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 ...

throwing event at the

1960 Summer Olympics The 1960 Summer Olympics ( it, Giochi Olimpici estivi del 1960), officially known as the Games of the XVII Olympiad ( it, Giochi della XVII Olimpiade) and commonly known as Rome 1960 ( it, Roma 1960), were an international multi-sport event held ...

took place on September 6 & September 7. Thirty-five athletes from 22 nations competed. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The event was won by

Al Oerter Alfred Oerter Jr. (September 19, 1936 – October 1, 2007) was an American athlete and a four-time Olympic Games, Olympic Champion in the discus throw. He was the first athlete to win a gold medal in the same individual event in four consecut ...

of the United States, the nation's third consecutive and 10th overall victory in the men's discus throw. It was Oerter's second gold medal in the event; he would go on to win four. Oerter was the sixth man to win two medals in the event, and the third to win two gold medals. The United States earned its second consecutive and third overall medal sweep in the event, as

Rink Babka Richard Aldrich Babka (September 23, 1936 – January 15, 2022) was an American discus thrower. A former world record holder, Babka also won a silver medal in the discus event at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. He starred in football, basketb ...

took silver and Dick Cochran bronze.

Background

This was the 14th appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. Returning finalists from the 1956 Games were gold medalist

of the United States, sixth-place finisher (and 1948 gold medalist and 1952 silver medalist)

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, seventh-place finisher Ferenc Klics of Hungary, twelfth-place finisher Kim Bukhantsov of the Soviet Union, thirteenth-place finisher

Fanie du Plessis Stephanus ("Fanie") Johannes du Plessis (23 February 1930 – 13 August 2001) was a discus thrower and shot putter, who represented South Africa at two Summer Olympics in 1956 and 1960.

of South Africa, fourteenth-place finisher

Erik Uddebom Erik "Myggan" Uddebom (born 5 July 1934) is a retired Swedish athlete. He competed in the shot put and discus throw at the 1956 and 1960 Olympics with the best result of sixth place in the shot put in 1956. He set 11 national shot put record an ...

of Sweden, and fifteenth-place finisher

Mesulame Rakuro Mesulame Rakuro (12 May 1932 – 13 June 1969) was a Fijian athlete specialising in the discus throw and shot put. Biography Born in Nailaga, Ba Province, Rakuro was a teacher. He competed in both the discus (in which he finished eighth) and 4 ...

of Fiji. Oerter and

were the favorites, with Oerter a slight edge. Oerter was AAU champion in 1957, 1969, and 1960; Babka beat Oerter in the U.S. Olympic trials and set the world record a month before the Games. Bulgaria, Iraq, and New Zealand each made their debut in the men's discus throw; Germany competed as the "United Team of Germany" for the first time. The United States made its 14th 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 52.00 metres advanced to the final (a steep increase from 1956's 47.00 metres, which had allowed 16 men to advance, though not nearly steep enough: 22 men beat the qualifying mark in 1960). 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, vol. 2, p. 152.

Records

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

had a very short throw in the first set of qualifying round throws, but in the second set he qualified for the final with a launch that broke his own Olympic record by over 2 metres—landing at 58.43 metres. His teammates

(three times) and Dick Cochran (once) both exceeded the old record in the final, but only Oerter was able to beat his new record; Oerter threw 59.18 metres in the fifth throw of the final. All six of Oerter's final throws were longer than the old record.

Schedule

All times are

Central European Time Central European Time (CET) is a standard time which is 1 hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). The time offset from UTC can be written as UTC+01:00. It is used in most parts of Europe and in a few North African countries. CET i ...

(

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

All throwers reaching 52.00 metres advanced to the finals. All distances are listen in metres.

Qualifying

Final

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Athletics at the 1960 Summer Olympics - Men's discus throw M Discus throw at the Olympics Men's events at the 1960 Summer Olympics