the men’s shot put has been rather booming these last years with a world record as a cherry on the cake , the women event seems to go the other way. : only one Olympic competitor, the Chinese Lijao GONG , did break the 20m line and got already her hand on the Gold after her 1st attempt at 19.95m . We were expecting something coming from the American but they were inexplicably well down from their home performances at the US trials . Only Raven SAUNDERS .saved the furniture and a silver medal with only 19.79m . The 3rd medal was won by the women shot put legend Valerie ADAMS only 10cm behind SAUNDERS and 5cm more than the Portuguese Auriol DONGMO . Valérie has indeed achieved there a much better ”performance” than just the distance she has thrown . It could be a symbolic end to her long and exceptional career (But who knows ?). Another remarkable point is that the gliders GONG , ADAMS and DONGMO have been clearly dominating the spinners . Back to the old days ? Or poor techniques ? Only the young New Zealander Maddison WESCHE has really a good rotational technique and probably a promising future in this event . We should only hope that the women shot putters will not be tempted to follow the track of most of their male counterparts with the the philosophy of ”the stronger , the bigger , the better” and the race for body mass and maximal strength . It is possible to throw over 20m without being a mastodon like Valerie ALLMAN has proved with her 70m discus throws .- Available documents : 1- Vid 1 Lijian GONG 19.98m-19.80m-20.53m-20.58m -2- Vid 2 SAUNDERS 19.49m-19.79m-X -3-Vid 3 Valerie ADAMS 19.62m-X-X-18.76m .-4-Vid 4 Auriol DONGMO 19.17m-19.57m-19.45m-19.45m -5-Vid 5 Jiayuan SONG 18.74m-X-X-18.26m -6-Vid 6 Maddison WESCHE 18.98m-18.18m-18.50m-18.47m

The second half of the top 12 finalists did not reach the 19m line , but that could be expected considering the actual level of the women shot put in the world. Nevertheless you had still to throw over 18.73m to make the top 8 . There was only one (big) failure and it came from the American Jessica RAMSEY who was 2nd in the world ranking with a 20+ PB . She was not able to manage even one decent throw . We have more interestingly noticed the Belarus thrower DUBITSKAIA who did prove that it is possible to be a world class shot putter (PB 19.65m !) and still not be too ”massive’;’ This ”search” for more mass seems (out of exceptions) to be more affecting the rotational throwers than the gliders .Is that voluntary , is that good or not , so far this is only a personal impression , of course.. Available documents : 1-Vid 1 7e Fanny ROOS 18.91m-X-18.72m-18.76m 2-Vid 2 8e Sarah GAMBETTA 18.88m-X-X-18.48m-18.38m -3-Vid 3 9th Aliona DUBITSKAIA 17.76m-18.57m-18.73m -4-Vid 4 10e Yang GAO 18.45m-18.67m-18.51m–5- Vid 5 11e Portious WARREN 18.01m-18.01m-18.32m -6-Vid 6 12th Jessica RAMSEY X-X-X