1952 Summer Olympics / Athletics - Shot Put (Men)

sport	athletics
discipline	Shot put
gender	Men
Attendees	20 athletes from 14 countries
Competition location	Helsinki Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	July 21, 1952
Medalist Parry O'Brien ( USA )   Darrow Hooper ( USA )   Jim Fuchs ( USA )

The shot put men at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki was held on July 21, the 1,952th 20 athletes took part.

The US team celebrated a triple success. Parry O'Brien won ahead of Darrow Hooper and Jim Fuchs .

Existing records

World record	17.95 m	Jim Fuchs ( USA )	Eskilstuna , Sweden	22nd August 1950
Olympic record	17.12 m	Wilbur Thompson ( USA )	London , UK	August 3, 1948

Conducting the competition

The Czechoslovak Jíři Skobla reached ninth place in the final.

The participants competed in a joint qualifying round on July 21, the qualifying distance was 14.60 meters. Should fewer than twelve athletes manage the required distance, the starting field would be filled to twelve jumpers according to the best distance achieved. This rule did not have to apply here, thirteen athletes made it through the qualifying distance into the final round. The results achieved in this qualification were not counted for the final.
In the final, all participants initially had three attempts. The six best athletes were then allowed to make three more attempts.

Note: The qualified athletes are highlighted in light blue.

Time schedule

July 21, 10:00 am: Qualification
July 21, 3:00 pm: Final

qualification

Date: July 21, 1952, 10:00 a.m.

space	Surname	nation	1st attempt	Second attempt	3. Attempt	result	annotation
01	Parry O'Brien	United States	16.05 m	-	-	16.05 m
02	Oto Grigalka	Soviet Union	15.90 m	-	-	15.90 m
03	Roland Nilsson	Sweden	15.81 m	-	-	15.81 m
04th	Darrow Hooper	United States	15.48 m	-	-	15.48 m
05	Jim Fox	United States	15.29 m	-	-	15.29 m
05	Jíři Skobla	Czechoslovakia	15.29 m	-	-	15.29 m
07th	Georgi Feodorov	Hungary	15.16 m	-	-	15.16 m
08th	Per stavem	Norway	14.45 m	14.54 m	15.12 m	15.12 m
09	Alois Schwabl	Austria	15.00 m	-	-	15.00 m
10	Angiolo Profeti	Italy	14.93 m	-	-	14.93 m
11	Tadeusz Krzyżanowski	Poland	14.11 m	14.90 m	-	14.90 m
12	John Savidge	Great Britain	14.89 m	-	-	14.89 m
13	Lucien Guillier	France	14.13 m	x	14.62 m	14.62 m
14th	Aapo Perko	Finland	14.23 m	14.50 m	14.26 m	14.50 m
15th	Toivo Telen	Finland	13.78 m	14.30 m	x	14.30 m
16	Ramon Rosario	Puerto Rico	14.21 m	14.00 m	13.94 m	14.21 m
17th	Kaarto Rask	Finland	14.08 m	13.81 m	13.80 m	14.08 m
18th	Konstantinos Giataganas	Greece	12.06 m	14.05 m	x	14.05 m
19th	John Giles	Great Britain	13.73 m	13.70 m	x	13.73 m
20th	Nuri Turan	Turkey	13.00 m	x	x	13.00 m

final

space	Surname	nation	1st attempt	Second attempt	3. Attempt	4th attempt	5th attempt	6th attempt	Bottom line	annotation
1	Parry O'Brien	United States	17.41 m	17.21 m	16.79 m	16.87 m	17.12 m	16.53 m	17.41 m	OR
2	Darrow Hooper	United States	17.02 m	16.59 m	17.08 m	16.90 m	16.93 m	17.39 m	17.39 m
3	Jim Fox	United States	16.93 m	x	x	x	17.06 m	x	17.06 m
4th	Oto Grigalka	Soviet Union	16.53 m	16.78 m	15.91 m	16.27 m	16.29 m	16.33 m	16.78 m
5	Roland Nilsson	Sweden	16.55 m	16.08 m	16.33 m	x	x	x	16.55 m
6th	John Savidge	Great Britain	16.17 m	16.18 m	x	16.19 m	16.03 m	x	16.19 m
7th	Georgi Feodorov	Soviet Union	15.98 m	16.01 m	16.06 m	not in the final of the six best athletes			16.06 m
8th	Per stavem	Norway	15.14 m	16.02 m	15.31 m				16.02 m
9	Jiří Skobla	Czechoslovakia	15.73 m	15.60 m	15.92 m				15.92 m
10	Tadeusz Krzyżanowski	Poland	15.08 m	14.57 m	14.32 m				15.08 m
11	Lucien Guillier	France	13.94 m	14.46 m	14.84 m				14.84 m
12	Angiolo Profeti	Italy	14.59 m	14.00 m	14.74 m				14.74 m
13	Alois Schwabl	Austria	14.43 m	14.20 m	14.45 m				14.45 m

Date: July 21, 1952, 3 p.m.

Between 1949 and 1951, Jim Fuchs (USA), 1948 bronze medalist , set four world records . In 1951, however, he was defeated at the US Championships by Parry O'Brien, who in turn was defeated by Darrow Hooper at the US Olympic eliminations. So it was very close between these three US athletes who contested this competition as the clear favorites.
O'Brien had developed a completely new pushing technique in advance. In contrast to the usual way of doing things up to then, he stood with his back to the direction of impact down in the circle of impact and then turned 180 ° while planing before he pushed off the ball. Its acceleration path for the ball was significantly longer than with the conventional technology. O'Brien opened the way for completely new dimensions in the coming years.
In the final, O'Brien's width of 17.41 m from the first round for the gold medal, with which he also set a new Olympic record . However, Hooper's last attempt was only two centimeters shorter. Fuchs won the bronze medal with 17.06 m.

In the twelfth Olympic final, Parry O'Brien won the tenth gold medal for the USA.
It was the seventh triple success of the USA, the second in a row in this discipline.

Note: The best size is printed in bold.

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 2: 1948–1968, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 1st edition 1969, pp. 93f

Web links

• SportsReference Shot Put , accessed September 28, 2017
• Official report p. 316f, engl. (PDF), accessed on September 28, 2017
• Parry O'Brien Shot Put , video on Parry O'Brien's new revolutionary punching technique, posted on youtube.com on August 30, 2010, accessed on September 28, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Berlin 2009 page 557 ( Memento from June 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Official report p. 266, engl. (PDF)
3. ↑ SportsReference (Eng.)