1956 Summer Olympics / Athletics - Shot Put (Men)

sport	athletics
discipline	Shot put
gender	Men
Attendees	14 athletes from 10 countries
Competition location	Melbourne Cricket Ground
Competition phase	November 28, 1956
Medalist Parry O'Brien ( USA )   Bill Nieder ( USA )   Jíři Skobla ( TCH )

The shot put men at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne was on 28 November 1956 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground discharged. 14 athletes took part.

The US defending champion Parry O'Brien became Olympic champion . He won in front of his compatriot Bill Nieder and the Czechoslovak Jíři Skobla .

Swiss and Austrian athletes did not take part. The German Karl-Heinz Wegmann reached seventh place in the final with 16.63 m.

Existing records

World record	19.25 m	Parry O'Brien ( USA )	Los Angeles , USA	November 1, 1956
Olympic record	17.41 m		Helsinki Final , Finland	July 21, 1952

Conducting the competition

The athletes competed in a qualifying round on November 28th. The required qualification distance was 15.00 meters. For all qualified participants the final took place in the afternoon of the same day. The results achieved in the qualifying round were not included in the further course of the competition. In the final, each athlete was initially entitled to three attempts. The best six finalists could then make another three attempts.

Note: The qualified athletes are highlighted in light blue. The best results in the qualification and in the final are printed in bold.

Time schedule

November 28, 10:00 a.m .: Qualification
November 28, 2:30 p.m .: Final

Note: All times are local Melbourne time (UTC + 10)

qualification

Date: November 28, 1956, 10:00 a.m.

space	Surname	nation	1st attempt	Second attempt	3. Attempt	result	annotation
1	Jíři Skobla	Czechoslovakia	17.15 m	-	-	17.15 m
2	Bill Nieder	United States	16.76 m	-	-	16.76 m
3	Parry O'Brien	United States	16.63 m	-	-	16.63 m
4th	Barry Donath	Australia	16.57 m	-	-	16.57 m
5	Erik Uddebom	Sweden	16.35 m	-	-	16.35 m
6th	Silvano Meconi	Italy	16.19 m	-	-	16.19 m
7th	Georgios Tsakanikas	Greece	14.93 m	15.99 m	-	15.99 m
8th	Ken Bantum	United States	15.76 m	-	-	15.76 m
9	Karl-Heinz Wegmann	Germany	15.73 m	-	-	15.73 m
10	Vladimir Loschtschilow	Soviet Union	15.63 m	-	-	15.63 m
11	Peter Hanlin	Australia	15.62 m	-	-	15.62 m
12	Raymond Thomas	France	15.42 m	-	-	15.42 m
13	Barclay Palmer	Great Britain	15.19 m	-	-	15.19 m
14th	Boris Belyayev	Soviet Union	15.03 m	-	-	15.03 m

final

Jíři Skobla (TCH) won bronze.

space	Surname	nation	1st attempt	Second attempt	3. Attempt	4th attempt	5th attempt	6th attempt	Bottom line	annotation
1	Parry O'Brien	United States	17.92 m	18.47 m	18.37 m	18.45 m	18.57 m	18.23 m	18.57 m	OR
2	Bill Nieder	United States	x	17.61 m	17.81 m	16.82 m	18.18 m	x	18.18 m
3	Jíři Skobla	Czechoslovakia	17.39 m	16.70 m	17.34 m	17.51 ​​m	17.05 m	17.65 m	17.65 m
4th	Ken Bantum	United States	16.99 m	x	16.27 m	17.48 m	x	x	17.48 m
5	Boris Belyayev	Soviet Union	16.96 m	16.05 m	16.58 m	15.96 m	16.11 m	16.24 m	16.96 m
6th	Erik Uddebom	Sweden	16.54 m	x	16.65 m	15.74 m	16.06 m	16.31 m	16.65 m
7th	Karl-Heinz Wegmann	Germany	16.43 m	16.63 m	16.37 m	not in the final of the six best athletes			16.63 m
8th	Georgios Tsakanikas	Greece	x	16.56 m	15.52 m				16.56 m
9	Barry Donath	Australia	15.81 m	16.52 m	16.01 m				16.52 m
10	Silvano Meconi	Italy	x	16.28 m	15.83 m				16.28 m
11	Peter Hanlin	Australia	15.76 m	16.08 m	15.50 m				16.08 m
12	Barclay Palmer	Great Britain	15.81 m	15.17 m	16.65 m				15.81 m
13	Vladimir Loschtschilow	Soviet Union	15.62 m	15.33 m	15.39 m				15.62 m
14th	Raymond Thomas	France	15.11 m	15.28 m	15.31 m				15.31 m

Date: November 24, 1956

For the first time in the history of the Olympic shot put, all athletes had made the qualifying distance.
The 1952 Olympic champion and world record holder Parry O'Brien was the all-time favorite. At the US championships, however, he had lost a competition against his compatriot Kenneth Bantum. In fact, O'Brien made six attempts in the finals, all of which exceeded his own previous Olympic record. Five of his attempts were further than those of silver medalist William Nieder. The Czechoslovak Jíři Skobla won bronze before the third American Bantum.

In the 13th Olympic final there was the eleventh gold medal for the USA.
Of the 39 medals so far, US athletes have won 28.
Jíři Skobla won the first Czechoslovak medal in the shot put .

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 2: 1948–1968, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 1st edition 1969, pp. 144f

Web links

• SportsReference Shot Put , accessed October 5, 2017
• Official report p. 334f, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 5, 2017
• Melbourne 1956 Official Olympic Film - Part 2 | Olympic History , range 0:00 min - 2:00 min, published June 24, 2015 on youtube.com, accessed October 5, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Berlin 2009 page 557 ( Memento from June 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ ^{a b} Official report p. 284, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 5, 2017
3. ^ Official report p. 334, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 5, 2017
4. ↑ Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 1: 1896-1936, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 2nd edition 1970, p. 144