Throwers hurl themselves onto social media, build supporter communities

July 31 - Despite the heavy weights, explosive strength and furious speed of today's throwers, their social media world is a cheery, lighthearted and fun place.

You are as likely to find throwers making jokes and goofing around on many of their feeds as describing their technical tricks and training secrets.

"This is a fun place to share a sport that I love," said Sarah Mitton, who has won a slew of shot put medals for Canada, including a Commonwealth Games gold on Wednesday, but who cannot count on the mainstream media exposure enjoyed by glamour sports like sprinting.

"Throwing is a very niche sport. Not everybody has picked up a shot put," she said.

Social media platforms like Instagram have allowed Mitton and other throwers to create a space in which they can explain their sports, reveal their training regimes and form a relationship with ordinary people.

The world has a handful of throwing superstars, like India's Neeraj Chopra, the javelin thrower with nine million Instagram followers. U.S. shot putter Ryan Crouser has more than 200,000.

But most throwers have brought together supporter communities far smaller, in the tens of thousands, but vital to expanding their public profiles.

The bond-forming element actually comes first, Mitton said. Before trying to explain how the fancy footwork and spins are used to hurl a metal ball downfield, she hopes to reach curious people who have no clue what she does.

"People connect with the person first," said Mitton. "People meet me. People follow me. People see this. And they become shot-put fans because they want to support me."

The fight is not for long-time fans of the shot put, discus, javelin and hammer, but for people who would otherwise never think of watching a thrower.

Among athletes, throwers struggle to attract anywhere near the value of sponsorships enjoyed in the higher visibility sports and without sponsors and other funders it is hard to maintain the level of coaching, training, travel and freedom from financial worry that allows for peak performance.

Social media can provide the visibility that fills a bit of that gap.

"It's helping me fund the sport and make a living," said Mitton, who has won corporate and sports company support.

Building a committed cult of fresh supporters for the throwing sports is what she most values.

"One of the comments I get is: 'Goodness, I never thought that on a Friday night I'd be sitting in front of my TV watching women shot-putters on a live stream I had to (struggle to) find,'" she said.

"That's so cool. I have all these little pockets of people all over the world ... They connect with you on social media more on a personal level, they're invested in you, then they start following the sport." REUTERS