Payton Otterdahl delivered on multiple occasions Saturday in France, putting himself in a strong position to earn an Olympic medal in the shot put.

Then fellow American Joe Kovacs stepped into the circle for his final attempt, and just barely eclipsed Otterdahl’s best mark.

Kovacs hit a throw of 22.15 meters, which edged Otterdahl’s top throw to that point of 22.01.

The Rosemount product had one opportunity at a rebuttal, and tossed his third high-level throw of the meet, but it traveled 22.03 — just 12 centimeters short of a medal.

American Ryan Crouser won his third Olympic gold medal with a best throw of 22.90 meters. Kovacs won silver and Jamaica’s Rajindra Campbell — who also had a throw of 22.15 meters — earned the bronze.

Otterdahl placed fourth three years after taking eighth in Tokyo. He entered the meet with medal hopes, but wasn’t favored to do so. But Otterdahl showed himself to be in good form and was apparently unfazed by the Olympic pressure in his second go-around. He breezed threw qualification Friday with one throw that easily surpassed the finals qualification mark.

On Saturday, he opened with a solid throw of 21.39 meters. In Round 2, he hit a throw of 21.98 meters to move into medal position, where he stayed until the fourth-to-last thrower of the event.

Frankly, the meet was a little wonky over the final three rounds, and rain wreaked havoc on the circle. The slippery conditions caused a number of throwers to wipe out mid-attempt and prevented throws of any notable distance until Kovacs hit his final attempt.

Otterdahl’s fourth-place finish comes less than two years after he had surgery on his hip to repair a torn labrum. That procedure took him out of competition for six-plus months. He spent 2023 rebuilding his throw from the ground up — which he felt was a positive in the grand scheme of things — and managed to qualify for his second Olympics.

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