1904 Summer Olympics / Athletics - Weight Throw (Men)

sport	athletics
discipline	Weight throwing
gender	Men
Attendees	6 athletes from 2 countries
Competition location	Francis Field
Competition phase	September 1, 1904
Medalist Étienne Desmarteau ( Canada )   John Flanagan ( USA )   James Mitchel ( USA )

The men's weight throwing at the 1904 Olympic Games in St. Louis was decided on September 1, 1904 at Francis Field . The competition was only on the Olympic program here in St. Louis.

Olympic champion was the Canadian Étienne Desmarteau ahead of the two Americans John Flanagan and James Mitchel .

Records

The world records that existed at the time were still unofficial.

World record	12.25 m	United States	John Flanagan	1897

Note:
This world record was not achieved under the rules of the Olympic Games. Flanagan was allowed to run freely to his throw, while in St. Louis was thrown from a 2.13-meter circle from a standing position.

An Olympic record did not exist as this competition was not Olympic prior to the St. Louis Games.

The following records were broken or set in these disciplines at the 1904 Olympic Games:

OR

10.465 m

Canada

Étienne Desmarteau

Olympic champion Étienne Desmarteau from Canada

Results

space	athlete	country	Width (m)
1	Étienne Desmarteau	Canada	10.465 ( OR )
2	John Flanagan	United States	10.160
3	James Mitchel	United States	10.135
4th	Charles Hennemann	United States	9.180
5	Charles Chadwick	United States	k. A.
6th	Ralph Rose	United States	8,530 ( estimated )

A 56 pound (25.4 kg) ball attached to a short chain was thrown. The throws were to be carried out from a ring with 7 feet - this corresponds to 2.13 m. Before the competition, world record holder John Flanagan was the favorite. However, he had not achieved this from a ring, but with a free run-up. However, Flanagan had to admit defeat to the French-Canadian Étienne Desmarteau.

In the course of the competition, forty-year-old James Mitchel was in second place for a while, but with his last attempt, hammer throw Olympic champion John Flanagan surpassed him by a few centimeters. Mitchel was extremely successful in his previous career with a total of 42 championships in Ireland, England and the United States, but could not quite keep up with the younger throwers in the other competitions. After all, he won a bronze medal in this discipline. Fourth place went to Charles Hennemann, ahead of the hammer throw fourth and the shot put fifth, Charles Chadwick. Olympic shot put winner Ralph Rose was clearly knocked off sixth.

The weight throw was one of only two athletics competitions in St. Louis with a non-US winner. Only in the decathlon was this the case with British gold medalist Tom Kiely .

For places two to four, the sources used here sometimes show different widths in the centimeter or half-centimeter range. These are probably results obtained by converting from the English system of measurement or also by rounding. At that time, measurements were actually made in the half-centimeter range in many disciplines when throwing and jumping, sometimes even in more detail, as in these Olympic Games in high jump . The width of the sixth-placed Rose was estimated; Chadwick has no width.

• 

  The Canadian Étienne Desmarteau was one of two Olympic champions who did not come from the United States

• 

  The Olympic runner-up John Flanagan - here at the hammer throw , which he won - also fourth in the  discus throw

• 

  Bronze medalist James Mitchel - here at the hammer throw in 1906, in St. Louis also fifth in hammer throw and sixth in discus throw

• 

  The American Olympic champion Charles Chadwick, also a hammer throw fourth and shot put fifth

• 

  The American Ralph Rose, winner of the shot put, second in the discus throw and third in the hammer throw, had to settle for sixth place

literature

• Volker Kluge , Olympic Summer Games - The Chronicle I, Berlin 1997 ( ISBN 3-328-00715-6 )
• Ekkehard zur Megede , The history of Olympic athletics, Volume 1: 1896–1936, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 2nd edition 1970

Web links

• Sports-Reference, Athletics at the 1904 St. Louis Summer Games: Men's 56-pound Weight Throw , accessed August 5, 2018
• Olympic Games St. Louis 1904, Athletics, 56lb weight throw 254kg men , IOC page on athletics at the 1904 Olympic Games at olympic.org, accessed August 5, 2018

Individual evidence

1. ^ Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 1: 1896–1936, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 2nd edition 1970, p. 58