I think there were at least 4 gliders in the mens final (including the winner). I’m not sure about the women but in the past couple championships, women’s finals have been about 60% gliders while only 30% of the throwers in the men’s finals have used the glide technique.
As a side note, in all my research on the event I can say without hesitation that it is possible to throw equally far with either technique (and the all-time performance lists reflect this). I think there are several reasons that the spin has gained such widespread popularity. The first of these is because of the different type of athlete who are coming to the event as compared to the 70s through late 80s. I think that the spin tends to be better for what would typically be considered a “great athlete” as opposed to just a strong athlete. On a related note, I think the glide requires much more strength to throw as far as with the spin so the combination of decreased drug usage and decreased emphasis on strength development have made the spin the easier technique to use for achieving the desired results. Finally, over the past 15 years the spin technique has been refined to the point that it is no longer just a copy of a discus spin but almost a completely separate animal.
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