Olympics: Penn State’s Joe Kovacs wins silver in shotput final

Joe Kovacs is taking home the first Olympic medal by a Penn Stater in Tokyo

Penn State’s own Joe Kovacs added to his medal collection on Thursday at the Tokyo Olympics. Kovacs finished second in the shotput event to fellow American Ryan Crouser.

Kovacs won his second career Olympic medal, and it is the fifth medal of Kovacs’s career. As he boasted on Twitter following the Olympic final, he has never finished below a silver medal.

Kovacs certainly should not be disappointed in his second-place finish at the Olympics. His American rival, Crouser, happened to set a new Olympic record for the event as he took home the gold medal in Tokyo. Although it came just shy of his previous world record, Crouser shot a distance of 23.3 meters. Kovacs shot a distance of 22.65 meters in the final event.

New Zealand’s Tomas Walsh took the bronze with a distance of 22.47 meters.

Kovacs claimed the first medal by a former Nittany Lion, but more are surely on the way soon.

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