Mason Finley (born October 7, 1990), is an American

shot put The shot put is a track and field event involving "putting" (throwing) a heavy spherical ball—the ''shot''—as far as possible. The shot put competition for men has been a part of the modern Olympics since their revival in 1896, and women's ...

ter and

discus throw The discus throw (), also known as disc throw, is a track and field event in which an athlete throws a heavy disk (mathematics), disc—called a discus—in an attempt to mark a farther distance than their competitors. It is an classical antiqui ...

er. He was on the track and field team at the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. Tw ...

before transferring to the

University of Wyoming The University of Wyoming (UW) is a public land-grant research university in Laramie, Wyoming. It was founded in March 1886, four years before the territory was admitted as the 44th state, and opened in September 1887. The University of Wyoming ...

. He qualified for the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

in discus.

Early life

Finley was born in

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more ...

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

. He attended Buena Vista High School (where he also played basketball and football) in

Buena Vista Buena Vista, meaning "good view" in Spanish, may refer to: Places Canada *Bonavista, Newfoundland and Labrador, with the name being originally derived from “Buena Vista” *Buena Vista, Saskatchewan *Buena Vista, Saskatoon, a neighborhood in ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

, and then the

, before transferring to the

. For his high school dominance, Finley was named to the ''

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

RISE Rise or RISE may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities * '' Rise: The Vieneo Province'', an internet-based virtual world * Rise FM, a fictional radio station in the video game ''Grand Theft Auto 3'' * Rise Kujikawa, a vide ...

'' 2000s All-Decade High School Track & Field Team. He was also ''

Track and Field News ''Track & Field News'' is an American monthly sports magazine founded in 1948 by brothers Bert Nelson and Cordner Nelson, focused on the world of track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on runni ...

'' "High School Athlete of the Year" in 2009.

Career

Finley set a Colorado high school record in discus with a throw of during the High Altitude Challenge in Alamosa, Colorado. He also won gold medals in shot put and discus throw at the 2009 Pan American Junior Athletics Championships in

Port of Spain Port of Spain (Spanish: ''Puerto España''), officially the City of Port of Spain (also stylized Port-of-Spain), is the capital of Trinidad and Tobago and the third largest municipality, after Chaguanas and San Fernando. The city has a municip ...

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

. As a freshman at Kansas, he was All American in the shot put and the discus. His best throws as a freshman were 60.12m (197–3 ft.) in the discus and 20.68 meters (67-10.25 ft.) in the shot. In 2017 Finley won the bronze medal in the discus throw event at the World Championships in London, throwing 68.03 meters. This breaks an 18-year drought of no American medalists in the discus throw, and marks the first time an American has placed in the men's discus throw since the World Championships in Seville, where Anthony Washington won the gold medal. He qualified for the

after placing first in qualification with a throw of .

References

External links

* *

DyeStat DyeStat was a website self-described as "The Internet Home of High School Track & Field". It was founded in 1998 by John Dye, and featured his wife (Donna Dye) as the features editor, senior editor Steve Underwood, assistant editor Dave Devine, tw ...

profile fo
Mason FinleyUniversity of Wyoming track profileUniversity of Kansas track profile
1990 births Living people Track and field athletes from Kansas City, Missouri American male shot putters American male discus throwers Kansas Jayhawks men's track and field athletes Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic track and field athletes for the United States Universiade medalists in athletics (track and field) World Athletics Championships athletes for the United States World Athletics Championships medalists Universiade bronze medalists for the United States USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships winners Medalists at the 2011 Summer Universiade Athletes (track and field) at the 2020 Summer Olympics 21st-century American people {{US-shotput-athletics-bio-stub