Inductees

For him, it was Freshman Year or Bust. That was the scary reality. You see, the college track and field coach offered only a token scholarship and, more worrisome, the finances back home likely weren’t enough for anything beyond if it all didn’t work out.

Christian Cantwell loves telling the story from the spring of 1999, just as he was graduating from Eldon High School. There he was, a burgeoning shot putter discovered late by the University of Missouri track and field coaching staff – and both sides not knowing an Olympic career would soon develop.

“They offered a books scholarship and, if you’re familiar with a books scholarship, that’s only $400,” Cantwell said. “Coach (Rick) McGuire promised my mom, ‘If he does what we think he can do this year, we’ll take care of him.’ But my mom said she didn’t have any money for school after my freshman year.”

Cantwell rocketed to stardom, winning multiple Big 12 Conference championships and then was a stalwart on the international stage for USA Track and Field – even capturing an Olympic silver medal. That’s why the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame proudly inducted Cantwell with the Class of 2018.

Call it one of the most improbable careers in any sport. He never won a state shot put title in high school (came close) and was recruited to Mizzou only after a fan kept bugging the coaching staff. And yet he used his brute strength as a 6-foot-5, 300-pounder to star across the globe, regularly throwing the shot put a whopping 70 feet, if not better.

In 2004 alone, Cantwell posted the top four throws in the world in the outdoor season, won a silver at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, a gold at the 2009 World Outdoor Championships and finished fourth at the 2012 London Olympics. Between 2004 and 2010, he won three World Indoor titles.

Additionally, Cantwell won seven championships (four in Outdoor, three in Indoor) in the USA Track & Field Championships. At Mizzou, Cantwell was a seven-time NCAA All-American and a five-time Big 12 Conference champion, winning four shot put titles and one weight throw championship. He also holds school records in the indoor and outdoor shot put.

“I hurt my knee my junior year of high school and didn’t want to play football anymore,” Cantwell said. “But there was this guy who I called Uncle Phil (Hess) who wasn’t my uncle, but that’s what I called him. He had this friend, Roger (Bigses), who kept calling coach McGuire at Mizzou to give me a look.”

In fairness to college recruiters, Cantwell didn’t make much of a dent in high school until after the dad of a fishing buddy suggested a tweak to his discus throws.

He eventually found success in both events. At one point, Cantwell heaved the discus 194 feet, 7 inches, the seventh-best mark nationally. At the 1999 Class 3 state meet, he won the discus title, and his shot put reached 60 feet, 1 inch – good for second place.

Just a weeks earlier, Mizzou assistant Brett Halter went to eye Cantwell for himself. It turned out that Mizzou’s coaches had assumed Cantwell’s admirers back home were promoting a recruit they already were chasing.

Fortunately, Cantwell became a fixture in Columbia.

The turning point? Cantwell won the Big 12 Outdoor shot put title as a freshman, improving by almost five feet from a year earlier and doing so with the heavier college shot put. He advanced to the 2000 Olympic Trials, and a full-ride scholarship awaited.

“Coach McGuire kept his word,” Cantwell said. “The rest is history.”

Between 2003 and 2012, Cantwell was ranked in the top five in the world in the shot put, either for Indoor or Outdoor competition. Over that time, he recorded the best throw in the world five different seasons. In 2010, he competed in 20 meets where he threw the shot more than 70 feet.

After narrowly missing out on the 2004 Olympics, Cantwell took silver at the Beijing Olympics with a throw of 69 feet, 2.50 inches. And that was despite a sore arm and barely making the team at all.

Cantwell credits support from his wife, Teri.

“People ask me, ‘Did you win silver or lose gold?’” Cantwell said. “I’m a realist. If somebody had told me I was going to get second, I would have thought they were crazy. After the Olympics, I just started killing it. I had two or three years where I just couldn’t lose.”