1920 Summer Olympics / Athletics - Hammer Throw (Men)

sport	athletics
discipline	Hammer throw
gender	Men
Attendees	12 athletes from 5 countries
Competition location	Antwerp Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	August 18, 1920
Medalist Pat Ryan ( USA )   Carl Johan Lind ( SWE )   Basil Bennett ( USA )

The men's hammer throw at the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp was held on August 18, 1920 in the Antwerp Olympic Stadium. Twelve athletes took part.

Olympic champion was US thrower and current world record holder Pat Ryan , silver went to Swede Carl Johan Lind . Basil Bennett from the USA won bronze.

Athletes from Switzerland did not take part. Germany and Austria were excluded from these games.

Existing records

World record	Pat Ryan ( USA )	57.77 m	new York	17th August 1913
Olympic record	Matt McGrath ( USA )	54.74 m	Stockholm	July 14, 1912

Conducting the competition

All twelve throwers had to complete a qualifying round on August 18th (start: 10.45 am). The best six athletes advanced to the final, which took place in the afternoon of the same day.

Note: The qualified throwers are highlighted in light blue.

qualification

Defending champion Matt McGrath in a 1912 recording

Date: August 18, 1920, 10:45 a.m.

In the second attempt to qualify, defending champion McGrath injured his knee - see picture - and had to give up the competition.

space	Surname	nation	Expanse	annotation
1	Pat Ryan	United States	52.86 m
2	Basil Bennett	United States	48.25 m
3	Carl Johan Lind	Sweden	48.00 m
4th	Malcolm Svensson	Sweden	47.29 m
5	Matt McGrath	United States	46.67 m
6th	Tom Nicolson	Great Britain	45.70 m
7th	Nils Linde	Sweden	44.885 m
8th	James McEachern	United States	44.70 m
9	Archie McDiarmid	Canada	44.66 m
10	Robert Olsson	Sweden	44.19 m
11	Johan Pettersson	Finland	41.76 m
-	John Cameron	Canada	without space

final

Date: August 18, 1920

Pat Ryan has been an active hammer thrower for many years . His Irish association had not set it up for the 1908 Olympic Games . In 1912, after he emigrated to the United States, he was one of the best hammer throwers in the world, but could not go to the Stockholm Games because he was not yet an American citizen. Now, eight years later, the time had finally come for Ryan. At the age of 37 he was an Olympian for the first time. In 1913 he had set the world record to 57.77 m, a world record that lasted 25 years. In Antwerp he lived up to his role as a favorite and won the gold medal by more than four meters. His predecessor Matt McGrath was injured in the second round and finished fifth.

Only the Swede Carl Johan Lind could improve in the final. His increase of 43 centimeters earned him the silver medal. Third place went to the best US hammer thrower, Basil Bennett.

Ryan's gold medal marked his fifth US hammer throw victory in the fifth Olympic final. Lind won the first Swedish medal in this discipline.

space	Surname	nation	Expanse	annotation
1	Pat Ryan	United States	52.875 m
2	Carl Johan Lind	Sweden	48,430 m
3	Basil Bennett	United States	48,250 m
4th	Malcolm Svensson	Sweden	47.290 m
5	Matt McGrath	United States	46.670 m
6th	Tom Nicolson	Great Britain	45,700 m

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 1: 1896-1936, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 2nd edition 1970, p. 147f

Web links

• SportsReference Hammerwurf , accessed September 3, 2017
• Official report , French (PDF), accessed on September 3, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ^ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Berlin 2009 page 558 ( Memento from June 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
2. ^ Official report, page 116 (French) ( Memento from October 7, 2018 in the Internet Archive )
3. ↑ SportsReference (Eng.)