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 (sports), ball—the ''shot''—as far as possible. For men, the sport has been a part of the Olympic Games, modern Olympics since their 1896 Summer Olym ...

ter and

discus throw The discus throw (), also known as disc throw, is a track and field sport in which the participant athlete throws an oblate spheroid weight (object), weight called a discus in an attempt to mark a further distance than other competitors. It is a ...

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. Two branch campuses are in the Kansas City metropolitan area on the Kansas side: the university's medical school and hospital ...

before transferring to the

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

. He qualified for the

2020 Summer Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

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 t ...

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') 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 border ...

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

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

, and then the

, before transferring to the

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

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

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 (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includ ...

'' "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 Alamosa is the List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule city that is the county seat of Alamosa County, Colorado, United States. Alamosa is located along the Rio Grande. The city population was 9,806 in the 2020 Unit ...

. He also won gold medals in shot put and discus throw at the

2009 Pan American Junior Athletics Championships The 2009 Pan American Junior Championships were held in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago at the Hasely Crawford Stadium on July 31 to August 2, 2009. A report on the results was given. Participation (unofficial) Detailed result lists can ...

Port of Spain Port of Spain ( ; Trinidadian and Tobagonian English, Trinidadian English: ''Port ah Spain'' ) is the capital and chief port of Trinidad and Tobago. With a municipal population of 49,867 (2017), an urban population of 81,142 and a transient dail ...

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger, more populous island of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, the country. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is the southernmost island in ...

. 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

*
University of Wyoming track profile

University 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 FISU World University Games 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 sportsmen {{US-shotput-athletics-bio-stub