Awaiting the Paris Olympics 2024, track and field athletes have a lot to prove at the eleventh hour. At the ongoing USATF Indoor Championships, we’re already feeling the mercury rise. In the Women’s Shot Put event, the reigning champ Chase Jackson proved her prowess again. With a throw of 20.02m, the 29-year-old Illinois native claimed the top position.

Gold medalist in two consecutive World Outdoor Championships (2022 Eugene and 2023 Budapest), the 29-year-old recorded her personal best with 20.43m in 2023. Behind her best time by a small fraction, Jackson ensured nobody threatened her throne in the Olympic year. She’s also the first US woman to have won a Shot Put title at the World Athletics Championships. But in which year did her golden career take off?

USATF Indoor Championships celebrated the reigning Shot Put champ

After a couple of average finishes, the 29-year-old kicked off her journey to the golden peak in 2019. At the 2019 USATF Indoor Championships, she claimed her first Shot Put title. Since then, she has been unstoppable. The best year came in 2023 when she shifted rival Sarah Mitton to second in Budapest. But her legacy got carried forward in the Wanda Diamond League, where she bested her strongest track and field competitor, Mitton, for the second consecutive time.

Jackson’s words “It took me a little bit of time to warm up. I couldn’t quite feel the ball, I haven’t trained in a while. So it just took a little longer”, still rings but her recent performance manifested signs of an excellent form. She had said, “I have good people around me and I think that’s really important. It’s really made my throwing a lot better and everything better as a whole.” In college and while representing the US team, she has garnered praise but couldn’t look past gender stereotypes.

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“As a girl, it (shot put) has never been like an ideal event because it’s looked at a little bit negatively, like a miss Trunchbull from Matilda,” she had said to Olympic.com. Popular for her quirky eye makeup skills, the 29-year-old can feel the times changing. The younger generation is more welcoming and their influence on the world is significant. “I’ve seen like tons of camps and young kids are getting really interested in it, and it’s it makes me really proud. So being a thrower is beautiful now”, having inspired many through her work, she looks to bag more titles this year.

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