Brian Oldfield opened his new blog!

Former shot put record holder opened his blog called "The Oldfield Spin".
Check it out here!

You can also look at his webpage which contains a lot of interesting stuff including videos, pictures, biography, articles & links.



Some facts about Brian Oldfield

Brian Oldfield was born in Elgin, IL June 1, 1945 where he also graduated Elgin High School. A standout shot putter, Oldfield is credited with making the rotational technique popular.



Brian was the first glider who threw over 70´(21.34m). In 1973 he set the new Indoor World record of 70' 10 1/2(21.60m) which unfortunately was not recognized due to his professional status***. In 1975 he set the unofficial World Record of 75 feet(22.86m) which was unofficial because Brian was a part of Professional Track. In 1984 Brian set the American Record of 72' 9"(22.17m). His last throw over 70´(21.34m) was done at the age of 40! It still stands as an age group record.

Brian Oldfield also competed at many other sports such as boxing and wrestling. He also competed at several "World's Strongest Man" competitions. By the way, did you know that Brian was a sparring partner of Muhammad Ali ?

Brian was also successful at many other track and field events. He ran 100m in 10.5 seconds, high jumped 6´6(1.98m) and ran 40 yard dash in 4.3 seconds. In 1973 Brian scored 5750 points in decathlon. He also was a good discus, hammer and javelin thrower. His discus PB of 204´(62.18m), javelin PB of 210´(64m) and hammer PB of 180´(54.86m) are still impressive for the athlete that actually didn´t practise much for these events. In conclusion we can say that he could have been a great decathlete also! Brian had an extraordinary power, for an example he dunked a 16 pound(7.3kg) shot! See for yourself...

We also reccommend you to watch this clip of Brian running dash and throwing World Record 22.86m.


Brian now works as a coach. In 2006 he got The Hall of Fame "plaque" from National Throw Coaches Association.

***Professional status was indorsement to an athlete to seperate professional athletes from amateur athletes. Professional athletes were paid for their work as athletes and their job was to entertain audience. Amateur athletes didn´t practice daily, they didn´t get paid for being an athlete and usually they had some other job which they worked on every day. Professional athletes were just like circus artist´s so it was common that they didn´t compete with amateurs because otherwise it wouldn´t have been equal competition. Records (Brian Oldfield was a professional athlete) were not recognized as amateur athlete records.