The men's shot put event was part of the track and field athletics programme at the

1952 Summer Olympics The 1952 Summer Olympics (, ), officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad (, ) and commonly known as Helsinki 1952, were an international multi-sport event held from 19 July to 3 August 1952 in Helsinki, Finland. After Japan declared in ...

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

. Twenty athletes from 14 nations competed. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The competition was held on 21 July at

Helsinki Olympic Stadium The Helsinki Olympic Stadium (; ), located in the Töölö district about from the centre of the Finnish capital Helsinki, is the largest stadium in the country. The stadium is best known for being the centre of activities in the 1952 Summer ...

. The finals were swept by the United States, with Americans

Parry O'Brien William Patrick "Parry" O'Brien (January 28, 1932 – April 21, 2007) was an American shot put champion. He competed in four consecutive Summer Olympics where he won two gold medals (1952, 1956) and one silver medal ( 1960). In his last Olympic ...

taking the gold medal,

Darrow Hooper Clarence Darrow Hooper (January 30, 1932 – August 19, 2018) was an American athlete who competed mainly in the shot put. Hooper was born in Fort Worth, Texas, where in 1949 he graduated from North Side High School. He went on to attend T ...

earning silver and

Jim Fuchs James Emanuel Fuchs (pronounced ; December 6, 1927 – October 8, 2010) was an American communications executive and athlete who competed in the discus throw and shot put. ''Track and Field News'' rated him the number one shotputter in the ...

receiving his second consecutive bronze medal in the event. It was the 10th victory for an American in the event, and the fifth medal sweep for the United States. Fuchs was the third man to win multiple medals in the shot put.

Summary

While recuperating from surgery to deal with a knee injury, Fuchs developed a technique he called "the sideways glide" which enabled him to compete without pain and gain greater distance on his tosses. Fuchs, who was the world record holder at the time of the games, was nursing a pulled ligament in his right hand, which interfered with his ability to compete. In the years after his bronze medal performance at the

1948 Summer Olympics The 1948 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XIV Olympiad and officially branded as London 1948, were an international multi-sport event held from 29 July to 14 August 1948 in London, United Kingdom. Following a twelve-year hiatus cau ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, Fuchs was the best shot putter in the world, winning 88 consecutive meets and setting four world records in a stretch of 14 months. Using a technique that became known as the "O'Brien glide", Parry O'Brien broke Fuchs's consecutive meet winning streak and started a streak of his own that ran from July 1952 to June 1956 in which he won 116 consecutive meets and set 17 world records, in addition to becoming the first person to break through the distances of 18 meters, 60 feet and 19 meters.Elliott, Helene
"Parry O'Brien, 75; champion revolutionized shotput throw"
''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'', 23 April 2007. Accessed 19 October 2010. Parry would go on to repeat his gold medal performance at the

1956 Summer Olympics The 1956 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XVI Olympiad and officially branded as Melbourne 1956, were an international multi-sport event held in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, from 22 November to 8 December ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

and win a silver medal at the

1960 Summer Olympics The 1960 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XVII Olympiad () and commonly known as Rome 1960 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 25 August to 11 September 1960 in Rome, Italy. Rome had previously been awar ...

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

, before falling just out of the medals in the

1964 Summer Olympics The , officially the and commonly known as Tokyo 1964 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 10 to 24 October 1964 in Tokyo, Japan. Tokyo had been awarded the organization of the 1940 Summer Olympics, but this honor was subseq ...

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

.Parry O'Brien
Sports-Reference.com. Accessed 19 October 2010. Hooper beat both O'Brien and Fuchs in the 1952 Final Trials with a throw of 17.41m (57–1), a distance that would have won him a gold medal if he had been able to repeat it in Helsinki
Sports-Reference.com. Accessed 19 October 2010. In the first round of the final O'Brien reached a distance of 17.41 (57–1), which gave him the lead, holding on until the final round when Hooper's 17.39 (57–0) put him just two centimeters short of a gold medal.

Background

This was the 12th appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. Returning finalists from the 1948 Games were bronze medalist

of the United States, ninth-place finisher

Konstantinos Giataganas Konstantinos Giataganas or Konstantinos Yataganas (12 October 1920 – February 1997) was a Greek shot putter and discus thrower who competed in the 1948 Summer Olympics and in the 1952 Summer Olympics. and won the gold medal in Shot Put at the ...

of Greece, and eleventh-place finisher John Giles of Great Britain. The American team was favored to repeat its medal sweep of 1948, with Fuchs (now the world record holder),

, and

all within two inches of each other at the U.S. trials, with Hooper winning at 17.41 metres. Puerto Rico and the Soviet Union each made their debut in the men's shot put. The United States appeared for the 12th time, the only nation to have competed in all Olympic shot put competitions to date.

Competition format

The competition used the two-round format introduced in 1936, with the qualifying round completely separate from the divided final. In qualifying, each athlete received three attempts; those recording a mark of at least 14.60 metres advanced to the final. If fewer than 12 athletes achieved that distance, the top 12 would advance. The results of the qualifying round were then ignored. Finalists received three throws each, with the top six competitors receiving an additional three attempts. The best distance among those six throws counted.Official Report, p. 316.

Records

Prior to the competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

broke the Olympic record with his first throw of the final, at 17.41 metres. This was the best throw of the day, though O'Brien's second throw (17.21 metres) and

's final throw (17.39 metres) also exceeded the old record.

Schedule

All times are

Eastern European Summer Time Eastern European Summer Time (EEST) is one of the names of the UTC+03:00 time zone, which is 3 hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. It is used as a summer daylight saving time in some European and Middle Eastern countries, which makes ...

(

UTC+3 UTC+03:00 is an identifier for a UTC offset, time offset from UTC of +03:00. In areas using this time offset, the time is three hours ahead of the Coordinated Universal Time, Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Following the ISO 8601 standard, ...

)

Results

Qualifying round

Qualification: Qualifying Performance 14.60 (Q) advance to the final.

Final

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Athletics At The 1952 Summer Olympics - Men's Shot Put Athletics at the 1952 Summer Olympics Shot put at the Olympics Men's events at the 1952 Summer Olympics