Margus Hunt

Hunt grew up in the small town of Karksi-Nuia and took up athletics because "there wasn’t much to do". After trying decathlon he decided to concentrate on the throwing events – discus, shot and hammer throw. Hunt started training with Aleksander Tammert, an Olympic bronze medalist in discus throw from the 2004 Summer Olympics. Hunt competed in hammer throw at the 2003 World Youth Championships and discus at the 2004 World Junior Championships, placing eighth and sixth respectively.

In 2005, he won his first title at the European Junior Championships in Kaunas, throwing 62.19 metres (Championship record) with the 1.75 kg discus.

In 2006, at the World Junior Championships in Beijing Hunt established a new world junior record of 66.35 metres with his first throw in the qualifying round. In the finals, Hunt improved his own world junior record to 66.68 m in the fourth round and then 67.32 m in the sixth and final round.

Three days later he won the gold medal in the shot put at 20.53 metres in the final, beating the closest competitor by 39 centimetres. Hunt became the first athlete to win the gold medal in both shot and discus at the World Junior Championships, outperforming Rutger Smith of the Netherlands who won a gold and a bronze in 2000. His winning distance of 20.53 m was a national junior record with the 6 kg shot.

His personal best hammer throw result is 64.89 made on 28 March 2008, in Arlington, Texas.^[3][4] His personal best shot put result is 17.98 made on 22 March 2008, in Waco.^[5]

His personal best with the senior 2 kg discus is 61.33 meters made on 6 July 2010, in Viljandi.

Hunt left Estonia for Dallas, Texas, in 2007 in order to train with Southern Methodist University track and field coach Dave Wollman,^[6] and he began attending SMU part-time. However, by the time he arrived at SMU, the university had dropped its men's track program. Hunt wanted to keep working with Wollman, who had previously worked with an Estonian discus thrower, 2004 Olympic bronze Aleksander Tammert, and Wollman decided that Hunt's size and athleticism could earn him an athletic scholarship playing for the SMU Mustangs football team.^[6] When Hunt tried out for football, his physical power, combined with a 4.7-second 40-yard dash, led Mustangs head football coach June Jones to offer him a scholarship,^[6] and he began attending SMU full-time in 2009. He then played for the Mustangs for the next four seasons. On 12 October 2009, Hunt was named the Conference USA Special Teams Player of the Week.^[7] On 7 November Hunt broke the school record for blocked kicks in a season when he blocked an extra-point try and a field goal against Rice. In his first 14 games at SMU he blocked eight kicks, putting him in the top 10 in blocked kicks among all NCAA players.^[8] He was named the MVP of the 2012 Hawaii Bowl. He almost broke the NCAA's all-time record for blocked kicks (19),^[9] but eventually finished college career with 17 blocks,^[10] the second highest in that account.^[11]

For nearly 10 years, Bruce Feldman, a writer for CBSSports.com, has annually compiled what he calls a "Freak List" of the 10 college football players he considers the most freakish athletes. In 2012, Hunt was on top of his list. According to Feldman, Hunt "sounds like a PlayStation football creation"—despite his 82-inch (2.1 m) wingspan, he is able to bench press 225 pounds (102 kg) 35 times, and has also cleaned 384 pounds (174 kg) and snatched 345 pounds (156 kg). Hunt also boasts a 36-inch (91 cm) vertical jump. Wollman predicted that Hunt would have 45 repetitions and a 4.6-second 40-yard dash at the 2013 NFL Combine.^[6] Hunt did, in fact, run a 4.60-second 40-yard dash and did 38 bench press repetitions while posting a vertical leap of 34.5-inch (88 cm) at the 2013 combine.^[12]