Hopes for medal sweep by Americans are shot

Christian Cantwell of the US wasn't satisfied with taking home the silver. (GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP/Getty Images)

BEIJING - Not a very good night for the big guys at the Bird's Nest.

This was supposed to be a celebration of American power and might in an event we long ago put a stamp on as ours, baby. Is there another track and field event in which the US of A has had six 1-2-3 sweeps (even a 1-2-3-4, if you can believe that) and six 1-2s? Can't think of any.

Oh, every once in a while we allow a drug-addled East German or an occasional Finn or Ukrainian to take a gold in the shot put, but in a world in which we long ago lost supremacy in the discus, javelin, and hammer, we still like to think of ourselves as the masters of throwing the 16-pound ball, and there was a serious expectation that we would dominate the podium here in Beijing for the first time since 1960. Yes, we were definitely thinking 1-2-3 in the shot put.

So, how about 2-7-DQ?

Christian Cantwell, the man expected to get the bronze, got the silver. Reese Hoffa, favored to win the gold, finished seventh. And Adam Nelson fouled on all three attempts and went home with nuthin' after bagging silver in both Sydney and Athens. In the Olympics, you get one night to show what you've got, and last night the only one who had anything resembling the Right Stuff was Cantwell, the biggest of the trio (6 feet 5 inches, 331 pounds), who has often been scorned as someone who chokes in the big ones.

For a guy who just got a silver few thought he would get, he didn't seem all that happy about it.

"I don't feel that great right now," he said. "It hasn't sunk in. But a silver is better than nothing. And I was in fifth until my final throw. I can come back in four years, I guess."

It was, indeed, his last throw that nailed down the only American medal. His final toss of 21.09 meters (69 feet 2 1/4 inches) served the dual purpose of vaulting him from fifth to second and knocking Canadian Dylan Armstrong out of a medal. Cantwell knocked Andrei Mikhnevich of Belarus to third and that shoved Armstrong off the podium by a centimeter (21.05-21.04). If it's any consolation, no Canadian had ever finished in the shot put top eight, and Armstrong did exit with a Canadian national record. But that wasn't what he had come for, of course.

Hoffa and Nelson had come for much more themselves. Hoffa is the reigning world champion. Nelson is a former world champion and two-time silver medalist. They figured if one of them didn't win here, the other would.

Neither offered any excuses, although Nelson had sustained an injury between his rib cage and back while training Monday. "I was hurting on Monday, but I was fine tonight," he insisted. "The injury is not an excuse. I had trouble executing tonight. I was ready to go. There is an old saying in football that 'an injury is mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.' "

Hoffa was equally philosophical. "I felt all right," he said. "But I knew in warm-ups this was one of those nights that was going to be a grinder. I think what you saw tonight was European guys catching up. They are very talented, and if we don't come to play, they are going to take charge. This sport is about power, but it's also about finesse, and if you don't have the finesse, you can't demonstrate the power. I just didn't feel connected with the ball tonight."

That did not seem to be a problem for gold medalist Tomasz Majewski of Poland. For him, this was a magical night, as he picked this particular evening to have the best performance of his career. His winning toss of 21.51 meters (70-6 3/4), which came on his fourth throw, was a personal best.

He will be 27 on the 30th of this month. He is 6-8 and weighs 287 pounds, give or take a kilo. He looks like the kind of guy who was walking down the street, saw a bunch of big guys tossing an iron ball around, and said, "Hey, I think I could do that." Not for him the modern spinning style. He throws it up there the Parry O'Brien way.

He's an Olympian, so he's obviously world-class, but his best previous finish in a major world competition was fifth in last year's world championships in Osaka, Japan.

But he was the best of the field last night.

Cantwell, the only American not to foul, had a previous high throw of 20.98 meters on his second toss. With a personal best of 22.54 and a season's best of 22.18, he was chagrined at the relatively short toss it took, at least in his opinion, to win the gold.

"If you had told me that 21.51 would have won the gold, I'd have said [expletive]," he declared.

If you had told the USOC they'd be getting only one medal from the shot put, they'd have said the same thing.