 Armstrong in 2011 at the Triton Invitational where he threw 21.72m (71.3 ft) | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Born | (1981-01-15)January 15, 1981 (age 44) Kamloops,British Columbia, Canada |
| Height | 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)[1] |
| Weight | 306 lb (139 kg; 21.9 st)[1] |
| Sport | |
| Sport | Track and field |
| Event(s) | Shot put,hammer throw |
| Achievements and titles | |
| Personalbest(s) | SP – 22.21 mNR,Calgary, 2011[2] |
Medal record | |
Dylan Armstrong (born January 15, 1981) is aCanadian athletics coach and retired competitiveshot putter. He is the2008 Olympic bronze medallist, a two-timeWorld Athletics Championships medallist, a two-timePan American Games champion, and the2010 Commonwealth Games champion in that discipline. He was awarded his Olympic bronze medal in 2015, seven years after the event, following the doping disqualification of competitorAndrei Mikhnevich.
Armstrong holds theCanadian national record for the shot put, and is a former holder of thePan American Games andCommonwealth games records. Armstrong was the first Canadian to reach the podium in a throwing event in a major global competition.
Prior to focusing on the shot put in 2004, Armstrong competed in thehammer throw.[2] As a junior, he won agold medal at the 1999 Pan American Junior Games and asilver medal at the 2000 World Junior Championships. He continues to hold the North American high school and junior records in the hammer throw. His personal best is 71.51 ft, achieved in April 2003 inWalnut.
Armstrong achieved a personal best, andCanadian record at that time, of 21.04 meters at the2008 Summer Olympics inBeijing, where he finished fourth, missing out on amedal by a single centimetre. However, on August 20, 2014 the Canadian Olympic Committee announced that Armstrong would be awarded the2008 Summer Olympic bronze medal by theInternational Olympic Committee. This followed a retroactive lifetime ban for doping violations dating back to 2005 given to Belarusian shot putterAndrei Mikhnevich, who had won the medal initially.[3][4]
28 years after former Canadian national champion Bruno Pauletto won gold at the1982 Commonwealth Games Armstrong succeeded in reiterating that performance at the2010 edition of the Games, placing first with a Commonwealth record of 21.02 m.[5][6] At the2010 World Indoor Championship, inDoha,Qatar, Dylan placed fourth with a Canadian indoor record of 21.39 m. He improved his outdoor national record to 21.58 m at the Askina Meeting inBaunatal, Germany, beatingRalf Bartels to the victory.[7] When in 2014 Andrei Mikhnevich was stripped of the event's silver medal for doping violations, Armstrong moved up to the bronze medal position.[3]
His first true world success came at the2011 World Championships in Athletics when he won the silver at the outdoor event for shot put. He threw a 21.64 beforeDavid Storl ofGermany beat him with a 21.78 on his last throw.[8] Armstrong next attended the2011 Pan American Games, there he went on to win gold and broke thePan American Games record with a 21.30.[9] Armstrong finished off the year by winning theDiamond League title in shot put.[10]
As one of Canada's leading medal favourites and only medal favourite in athletics, Armstrong had set a season's best of 21.50 heading into the2012 Summer Olympics in London.[10] There he finished fifth, falling short of a medal.[11]
Prior to the beginning of the2013 World Athletics Championships, Armstrong was awarded the bronze medal from the2010 IAAF World Indoor Championships afterAndrei Mikhnevich's positive drug test and subsequent forfeiture of his silver medal.[12] At the time the IAAF and IOC had yet to rule on whether Armstrong would as well receive the bronze medal from the 2008 Olympics where he just missed the podium behind Mikhnevich. In an interview regarding the possible return of the medal Armstrong stated that "I worked hard for it, and I want it back...It's my country's medal too, we deserve it."[13] The decision to allocate the Olympic bronze medal to Armstrong was finally announced in January 2015.
After the awarding of his indoor medal, Armstrong began competition at the 2013 World Championships. He qualified for the finals where he threw 21.04 m. In the finals he tossed a season's best 21.34 m. Armstrong acknowledge the importance of sport funding as a result of what was Canada's fourth medal at the World Championships, tying a record from the1995 World Championships. He said that "I just feel amazing. My coach and I worked really hard, I made some really good choices this year. It's another medal for Canada, it shows that when you have the right coaches in place, the right support and the funding behind it that it's going to pay off. You have to invest in sport, results don't come for free."[14] Armstrong received his medal at a ceremony in his hometown of Kamloops on February 15, 2015, around 700 people attended the event.[15]
Following his competitive career, Armstrong started coaching amateur athletes at theKamloops Track and Field Club in 2017.[16] He notably guided studentEthan Katzberg to a World title in the men'shammer throw at the2023 World Athletics Championships.[17][18]
Armstrong lives inKamloops, British Columbia and trained there during his career at the nearby National Throws Centre with famed coach and Olympic gold medallistAnatoliy Bondarchuk.[18] In September 2015 Armstrong married the Russian shot putterYevgeniya Kolodko whom he dated since 2012.[19] In a reversal of situations, his wife Kolodko was stripped of all her medals from 2012 to 2016 following positive doping results in 2016 and tests of B samples.[20] Armstrong responded to the issue saying: "News of athlete doping is very disheartening for competitive athletes who are committed to competing clean. I have never condoned doping in sport … I have been consistently outspoken about my position on doping, which is zero tolerance. Today's news is especially difficult as it affects both the Olympic athletic community I am part of – and someone I love deeply: Evgeniia."[21]
| Year | Competition | Venue | Position | Event | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Representing Canada | |||||
| 2000 | World Junior Championships | Santiago,Chile | 18th (q) | Discus | 49.53 m |
| 2nd | Hammer | 67.50 m | |||
| 2001 | Jeux de la Francophonie | Ottawa,Ontario, Canada | 3rd | Shot put | 17.57 m |
| 7th | Hammer | 64.91 m | |||
| World Championships | Edmonton,Alberta,Canada | 31st (q) | Hammer | 63.89 m | |
| 2007 | Pan American Games | Rio,Brazil | 1st | Shot | 20.10 m |
| World Championships | Osaka,Japan | 8th | Shot | 20.23 m | |
| 2008 | World Indoor Championships | Valencia, Spain | 14th (q) | Shot | 19.56 m |
| Olympic Games | Beijing,China | 3rd | Shot | 21.04 m | |
| 2009 | World Championships | Berlin,Germany | 16th (q) | Shot | 19.86 m |
| World Athletics Final | Thessaloniki,Greece | 7th | Shot | 19.61 m | |
| 2010 | World Indoor Championship | Doha,Qatar | 3rd | Shot | 21.39 m |
| Commonwealth Games | Delhi,India | 1st | Shot | 21.02 m | |
| 2011 | World Championship | Daegu,South Korea | 2nd | Shot | 21.64 m |
| Pan American Games | Guadalajara,Mexico | 1st | Shot | 21.30 m | |
| 2012 | World Indoor Championship | Istanbul,Turkey | 9th (q) | Shot | 19.84 m |
| Olympic Games | London,United Kingdom | 5th | Shot | 20.93 m | |
| 2013 | World Championship | Moscow,Russia | 3rd | Shot | 21.34 m |
|
 Diamond League champions in men's shot put | |
|---|---|
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