Rudy Winkler joined the Maryland track and field coaching staff prior to the 2023-24 season. He is a highly decorated hamer and weight thrower throughout his collegiate and professional career having qualified for three Olympic Games (2016, 2021, 2024).
He is the NACAC area record holder and American record-holder in the event with a throw of 82.71 m (271 ft 4 in) for the hammer and holds a personal-best of 23.32 m (76 ft 6 in) for the weight
throw. He was the hammer national champion in 2016 and 2020, winning the 2016 and 2020 United States Olympic Trials.
Born in Sand Lake, New York, Winkler attended Averill Park High School and competed in the hammer from a young age and represented the United States in age category competitions. He was a finalist at both the 2011 World Youth and the 2012 World Junior Championships in Athletics. He won his first international medal at the Pan American Junior Championships in 2013, taking the silver medal behind Mexico's Diego del Real.
As a student-athlete at Cornell, he topped the field of the weight throw at the 2015 Ivy League Indoor Track & Field Championships, then won the hammer title at the conference's outdoor championships later that year. At his first national event, he came eighth in the hammer at the 2015 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships. In the 2016 season, he defended his Ivy League Indoor title and placed tenth at the NCAA Men's Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships. He was again hammer champion at the Ivy League Outdoor meet and set a personal record of 72.84 m (238 ft 11+1/2 in) to place runner-up to Britain's Nick Miller at the 2016 NCAA Outdoor Championships.
During his postgraduate season at Rutgers in 2018, he set the Big Ten championship-meet record and finished fourth at the NCAAs.
At the 2016 United States Olympic Trials a big personal best of 76.76 m (251 ft 10 in) brought him his first national title and selection for the USA Olympic team. He went on to finish 18th in the 2016 games.
He followed that with a seventh-place showing in the hammer at the 2021 games and then qualified for this third games in 2024 by placing second at the U.S. Trials with a throw of 258-feet, 10-inches. He entered the 2024 trials ranked seventh in the world.
With a throw of 77.92 meters, Maryland track and field assistant throws coach Rudy Winkler placed sixth in the hammer throw finals of the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The mark was his best effort at the Olympic games after he posted marks of 71.89 meters in 2016 (Rio) and 77.08 meters in 2021 (Tokyo). The sixth-place finish was also his best showing at the Olympics thus far.
Winkler sat in fourth after the first round with his best toss of 77.92 meters. He could not best that mark after making the top eight to advance to the final three rounds of the finals.
Additionally, Winkler has competed in four World Championships (2017, 2019, 2022, 2023) with a top finish of sixth in 2022.
Updated August 14, 2025
