Dame Valerie Kasanita Adams is a retired New Zealand shot putter. She is a four-time World champion, four-time World Indoor champion, two-time Olympic, three-time Commonwealth Games champion and twice IAAF Continental Cup winner. She has a personal best throw of 21.24 metres (69.7 ft) outdoors and 20.98 metres (68.8 ft) indoors. These marks are Oceanian, Commonwealth and New Zealand national records. She also holds the Oceanian junior record (18.93 m) and the Oceanian youth record (17.54 m), as well as the World Championships record, World Indoor Championships record and Commonwealth Games record.
Nadzeya Astapchuk is a Belarusian shot putter. She briefly was designated the Olympic Champion in 2012, but was subsequently stripped of the title for failing a drug test and the gold medal was awarded to New Zealand shot putter Valerie Adams. She was World Champion in 2005, but in March 2013, the IAAF reported that her drug test sample from that event had been retested and found to be positive.
Larisa Alexandrovna Peleshenko is a retired Russian shot putter best known for winning the Olympic silver medal in 2000. In her early career she won European Indoor silver medals, but in February 1995 she received a four-year drugs ban. Having originally won the 1995 World Indoor Championships, she lost the medal. She won the 2001 Indoor Championships and finished fourth at the World Championships the same year, and retired at the end of the season.
Tamara Natanovna Press was a Soviet athlete who dominated the shot put and discus throw in the early 1960s. She won three gold medals and one silver medal at the 1960 and 1964 Olympics and three European titles in 1958–1962. Between 1959 and 1965, she set 11 world records: five in the shot put and six in the discus. Domestically, she held 16 national titles, nine in the shot put (1958–66) and seven in the discus (1960–66).
James Randel "Randy" Matson is an American track and field athlete who mostly competed in the shot put. Matson won a silver medal at the 1964 and a gold medal at the 1968 Olympics.
Tamara Andreevna Tyshkevich was a Soviet shot putter. She won an Olympic gold medal in 1956 and placed fourth in 1952, losing to her long-term rival Galina Zybina. At the European championships she won a bronze medal in 1954 and a silver in 1958.
Nadezhda Fyodorovna Olizarenko was a Soviet middle-distance runner. At the 1980 Olympics she won the 800 m event, setting a world record at 1:53.43, and finished third in the 1500 m. Her 800 m world record was improved in 1983, but still remains the second-best time over that distance. Other than world record holder Jarmila Kratochvílová in 1983, only two athletes, Pamela Jelimo of Kenya, in 2008, and Caster Semenya of South Africa, in 2018, have come within a second of Olizarenko's mark since it was set.
Margitta Gummel was a German Olympic gold medal-winning shot putter. She competed for the Unified German team in the 1964 Summer Olympics, East Germany in the 1968 Summer Olympics, and East Germany again at the 1972 Summer Olympics. She had a long rivalry with Nadezhda Chizhova of the Soviet Union.
George Woods was an American athlete who mainly competed in the shot put. Born in Portageville, Missouri, he moved to Sikeston, Missouri, as a baby. As a senior at Sikeston High School, Woods became the first Missouri high school athlete to top 60 ft, setting a Sikeston school record that still stands to this day. He would go on to attend Southern Illinois University.
Larisa Yurievna Selezneva is a Russian former pair skater who represented the Soviet Union. With her husband Oleg Makarov, she is the 1984 Olympic bronze medalist, 1985 World silver medalist, 1988 World bronze medalist, and two-time European champion. They were coached by Igor Moskvin.
Nadezhda or Nadežda is a Slavic female given name popular in Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia and other Slavic countries, as well as other former Soviet states such as Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan etc. It means "hope". A Russian-language diminutive form of this name is Nadia. The Belarusian version is Nadzeya, the Ukrainian version is Nadiya (Надія), and the Czech version is Naděžda, where it can also be shortened to Nad'a. In Serbo-Croatian, it can be shortened to Nada or Nađa.
Margaret "Meg" Elizabeth Stone is a retired Scottish discus thrower and Shot putter. She reached the Olympic finals at discus in Moscow 1980 (9th) and Los Angeles 1984 (5th). She also won the 1982 Commonwealth Games title. Her discus best of 67.48 metres has stood as the British record since 1981, while her shot put best of 18.99 metres has stood as the Scottish record since 1983.
Michelle Denee Carter is a retired American track and field athlete who competed in shot put. She won a gold medal in the event at the 2016 Rio Olympics, making her the first American woman to win Olympic gold in shot put and only the second to win a medal of any color. Carter is the former American record holder in the event with a distance of 20.63 m set at the 2016 Olympic Games. She was inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in 2020.
The women's shot put field event at the 1972 Olympic Games took place on September 4 & 7. Nadezhda Chizhova was very disappointed with her bronze medal finish in 1968 Olympics. She has won the European Athletics Championships. Since 1968 she has broken the world record six times. The only threat for the gold medal came from Margitta Gummel the defending Olympic Champion.
Filip Mihaljević is a Croatian discus thrower and shot putter. He became European champion in shot put in 2022. He also won bronze medals at the 2016 World Indoor Championships and 2021 European Indoor Championships.
Tomas Walsh is a New Zealand athlete who competes mainly in the shot put. He is the current national record holder both outdoors and indoors for the event. His personal best of 22.90 m, set in Doha, 5 October 2019, is also the Oceanian record and makes him the seventh best shot putter in history.
Anna Semyonovna Andreyeva was a Soviet track and field athlete who competed mainly in the shot put. She was the gold medallist at the 1950 European Athletics Championships and a four-time Soviet national champion. Her personal best of 15.02 m was a world record and was the first time a woman had thrown beyond fifteen metres.
Tatyana Nikitichna Sevryukova was a Soviet track and field athlete who competed mainly in the shot put. She was the gold medallist at the 1946 European Athletics Championships and broke the world record for the event in 1948.
Jaroslav Brabec was a Czech track and field athlete who competed in the shot put. He twice represented Czechoslovakia at the Summer Olympics. He was a three-time participant at the European Athletics Championships and a three-time medallist at the European Athletics Indoor Championships, being the champion at the 1973 edition.
Lynn Graham is an American former track and field athlete who specialized in the shot put. Graham was the Pan American Games gold medalist in 1971. She won six national titles in the shot put and one in the discus. Her lifetime personal record is 16.18 m, set in Garden Grove, California on May 28, 1971.
