Willscrlt
Corinn
Shot-put and discus! /former thrower
Are the shot put and discus one standard weight, and the challenge is only distance? Or are there different weight classes as well as distances? If the weights are all the same, it would seem that only the biggest, beefiest folks would do well, and smaller, lankier athletes would never make it.
I remember as a little kid trying to lift the shot put (or is it just called the "shot"?), and I couldn't get it to budge. How much does one weight? What about a discus?
The metallic ball is just "the shot." "Put" is a verb meaning "to throw with a pushing motion" (if you try to throw a shot like a baseball you will
destroy your shoulder, for srs). In shot-put you put the shot, as in hammer-throw you throw the hammer. (And I've seen them both rendered with and without a hyphen in the noun-verb phrase, though it seems to have become popular to ditch the hyphen, so *shrug*.)
There are standard weights for men's and women's shots and discuses. Women's shot is 4 kg (8.8lbs) and men's shot is... uh...
[/looks on Wikipedia-- I did women's shot a decade ago, okay? I only remember it was a weird number LOL] 7.26 kg (16.01 lbs). There are other sizes used for competition in junior leagues or some schools (usually lighter) or for training (usually heavier-- my team had a 10 lb shot for training purposes). As for the discus, the women's disc weighs 1 kg and the men's disc weighs 2 kg, and the men's disc has a slightly wider diameter since dudes generally have bigger hands. Again, weights can vary for youth leagues and training.
So at the Olympic level, the weights are standard. Not sure about the size and metallic makeup of the shots-- making them with different metals can render shots of different diameters. Anyway, the challenge is how far you can throw an object of a standard weight.
Taller, broader athletes have an advantage in shot and disc, yes. Just like shorter, slighter athletes have an advantage in gymnastics.
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