Tom Rowland Podcast Episode 938 is my conversation with Ryan Crouser, the three-time Olympic gold medalist and world-record holder in the shot put — the first person ever to win that event three times. Ryan is also a serious fly fisherman, fly tyer, and public-land bowhunter. We get into how he trains at six foot seven and 335 pounds, the technique innovation he calls the Crouser slide, his regimented diet, and how fishing has helped him win gold medals.
Listen now: Apple Podcasts · Spotify · YouTube · Press play in the player above to watch.
Ryan Crouser is a three-time Olympic gold medalist and world-record holder in the shot put — the first person ever to win the shot put three times at the Olympics. At six foot seven and around 335 pounds, he trains on his own five-acre property in Northwest Arkansas. He is also an avid fly fisherman, fly tyer, and public-land bowhunter who runs a YouTube channel mixing training with outdoor content.
Ryan balances raw strength with mobility and athleticism. His rule of thumb for being competitive at the U.S. level is the three-four-five-six: a 300-pound snatch, 400-pound clean, 500-pound bench, and 600-pound squat. His own bests are around a 352-pound snatch, a 425 power clean, a 550 bench, and a 725 back squat. He does a lot of flexibility and rotational work because throwing a 16-pound ball requires being a genuinely good overall athlete.
The Crouser slide is the technique innovation Ryan developed in December 2022 and debuted in 2023, breaking the world record that May. As one of the tallest shot putters at six foot seven, he is confined by the seven-foot ring. The extra lateral step shifts his center of gravity over his left foot and effectively makes the ring feel bigger, giving him more room to generate force without being pulled toward the toe board.
Ryan treats fishing as a mental reset that supports his training. As a professional athlete he can only train productively about six hours a day, so he sneaks away for half-day trips around Northwest Arkansas — trout on the White River, smallmouth, bass, and a strong striper fishery. He is primarily a streamer guy and a dedicated fly tyer who fishes flies he ties himself, having tied roughly 6,000 of them.
Ryan eats a tightly regimented diet to support five to six hours of daily training. In his mid-twenties he ate around 6,000 calories a day; now in his thirties he is closer to 4,400 to 5,000 depending on the season, and takes in roughly 350 grams of protein, much of it from wild venison he harvests himself. He eats to recover rather than to satisfy hunger and uses micellar casein before bed for overnight muscle recovery.
Ryan treats every competition as a standalone event, irrelevant to what he has done before. His motivation, the same one he had in middle school, is simply to be the best he can be on that day. He says if you walk onto the field knowing you did everything possible to prepare, you are very hard to beat — and even if someone beats you, there was nothing more you could have done.
Tom Rowland Podcast Episode 938 with Ryan Crouser is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and iHeartRadio. The video version is embedded at the top of this page.
I watched Ryan win gold this year and the time before that, and the thing that pulled me in was not just the medals — it was that he is a real fisherman and hunter who trains every single day, the same way I do. I found his channel by searching Ryan Crouser fishing, and his training looked nothing like what I expected from a powerful athlete: enormous amounts of mobility and flexibility work. I came into this one as a student, wanting to understand how the best in the world prepares.
Press play in the YouTube player at the top of this page to hear the whole thing.
Ryan walks me through the balance between brute strength and mobility that throwing demands. He lays out the three-four-five-six benchmark and his own jaw-dropping numbers, including a 725-pound back squat. But what surprised me most was how much flexibility and rotational work he does. He is, in his own words, just trying to be a genuinely good athlete who can also throw a 16-pound ball farther than anyone alive. Listen to him break down the program.
This is the technique the Olympic broadcasters kept talking about. Ryan came up with it on a cold December night in 2022, just messing around in the barn, and within months he broke the world record with it. As one of the tallest throwers ever, he is boxed in by the seven-foot ring. The extra lateral step makes the ring feel bigger by shifting his center of gravity. He explains the innovation, and the surprising geopolitical history of shot put technique, in the episode.
Ryan can only train about six hours a day before it stops being productive, so fishing is how he clears his head and stays accountable the rest of the time. He fishes a lot of half-day trips around Northwest Arkansas, ties his own flies — around 6,000 of them — and leans toward streamers and mousing. He even paddled a kayak miles offshore to the Texas rigs in his college years. Press play in the YouTube player above to hear how he fits it all in.
Ryan's diet is the most regimented part of his life, and the part he likes least. He breaks down a day of eating — half a pound of ground venison and six eggs for breakfast, a pound of lean meat and rice at lunch, casein before bed — and explains why he never eats when he is hungry. He takes in around 350 grams of protein a day, much of it from deer he bowhunts on public land. Listen to him walk through it.
Listen to the full conversation: Apple Podcasts · Spotify · or watch in the YouTube player at the top of this page.
The day after talking to Ryan, the thing I kept replaying was his mindset on repeating. I have won fishing tournaments and always found winning the second or third time the hardest part. Ryan has won the most prestigious event in his sport three times by treating each one as a standalone and simply trying to be the best he can be on that day.
The other takeaway is how normal he is about all of it. A three-time gold medalist who ties size 22 midges, processes his own venison, and sneaks away for an afternoon of trout fishing. The discipline is extreme, but the love of the outdoors is exactly the same as everyone listening to this show.
Press play in the player above, or grab Episode 938 on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
The Tom Rowland Podcast brings you long-form conversations with the most accomplished anglers, hunters, conservationists, and outdoor professionals in the game. Listen to every full-length Tom Rowland Podcast interview.
Ryan Crouser is a three-time Olympic gold medalist and world-record holder in the shot put, and the first athlete ever to win the event three times at the Olympics. A University of Texas graduate from the Pacific Northwest now based in Northwest Arkansas, he trains on his own property and developed the technique known as the Crouser slide. Beyond track and field, he is an accomplished fly fisherman, prolific fly tyer, and public-land bowhunter who shares his training and outdoor pursuits on his YouTube channel.
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