1912 Summer Olympics / Athletics - Discus Throw (Men)

sport	athletics
discipline	Discus throw
gender	Men
Attendees	41 athletes from 15 countries
Competition location	Stockholm Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	July 12, 1912
Medalist Armas Taipale ( FIN )   Richard Byrd ( USA )   James Duncan ( USA )

The men's discus throw at the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm was played on July 12, 1912 in the Stockholm Olympic Stadium. 41 athletes took part.

The Finn Armas Taipale was the Olympic champion ahead of the Americans Richard Byrd and James Duncan .

German participants were Josef Waitzer (16th place), Emil Welz (24th place) and Paul Willführ , who was not placed without a valid distance. The best Austrian was Hans Tronner in fifth place, his teammate Josef Schäffer finished 29th. Swiss athletes did not take part.

Existing records

World record	James Duncan ( USA )	47.58 m	new York	May 27, 1912
Olympic record	Martin Sheridan ( USA )	40.89 m	London	July 16, 1908

James Duncan's world record was retrospectively recognized after the founding of the IAAF World Athletics Federation in 1912.

Conducting the competition

All 41 athletes had three attempts. The best three throwers then completed another three attempts, whereby the results of the first three rounds were included in the evaluation.

Note: The best widths are shown in bold.

Result

space	Surname	nation	result	1st attempt	Second attempt	3. Attempt	4th attempt	5th attempt	6th attempt	annotation
1	Armas Taipale	Grand Duchy of Finland	45.21	36.94	43.91 m	-	44.34	-	45.21	OR OR already with attempts 2 and 4
2	Richard Byrd	United States	42.32 m	37.48	42.32	-	41.09	-	-
3	James Duncan	United States	42.28 m	41.61	42.28	-	41.33	-	-
4th	Elmer Niklander	Grand Duchy of Finland	42.09 m	42.09	-	-				OR on the first attempt
5	Hans Tronner	Austria	41.24	39.97	-	41.24
6th	Arlie Mucks	United States	40.93 m	40.54	40.93	-
7th	George Philbrook	United States	40.92 m	38.14	38.55	40.92
8th	Emil Magnusson	Sweden	39.91 m	39.91	-	-
9	Rezsõ Újlaki	Hungary	39.82 m	39.82	-	-
10	Einar Nilsson	Sweden	39.69 m	37.26	38.77	39.69
11	Ralph Rose	United States	39.65 m	37.24	38.82	39.65
12	Emil Muller	United States	39.35 m	37.91	38.69	39.35
13	Michalis Dorizas	Greece	39.28 m	-	39.28	-
14th	Duncan Gillis	Canada	39.01 m	39.01	-	-
15th	Verner Järvinen	Grand Duchy of Finland	38.60 m	34.15	38.60	-
16	Josef Waitzer	German Empire	38.44 m	38.44	-	-
17th	František Janda-Suk	Bohemia	38.31 m	32.41	36.83	38.31
18th	Aurelio Lenzi	Italy	38.19 m	35.58	38.19	-
19th	Károly Kobulszky	Hungary	38.15 m	37.81	38.15	-
20th	Lawrence Whitney	United States	37.91 m	34.87	37.91	-
21st	György Luntzer	Hungary	37.88 m	37.88	-	-
22nd	Avery Brundage	United States	37.85 m	37.48	37.85	-
23	Gunnar Nilsson	Sweden	37.44 m	-	37.44	-
24	Emil Welz	German Empire	37.24 m	36.16	37.24	-
25th	Samu Fóti	Hungary	36.37 m	35.51	-	36.37
26th	Gunnar Bolander	Sweden	36.22 m	-	36.22	-
27	Carl Johan Lind	Sweden	6.07 m	-	35.04	36.07
28	Folke Fleetwood	Sweden	35.06 m	32.09	32.89	35.06
29	Josef Schäffer	Austria	34.87 m	-	34.87	-
30th	André Tison	France	34.73 m	34.73	-	-
31	Marcel Pelletier	Luxembourg	33.73 m	33.73	-	-
32	Walter Henderson	Great Britain	33.61 m	-	33.61	-
33	Mór Kóczán	Hungary	33.30 m	33.30	-	-
34	Mığır Mığıryan	Ottoman Empire	32.98 m	-	-	32.98
35	Nikolai Neklapayev	Russia	32.59 m	32.59	-	-
36	Charles Lagarde	France	32.35 m	30.76	-	32.35
37	Henning Möller	Sweden	32.23 m	-	32.23	-
38	Miroslav Šustera	Bohemia	31.83 m	31.83	-	-
39	Ēriks Vanags	Russia	31.34 m	-	31.34	-
40	Otto Nilsson	Sweden	31.07 m	31.07	-	-
ogV	Paul Willführ	German Empire	-	-	-	-

Date: July 12, 1912

The existing Olympic record was already surpassed several times in the preliminary round . In the first attempt, world record holder James Duncan (USA) made it with 41.61 m, then Elmer Niklander (FIN) with 42.09 m. In the second attempt, the record that existed before these games was exceeded four times - by Arlie Mucks with 40.93 m, by Duncan with 42.28 m, by Richard Byrd with 42.32 m and by Armas Taipale with 43.91 m. So three times Niklander's record from the first round has been improved. In the third attempt, George Philbrook (40.92 m) and Hans Tronner (41.24 m) were above Martin Sheridan's 1908 width .

Out of nine attempts in the final, only four were valid. All four attempts again exceeded the Olympic record of 1908. Taipale improved his own record from the second attempt and then exceeded this distance again in the sixth run. This means that Sheridan's Olympic record has been exceeded a total of twelve times and in the end was 4.32 m further than four years ago. Armas Taipale performed in Stockholm with a new throwing technique. He was the first to use his legs and hips intensively when turning and dropping and was clearly ahead with his best width in the end.

Armas Taipale won the first Finnish gold medal in the discus throw.

Picture gallery

• 

  Olympic Champion Armas Taipale (FIN)

• 

  Richard Byrd (USA) wins silver

• 

  James Duncan (USA), world record holder, wins bronze

• 

  Elmer Niklander (FIN), 4th place

• 

  Emil Magnusson (SWE) finished eighth

• 

  Ralph Rose (USA) comes in 11th (here in the shot put)

• 

  15th place for Verner Järvinen (FIN)

• 

  György Luntzer (HUN), 21st place

• 

  22nd place for Avery Brundage (USA), the later IOC President

• 

  Mığır Mığıryan (TUR) turns 34.

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 1: 1896-1936, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 2nd edition 1970, pp. 120f

Video

• Finland's Armas Taipale Wins Discus Gold - Classic Highlights on YouTube , accessed in the invalid format .

Web links

• SportsReference Discus Throw , accessed August 28, 2017
• Official report (PDF), accessed on August 28, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Berlin 2009 page 557 ( Memento from June 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ Description in the official report ( Memento of the original dated February 7, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Pp. 404-405, engl. (PDF)