EUGENE — One can imagine it takes a lot for Ryan Crouser to consider something painful.

At 6-foot-7, 320 pounds of raw power, the two-time Olympic gold medalist in the shot put has tested his body time and again. But Crouser faced perhaps the biggest physical and mental test of his career in recent months, and it included plenty of pain.

“I messed up my ulnar nerve at world indoors, and as soon as I started to get back through that, I tore my (pectoral muscle) while benching,” Crouser said. “Then it was back to the ulnar nerve again. It’s just been one thing after the other. I didn’t get cleared to throw until the week of Prefontaine (May 25), so I’ve been hitting it hard in the weight room doing a lot of plyos and a lot of sprints. Body weight is good, plyos are good, it’s just the throw is starting to come together now.”

The 31-year-old Crouser, a graduate of Barlow High School in Gresham, didn’t throw from the end of March until early May, essentially starting his competition season at Friday’s Olympic trials. His throw of 70 feet, 4¼ inches (21.44 meters) was the third-best of the day and qualified him for Saturday’s final.

The pectoral muscle tear gave Crouser a chance to address his nagging elbow issue, which doctors alleviated through a “hydrodissection” procedure, he said. That procedure involves a needle in the elbow injecting saline below the nerve, cleaning it up and lifting it out of the ulnar groove in Crouser’s elbow.

Ouch.

“That was uncomfortable,” Crouser said. “I wouldn’t recommend it to anybody.”

Crouser said he has been training with 21 meters as his minimum standard: he figures a throw above that should be enough to secure one of three spots on the U.S. Olympic team. Just six throwers met or surpassed that mark Friday, with the only 22-meter throw coming from Joe Kovacs at 22.13, or 72-7¼.

• WATCH: To see every event of the Olympic trials for under $6, sign up for Peacock Premium ($5.99/month), NBC’s low-cost streaming service, which will broadcast every event through the final day. Top events will also be broadcast live on NBC and USA Network. If you don’t have cable, you can still watch some of those events live for free with Fubo (free trial) or with DirecTV Stream (free trial).

But even getting beyond 21 was a long journey for Crouser, he said. And it led him to consider whether his career was in jeopardy, or if the push back to competition could have lifelong implications for his right arm.

Crouser’s uncle, Brian, competed in two Olympics in the javelin. Crouser said his uncle can’t move his arm past 45 degrees, a living reminder of the potential costs of a grueling career in throws.

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Putting the physical pain aside, the mental approach to a return to the circle has proven most difficult for Crouser, he said.

“It was very frustrating,” Crouser said. “You’re dealing with a lot of self-doubt. Elbow stuff, for a shot-putter, can be really difficult. I would try and throw, wouldn’t be able to, and then have to spend a week rehabbing it until I could try and throw again.

“In the back of your mind, you’re like, ‘I’m 31. Am I going to be able to get past this?’ It was one step forward, two steps back. I’m proud of the way I stayed … not positive, but made it so I did what I could.”

The U.S. Olympic team trials for track and field continue Saturday, with the shot put scheduled for 6:40 p.m. at Hayward Field. The top three throwers will advance to the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

-- Ryan Clarke covers the Oregon Ducks and Big Ten Conference for The Oregonian and co-hosts the Soccer Made in Portland and Ducks Confidential podcasts. He can be reached at rclarke@oregonian.com or @RyanTClarke.

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