In which event do athletes throw a 16-pound metal ball?

In which event do athletes throw a 16-pound metal ball? The answer is shot put.

Despite the familiar phrase “throwing the shot,” competitors technically put it: they push the spherical implement from one shoulder using one hand. In senior men's competition, the shot weighs 7.26 kilograms, or 16 pounds. Athletes compete from a circular throwing area and must stay within its boundaries while sending the shot into a marked landing sector.

Shot put has roots in ancient contests of strength and later developed from military and Highland Games traditions involving stones or metal weights. It has been part of the men's modern Olympic program since 1896; women's Olympic shot put began in 1948. Modern techniques include the glide and the rotational spin, both designed to build speed before release.

A common mix-up is confusing shot put with discus throw or hammer throw. Those events also use heavy implements, but the shot is a compact sphere and is propelled from near the neck rather than swung on a long wire or released from a disc.