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Shot-Put Scientist Ryan Crouser Chases Historic Three-Peat in Paris

Despite a nagging elbow injury and pectoral muscle tear in the spring, the 31-year-old from a family of throwers will compete for a third gold medal at the 2024 Olympics.

BORING, Ore. — Ryan Crouser is the greatest shot-putter who ever lived, a man who conquered his sport and has carried it upward, higher, and farther for nearly a decade. Consider him a shot-put scientist, relying more on brain than brawn, but with plenty of both as he attempts this week to become the first shot-putter to win three straight gold medals.

But today’s Ryan Crouser is not quite the invincible Ryan Crouser of Rio and Tokyo, not for the last five months or so and not likely when he competes on Friday at Stade de France.

Crouser tore a pectoral muscle on April 11 during a routine bench press workout. “It was bad,” says Mitch, Ryan’s father and lifelong coach. “Could be the end for a shot-putter. Your pec is directly connected to the movement. Just devastating.”

The muscle tear was on top of an injury to the ulnar nerve in his throwing elbow he suffered at the world indoor championships in Glasgow on March 1. But Ryan’s elbow began hurting long before then. In fact, his nerve had swelled to five times its normal size, causing severe pain. It was cubital tunnel syndrome, which feels like hitting your funny bone over and over. Ryan called the combination of the muscle tear and the elbow injury “uncomfortable.” A mere mortal might call it “debilitating.”

Ryan had been addressing the sore elbow with treatment and physical therapy. But after tearing the pec, he abandoned the tweak-and-adapt approach. He had an ultrasound procedure, a nerve hydrodissection, to propel the nerve out of its groove with a saline solution. The nerve could then be freed from everything else (muscles, tissue, etc.).

Even after tearing the pec, Ryan still trained as much as he could. He just couldn’t throw—for months. As trials drew near, in late June, neither Ryan nor Mitch had any real idea if Ryan could even qualify for Paris. At least the trials would be at Hayward Field, where two of Ryan’s uncles had starred. It was Ryan’s home field, site of his first Junior Olympics, first national championship and other indelible moments. But had the injury healed enough to even compete? Had it healed enough to make the national team? Enough to train an additional six weeks afterward to prepare for Paris?

The afternoon after he injured his pec, Ryan called his father. He explained the injury, the pain, the doubts. As Ryan hung up, Mitch heard him say he wanted to be alone. He needed to process this. One morning, he was preparing to seize another gold. That night, he was wondering if his career was finished.

But process it he did. The next day, unable to find Ryan, one of his training partners went to the place he knew he’d be—the “shop” where they lift weights. There he was: pumping iron. He had figured out a way to do that without risking further damage to the elbow or the pec muscle.