Athletics at the 1912 Summer Olympics – Men's shot put

Men's shot put at the Games of the V Olympiad
200px The shot put competition
Venue	Stockholm Olympic Stadium
Date	July 10
Competitors	22 from 14 nations
Medalists
Pat McDonald  United States Ralph Rose  United States Lawrence Whitney  United States

Athletics at the 1912 Summer Olympics
Track events
100 m		men
200 m		men
400 m		men
800 m		men
1500 m		men
5000 m		men
10,000 m		men
110 m hurdles		men
4×100 m relay		men
4×400 m relay		men
3000 m team race		men
10 km walk		men
Road events
Marathon	men
Field events
Long jump	men
Triple jump	men
High jump	men
Pole vault	men
Standing long jump	men
Standing high jump	men
Shot put	men
Discus throw	men
Hammer throw	men
Javelin throw	men
2-hand shot put	men
2-hand discus	men
2-hand javelin	men
Combined events
Pentathlon	men
Decathlon	men
Cross-country events
Individual	men
Team	men

Pat McDonald on the way to winning the gold medal.

The men's shot put was a track and field athletics event held as part of the athletics at the 1912 Summer Olympics programme. It was the fifth appearance of the event, which is one of 12 to have been held at every Summer Olympics. The competition was held on Wednesday, July 10, 1912.

Twenty-two shot putters from 14 nations competed.

Records

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in metres) prior to the 1912 Summer Olympics.

World Record	15.54	Ralph Rose	San Francisco (USA)	August 21, 1909
	16.56(*)	Ralph Rose	Healdsburg (USA)	June 26, 1909
Olympic Record	14.81	Ralph Rose	St. Louis (USA)	August 31, 1904

(*) unofficial, set in an exhibition

Results

Ralph Rose, the two-time defending Olympic champion and holder of the Olympic record (14.81 metres, set at the 1904 Summer Olympics), was unseated by Pat McDonald after a colossal throw in the final. Rose bettered his own record with his first throw, coming just shy of 15 metres. With his third throw, Rose again topped himself, heaving the shot 15.25 metres while none of the other competitors had yet matched his first throw. At the end of the preliminaries, Rose's 15.25 stood well above McDonald's 14.78 metres and Lawrence Whitney's 13.93 metres.

Each of the three finalists received three more throws for the finals, but only two out of the combined 9 throws were legal marks. Whitney, who had scratched twice in the preliminaries, did so three more times to make his 13.93 metres the only legal throw of his 6. Rose's first throw in the finals was measured at 14.96 metres, giving him three throws that were better than the old record. McDonald, however, launched his first throw fully 15.34 metres to take the record and the gold medal after none of the three throwers could make a legal mark in their second or third throws.

Place	Athlete	Preliminary				Final			Best mark
		1	2	3	Rank	4	5	6
1	Pat McDonald (USA)	14.54	14.27	14.78	2nd	15.34 OR	—	—	15.34
2	Ralph Rose (USA)	14.98 OR	14.68	15.25 OR	1st	14.96	—	—	15.25
3	Lawrence Whitney (USA)	—	—	13.93	3rd	—	—	—	13.93
4	Elmer Niklander (FIN)	13.52	—	13.65	4th				13.65
5	George Philbrook (USA)	12.84	13.13	—	5th				13.13
6	Imre Mudin (HUN)				6th				12.81
7	Einar Nilsson (SWE)	12.18	—	12.62	7th				12.62
8	Patrick Quinn (GBR)				8th				12.53
9	André Tison (FRA)	—	11.74	12.41	9th				12.41
10	Paavo Aho (FIN)				10th				12.40
11	Michalis Dorizas (GRE)				11th				12.05
12	Aurelio Lenzi (ITA)	10.52	11.25	11.57	12th				11.57
13	Josef Schäffer (AUT)	11.44	—	—	13th				11.44
14	Karl Halt (GER)				14th				11.16
15	22x20px František Janda-Suk (BOH)				15th				11.15
16	Raoul Paoli (FRA)	9.81	10.61	11.11	16th				11.11
17	Marcel Pelletier (LUX)	10.68	11.04	—	17th				11.04
18	Paul Willführ (GER)	—	—	10.90	18th				10.90
19	Mgirdiç Migiryan (TUR)	10.33	—	10.63	19th				10.63
20	22x20px Ēriks Vanags (RUS)	—	—	10.44	20th				10.44
21	22x20px Arvīds Ozols-Berne (RUS)	—	10.33	—	21st				10.33
22	Charles Lagarde (FRA)	9.41	—	—	22nd				9.41

References

• sports-reference.com