The men's

discus throw The discus throw (), also known as disc throw, is a track and field event in which an athlete throws a heavy disk (mathematics), disc—called a discus—in an attempt to mark a farther distance than their competitors. It is an classical antiqui ...

event was part of the track and field athletics programme at the

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

. Twenty-eight athletes from 18 nations competed. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The competition was held on August 2. The final was won by

Adolfo Consolini Adolfo Consolini (5 January 1917 – 20 December 1969) was an Italian discus thrower. He competed at the 1948, 1952, 1956 and 1960 Olympics and finished in 1st, 2nd, 6th and 17 place, respectively. While winning the gold medal in 1948 he set an O ...

of Italy. It was the nation's first victory in the men's discus throw; Italy had previously taken bronze in 1936.

Giuseppe Tosi Giuseppe "Beppe" Tosi (25 May 1916 – 10 July 1981) was an Italian discus thrower. He won silver medal at the 1946, 1950 and 1954 European championships and 1948 Olympics, every time beaten by the teammate Adolfo Consolini. At the 1952 Olympics ...

earned silver to put Italy in the top two places.

Fortune Gordien Fortune Everett Gordien (September 9, 1922 – April 10, 1990) was an American discus thrower and shot putter who set four world records in the discus throw. He competed in this event at the 1948, 1952 and 1956 Olympics and placed third, fourth ...

of the United States won bronze, keeping the Americans on the podium in each appearance of the men's discus throw to date.

Background

This was the 11th appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. The returning finalists from the 1936 Games were bronze medalist

Giorgio Oberweger Giorgio Oberweger (22 December 1913 – 14 October 1998) was an Italian discus thrower who won a bronze medal at the 1936 Olympics and a silver at the 1938 European Champsionships. He placed sixth at the 1934 European Championships and 15th at th ...

of Italy and sixth-place finisher

Nikolaos Syllas Nikolaos Syllas ( el, Νικόλαος Σύλλας; 30 November 1914 – 16 August 1986) was a Greek athlete who competed in the 1936 Summer Olympics, in the 1948 Summer Olympics, and in the 1952 Summer Olympics The 1952 Summer Olympics ( fi, ...

of Greece. Oberweger's teammates,

(who had held the world record until 1946, and would take it back later in 1948) and

, were the favorites after finishing first and second in the European championships. The biggest challenger outside of Italy was American

, the 1947 and 1948 AAU champion. World record holder and inventor of the Minnesota Whip technique

Bob Fitch Robert E. Fitch (July 28, 1919 – April 15, 2003) was an American athlete and coach. He broke the world record in the discus throw in 1946 with a mark of 54.93 m (180 ft in). He developed a rotational technique referred to ...

was unable to attend the Games. South Korea, Pakistan, and Peru each made their debut in the men's discus throw. The United States made its 11th appearance, having competed in every edition of the Olympic men's discus throw 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 46.00 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. 271.

Records

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

and

both beat the Olympic record in the qualifying round, with Consolini's throw going 51.08 metres. Tosi's first throw in the final bettered that, at 51.78 metres. Consolini responded with a 52.78 metres throw in the second set. The bronze medalist,

, also exceeded the old record.

Schedule

All times are

British Summer Time During British Summer Time (BST), civil time in the United Kingdom is advanced one hour forward of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), in effect changing the time zone from UTC±00:00 to UTC+01:00, so that mornings have one hour less daylight, and ev ...

(

UTC+1 UTC+01:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +01:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2019-02-07T23:28:34+01:00. This time is used in: *Central European Time *West Africa Time *Western European Summer Time ** B ...

)

Results

Qualifying round

Qual. rule: qualification standard 46.00m (Q) or at least best 12 qualified (q). Individual throw results are not known, though Consolini and Tosi's qualifying throws were on the first attempt. Frank fouled on his first and third throws.

Final

References

External links

*Organising Committee for the XIV Olympiad, The (1948)
The Official Report of the Organising Committee for the XIV Olympiad
''

LA84 Foundation The LA84 Foundation (known until June 2007 as the Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles) is a private, nonprofit institution created by the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee to manage Southern California's endowment from the 1984 Olym ...

''. Retrieved 5 September 2016. {{DEFAULTSORT:Athletics At The 1948 Summer Olympics - Men's Discus Throw Athletics at the 1948 Summer Olympics Discus throw at the Olympics Men's events at the 1948 Summer Olympics