RIO DE JANEIRO – It came down to the final round and the drama, along with an American record, made the victory even sweeter for Lifetime Longhorn Michelle Carter as she won gold in the women’s shot put at the Olympic Games.
Carter found herself in second place behind New Zealand’s Valerie Adams after each of the first five rounds of throws. Then, Carter unleashed a bomb in the sixth round.
With a toss of 20.68 meters (67-10.25) to move ahead of Adams and her previous mark of 20.42 meters (67-0.00) from Round 2 and break Carter’s own American record set in 2013. Adams was unable to respond on the final throw of the competition, putting a big throw out but measuring 20.39 meters.
The victory marks the first time an American woman has won gold in the shot put and also is the first time one has won any medal at the Olympics since 1960.
“You can’t even put into words the emotion sitting there with Michelle’s dad Michael and she’s winning the gold medal,” said Texas Head Coach Mario Sategna. “I couldn’t more happy for her and her dad, who was a silver medalist in ’84. I think it goes to show she’s a person who does it the right way. It was definitely a great day for The University of Texas and the Carter family.”
Carter’s gold medal helped set the tone for Team USA on the first day of track and field competition as the Americans advanced through preliminaries in running events in bunches on Friday night from Olympic Stadium.
