It has taken the U.S. runners a while to get up to speed at the Rio Olympics, but the American throwers and jumpers have been locked in since the beginning.
That trend continued Thursday night as Ryan Crouser and Joe Kovacs took gold and silver in the shot put. Crouser won with a throw of 22.52 meters (73 feet, 10 3/4 inches), breaking the Olympic record of 22.47 that had stood since the 1988 Seoul Games. Kovacs' 21.78 was good for silver and Tomas Walsh of New Zealand took bronze in 21.36.
Their work follows gold-silver finishes in the men's triple jump (Christian Taylor and Will Claye) and women's long jump (Tianna Bartoletta and Brittney Reese), plus golds in the women's shot put (Michelle Carter) and men's long jump (Jeff Henderson).