For his high school dominance, Finley was named to the ESPNRISE 2000s All-Decade High School Track & Field Team.[3] He was also Track and Field News "High School Athlete of the Year" in 2009.[4]
Career
Finley set a Colorado high school record in discus with a throw of 236 feet 6 inches (72.09 m) during the High Altitude Challenge in Alamosa, Colorado. He also won gold medals in shot put and discus throw at the 2009 Pan American Junior Athletics Championships in Port of Spain, Trinidad. As a freshman at Kansas, he was All American in the shot put and the discus. His best throws as a freshman were 60.12m (197–3 ft.) in the discus and 20.68 meters (67-10.25 ft.) in the shot.
In 2017 Finley won the bronze medal in the discus throw event at the World Championships in London, throwing 68.03 meters. This breaks an 18-year drought of no American medalists in the discus throw, and marks the first time an American has placed in the men's discus throw since the World Championships in Seville, where Anthony Washington won the gold medal.[5]
He qualified for the 2020 Summer Olympics after placing first in qualification with a throw of 63.07 metres (206.9 ft).[6]
