Why are Americans so good, or deep, in the shot put and nopt in the discus? Right now I think we haev the #1,2,4, and 5 marks in the world for shot put, but only the #3 and 5 in the world in the disc, and it is a non olympic year. Disc isn't really that far behind but it seems like you always hear about Godina and Nelson and Cantwell, but never Rome and Waltz.
That's simple…because I'm the shot put biomechanist and not the discus biomechanist 😉
On a more serious note, the US has long been deeper in the SP than the DT. I think part of this (at least recently) is that we are one of the few countries in the world that have coaches who really understand the spin technique. The spin technique permits a wider range of athletes to compete at a very high level than the glide technique.
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