U.S. shot putter Raven Saunders wears a mask but is happy to be seen

SAINT-DENIS, France - From the starting blocks to the medals podium, the Olympic track and field competition might as well be the Fashion Games. Designer nails, glowing eye shadow, colorful hair, custom spikes, gold grills and sparkling jewelry - the athletes manage to shine in the fashion capital of the world. Still, there’s one accessory that stands out: the menacing mask of American shot putter Raven Saunders.

Even in a meet filled with unique athletes and larger-than-life characters, Saunders stands out. The three-time Olympian’s shortly cropped hair is half purple, half green. Teeth gold. Nails long, pointy, red, white, blue and blinged out. Face fully concealed, the black mask covering Saunders’s forehead, mouth, chin and ears. Reflective wraparound sunglasses shield Saunders’s eyes and nose.

“The full face mask is, like, I’m in full form,” Saunders said this week after the qualifying round for Friday’s final. “At this point, I’m in the dogfight right now. That’s what this is.”

Saunders, who identifies as nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, started competing in masks during the pandemic. They quickly became a staple in the gym bag, an essential part of Saunders’s uniform. Sometimes elaborate or playful, other times dark and intimidating, Saunders’s look has evoked comic book villains Bane and the Joker, and around the track they make Saunders instantly identifiable.

“I feel like I’m in the military - I feel like I’m a Navy SEAL where they paint their whole face and going through the trenches,” Saunders said. “It’s just a matter of being able to conceal and just really a little bit intimidation, too.”

At the Tokyo Olympics, Saunders wore a Hulk-themed mask as they heaved their way to a silver medal. Now 28, Saunders arrived in Paris as a different competitor and a different person. So much has happened in the last Olympic cycle.

Saunders made global headlines when they raised their arms on the Tokyo medals podium in the shape of an “X,” a gesture they said represented “the intersection of where all people who are oppressed meet.” Then, just two days after they accepted the medal, their mother, Clarissa Saunders, of Charleston, S.C., died, while Saunders was still overseas.

They were sidelined after undergoing hip surgery in late 2021, and then received a 18-month ban from the sport for failing to report their “whereabouts” to doping authorities, a violation of anti-doping rules that caused Saunders to the miss the 2023 world championships. They were reinstated in February 2024.

Those hurdles and challenges made this Olympic journey different than their previous two and their ability to simply punch their to ticket to Paris particularly meaningful.

“This is for the people,” they said. “It’s for the people because there were moments where I wanted to quit. There are moments that I did quit. There are moments I wanted to give up. But it was people that sat there saying, ‘Hey, you got this.’ … Now I’m here. I have no other choice. I have no other choice but to really show people that you have to keep going and that you have to keep fighting. Life is never over. No matter how dark it gets, no matter how tough times get, there will be light.”

Saunders was able to enter only a half-dozen competitions before the U.S. trials but still managed a 19.90 put in Eugene, Ore., only 2½ inches shy of their personal best. Because of the paucity of results, they entered the Paris Games formally ranked only No. 16 in the world but filled with confidence.

“I am in a great head space,” they said this week. “With everything that I have been through, there is no point for me to not to be in a great head space.”

Saunders will be easy to recognize in Friday’s final, of course. At 5-foot-5, they’re a barrel of muscle and strength, inside and out. They wear a mask but are happy to be seen.

“It is one way to make me stand out and want to encourage other women - a lot of younger athletes are coming through and they really push their own styles,” Saunders said.

They were asked what success would look like here in Paris, a question that might be the easiest thing Saunders will tackle at these Olympics. They chuckled, briefly flashing the shiny grills covering both upper and lower teeth.

“Gold,” Saunders said. “I don’t got these teeth for nothing. I’m trying to match.”