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September 11, 2020
Crouser, Rudolph earn repeat Athlete of the Week honors
INDIANAPOLIS -- For the third time this year and the second week in a row,
Ryan Crouser
(Fayetteville, Arkansas) earned USATF Athlete of the Week after another big shot put series.
Wilma Rudolph
also picked up her second award of the year as the winner of the 24th USATF Throwback Athlete of the Week award for setting a world record in the women’s 100m on September 2, 1960. In the absence of regular competition during the Covid-19 pandemic, we are taking a weekly look back at some of the great efforts by American track and field athletes through the years.
Crouser had five more throws of better than 22m at the Chorzów World Athletics Continental Tour meet in Poland, winning with a 22.70m/74-5.75 that was the ninth-best performance in U.S. history. His shortest throw of his five legal efforts was 22.42m/73-6.75. Those throws gave the reigning Olympic champion 24 tosses past 22m this year, one of the greatest seasons ever in the event. Crouser won Athlete of the Week in July after his world-leading 22.91m/75-2 at Marietta, Georgia, on July 18, and again last week after a magnificent skein of six throws that ranked as the second-best series in history.
Rudolph’s 11.3/11.41 in the 100m came in the semifinals at the Olympic Games in Rome, where she became the first woman to win three Olympic golds in the same Games. She was dominant in the first semi, trouncing the field by .3 seconds before coming back later that day to win the final in a wind-aided 11.0. Rudolph added gold in the 200m, after setting an Olympic record in the heats, and anchored the U.S. 4x100m relay to victory in 44.5 after helping the quartet set a world record of 44.4 in the prelims.
Other historical performances of note from the August 31-September 6 period in USATF history:
August 31 — Frank Shorter American record in men’s 10,000m, 27:58.2 at Munich in 1972
September 1 — Frank Covelli American record in men’s javelin, 86.77m/284-8 at Long Beach, California in 1968
September 3 — Margaret Jenkins American record in women’s javelin, 38.80m/127-3 at Eureka, California in 1927
September 4 — Mable Fergerson American record in women’s 400m, 51.91 at Munich in 1972
September 5 — Mark Nenow American record in men’s 10,000m, 27:20.56 at Brussels in 1986
September 6 — Otis Davis American record in men’s 400m, 45.07 at Rome in 1960
Other notable performances from the past week included:
Sam Kendricks cleared 6.02m/19-9 in the men’s pole vault at the Lausanne Diamond League meet, equaling the fourth-best performance in U.S. history
Taliyah Brooks had a season’s best in the women’s long jump, spanning 6.57m/21-6.75 at Marseille, France
Now in its 19th year, USATF’s Athlete of the Week program is designed to recognize outstanding performers at all levels of the sport. USATF names a new honoree each week and features the athlete on USATF.org. Selections are based on top performances and results from the previous week.
2020 Winners: January 9, Miranda Melville; January 16, Paul Perry; January 23, Natosha Rogers; January 30, Tyler Day, February 6, Devin Dixon; February 13, Elle Purrier; February 20, Tori Franklin; February 27, Sandi Morris; March 4, Abdi Abdirahman; March 12 Marielle Hall; March 19, Tim Tollefson; April 2, Louise Ritter; April 9, Francie Larrieu Smith; April 16, Erin Gilreath; April 23, Suzy Powell; April 30, Joe Dial; May 7, Dawn Ellerbe; May 14, Ramona Pagel; May 21, Brian Oldfield; May 28, Jackie Joyner-Kersee; June 4, Jesse Owens; June 11, Mary Decker Slaney; June 18, Leroy Burrell; June 25, Sandra Farmer-Patrick; July 2, Jim Ryun; July 9, Evelyn Ashford; July 16, Wilma Rudolph & Shelby Houlihan; July 23, Pat Daniels & Ryan Crouser; July 30, Michael Norman & Mildred “Babe” Didriksen; August 6, Valarie Allman & Parry O’Brien; August 13, Sara Hall & Kevin Young; August 20, Justin Robinson & Jackie Joyner-Kersee; August 27, Donavan Brazier & Renaldo Nehemiah; September 3, Ryan Crouser & Mike Powell; September 10, Ryan Crouser & Wilma Rudolph.
We welcome your nominations!
To nominate an athlete for USATF Athlete of the Week, please send a detailed email about his/her performance to
communications@usatf.org
.
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