Global trends in throwing techniques and performance in women's shot put

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate global trends in throwing techniques and performance in women’s shot put to provide useful data for future advancements. The study focused on the period from 2008 to 2024, analyzing records and trends of athletes placing in the top-eight at the World Championships and the Olympics. Additionally, the study examined characteristics of the top-eight finishers who adopted the rotational technique after its introduction to the sport in 2015. The primary source of data used for this analysis was World Athletics (https://worldathletics.org/). The results showed that there was no statistically significant change in the performance level for top-eight finishers in the World Championships and Olympics since 2008. Significant (p = .002) differences were observed between Group G (33.00 [28.50–34.50]) and Group R (27.00 [24.75–29.00]) in terms of their age. These findings suggest that the rotational throw technique has not yet contributed to improving performance at the competition level in women’s shot put. However, given the younger age of rotational throwers, further improvements in performance are expected in the future.