Shot Diva Michelle Carter Finally Getting a Leading Role

Published by IAAF on April 20, 2016

It’s athletics’ counterpart to basketball’s buzzer-beater. You are behind but you have the competition’s last attempt; and you then trump them all.

At last month’s IAAF World Indoor Championships Portland 2016, Hungarian shot putter Anita Marton elevated herself into first place with her final round 19.33m, a national indoor record to push host nation favourite Michelle Carter into second place.

However, Carter responded by uncorking a US indoor record of 20.21m, just three centimetres short of her outdoor record of 20.24m.

Carter most gratifying moment of the night – other than the gold medal – came from the reaction of her fellow competitors, including the multiple champion Valerie Adams, congratulating the 2004 world junior champion for final getting her first global title as a senior after a decade of lesser medals and top placings without ever being able to climb to the top of the podium.