Brian Oldfield
American shot putter (1945–2017)
Brian Oldfield (June 1, 1945 – March 26, 2017) was an American athlete and personality of the 1970s and early 1980s. A standout shot putter, Oldfield was credited with making the rotational technique popular. With his "Oldfield spin," he set the indoor and outdoor world records in the sport many times. However, due to his status as a professional athlete his world records in the 1970's were never officially recognized, although he later achieved formal recognition for an American record in 1984.
Life and career
Oldfield was born in Elgin, Illinois, and began his career at Middle Tennessee State University where he won the Ohio Valley Conference championship three times. The University recognized his achievements by inducting him into their athletic Hall of Fame in 2000. Following graduation, he worked as a teacher until he moved to San Jose, and began training for the 1972 Olympics.
Oldfield set his sights on achieving stardom in the shot put as an Olympian. In 1972, he made the United States Olympic team, but finished in sixth place. He bounced back less than a year later by setting his first world record, with a throw of 21.60 m (70 ft 10½ in).
The public source identifies “Brian Oldfield” as american shot putter (1945–2017). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Brian, Oldfield and American.
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This entry incorporates text from “Brian Oldfield” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.