O'BRIEN, (William) Parry, Jr.

(b. 28 January 1932 in Santa Monica, California), world record-setting shot-putter, Olympic champion, and inventor of a revolutionary technique for throwing the shot.

O'Brien became interested in shot-putting during a family trip to Canada when he was fourteen. While playing in a riverbed, he picked up huge, rounded stones and amused himself by seeing how far he could hurl them.

O'Brien's personality was uniquely suited to his solitary sport. After graduating from Santa Monica High School, he entered the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles on a football scholarship, but was soon steered into track and field by the football coach Jess Hill, who saw his potential in the other sport. This was a startling decision, since O'Brien was six feet, three inches tall, weighed 220 pounds, and could run 100 yards in fewer than 10 seconds. However, he found that he loved shot-putting because winning or losing was solely under his control and not dependent on the actions of other team members. "I gave up football because I wanted to be able to take the credit or the blame for what I did in sports. I always wanted to be the soloist."

Thickly built and powerfully muscled, O'Brien had the perfect physique for his sport, but he added determination, long hours of training, and a great deal of thought to his physical ability. In 1951, his sophomore year at USC, O'Brien came in second at a meet in Fresno, California, with a throw almost two feet short of his best mark, and even shorter than the national freshman record of 53 feet, 1.5 inches he had set the year before. Disappointed, he was determined to find out what he was doing wrong, and stayed in the shot-putter's circle long after the event, practicing and analyzing his throws. He was so absorbed in the practice that he almost missed his airplane home. At 3:30 the next morning, his father found him behind their house, shot-putting in the glare of a streetlight. After each throw, O'Brien had to use a flashlight to search for the shot in a nearby vacant lot before throwing it again. "I think I've discovered something," he told his father, and kept practicing until four in the morning. His father commented, "He has more determination than four mules." Later in life, O'Brien told a reporter that he threw the sixteen-pound shot 150 times per day, and remarked, "I don't quit until my hands are bleeding. And that's the God's truth."

Despite his determination, he lost by one inch at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) meet in Seattle later in 1951, and shortly afterward lost again. Again he continued to practice for several hours after the meet, and this time, it paid off. At his first national Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) meet in 1951, the nineteen-year-old sophomore put the shot 55 feet, 9.25 inches for a victory, ending the shot-putter Jim Fuchs's string of 88 consecutive victories. Eventually O'Brien set his own streak of 116 victories in a row.

During a series of European meets in 1951, O'Brien began to experiment, turning his right foot farther and farther toward the back of the circle, and turning his whole body so his back faced the direction of the throw before executing a 180-degree spin. Coaches and others criticized O'Brien for this unusual stance, but he was convinced that the new move would eventually allow him to throw from fifty-nine to sixty feet. He drew a chalk circle on the asphalt behind his fraternity house at college and practiced shot-putting into a parking lot, working long hours every day. He wanted to be alone, so that he could concentrate on his technique and work out any flaws himself, without input from a coach. During this time, O'Brien often threw his shot put over the fence of the Los Angeles Coliseum, climbed over after it, and practiced there in the field for hours, under the light of the huge Olympic flame tower that remained from the 1932 Games. The flame intensified his determination to participate in the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, Finland.

In addition to his intense practice sessions, O'Brien studied yoga, believing it would give him mental discipline and increase his ability to visualize and concentrate on a throw. He also listened to African tribal chants before competitions, using the music to pump up his energy. He believed in the value of "psyching out" his opponents, and often ostentatiously drank a mysterious fluid from a white plastic jar before events. If competitors asked what it was, he said, "It's an energy-giving substance." It was clover honey mixed with water, but his opponents always believed he had a high-powered secret and were effectively demoralized.

Some observers made fun of O'Brien's unusual throwing style, but they were no longer laughing when he won the gold medal at the 1952 Summer Olympics. He also set an Olympic record with his throw of 57 feet, 1.5 inches. Before his innovation, shot-putters shuffled across the ring, facing the direction they were going to throw. After he changed the sport, athletes used a rotational technique in which they whirled their bodies before throwing in order to achieve greater force and drive.

In 1953, using his new style, he set a world record with a throw of 59 feet, 0.75 inches. At the time, 60 feet was deemed an almost insurmountable barrier, just as the 4-minute mile and 7-foot high jump had been, but O'Brien surpassed it in 1954 at the Los Angeles Coliseum with a throw of 60 feet, 5.5 inches. In a following meet, he made four 60-foot throws within 5 minutes, proving that his feat was not a fluke. O'Brien was also a champion discus thrower, winning two U.S. collegiate titles. O'Brien appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated twice, on 21 March 1955 and 31 August 1959, and on the cover of Time on 3 December 1956. In 1959 he won the Sullivan Award as the nation's best amateur athlete.

In the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia, O'Brien won the gold medal and set another record with 60 feet, 11.008 inches. At the 1960 Olympics in Rome, Italy, he threw 62 feet, 8.25 inches, but was beaten by Bill Nieder, who threw 64 feet, 6.75 inches. At the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, O'Brien improved again and set a mark of 63 feet, 0.25 inches, but only came in fourth. Other, younger athletes had adopted his innovative throwing style and were putting the shot farther than ever before. Despite his fourth-place finish in Tokyo, O'Brien's drive to compete was strong, and he continued to practice and improve. In 1966, his nineteenth season, he set a personal best with a throw of 64 feet, 7.5 inches.

After retiring from competition, O'Brien worked in banking and real estate in southern California. No other shot-putter has earned as many number-one world rankings as O'Brien, and he will forever be remembered in his sport for his longevity, determination and drive, and revolutionary throwing technique. He once said, "It's gratifying to know that I have contributed something to the sport that has done so much for me." O'Brien was elected to the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1984.

O'Brien tells his story in his own words in Lewis H. Carlson and John J. Fogarty, eds., Tales of Gold (1987). There are excellent chapters on O'Brien in Cordner Nelson, Track and Field: TheGreat Ones (1970), and the Lincoln Library of Sports Champions, 6th ed. (1993).

Kelly Winters