  We determine the optimal angle of release in shot put. The simplest model -
mostly used in textbooks - gives a value of $45^\circ$, while measurements of
top athletes cluster around $37 - 38^\circ$. Including simply the height of the
athlete the theory prediction goes down to about $42^\circ$ for typical
parameters of top athletes. Taking further the correlations of the initial
velocity of the shot, the angle of release and the height of release into
account we predict values around $37 - 38^\circ$, which coincide perfectly with
the measurements.
