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 ...

was one of four men's throwing events on the

Athletics at the 1964 Summer Olympics At the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, the athletics competition included 36 events, 24 for men and 12 for women. The women's 400 metres and women's pentathlon events were newly introduced at these Games. There were a total number of 1016 partic ...

program in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

. It was held on 15 October 1964. 29 athletes from 21 nations entered, with 1 additional athlete not starting in the qualification round. 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 fourth consecutive and 11th overall victory in the men's discus throw. Oerter became the first man to win three medals in the event, all of them gold (through the 2016 Olympics, two other men have won three medals but neither of them won three gold medals). He was only the second person to win three consecutive gold medals in any individual athletics event (after John Flanagan in the hammer from 1904 to 1912). It was the third of his four consecutive wins in the event. Ludvik Danek of Czechoslovakia took silver to break up the Americans' two-Games dominance of the discus podium; no non-American had won a medal since 1952.

Dave Weill David Lawson Weill (born October 25, 1941, Berkeley, California) is an American former athlete who competed mainly in the discus throw. Biography While at Stanford Weill won the 1962 and 1963 NCAA. He competed for the United State ...

earned bronze to make this the fourth straight Games that the United States had won at least two medals in the event.

Background

This was the 15th appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. Returning finalists from the 1960 Games were two-time gold medalist

of the United States, fourth-place finisher József Szécsényi of Hungary, fifth-place finisher

Edmund Piątkowski Edmund Piątkowski (31 January 1936 – 28 March 2016) was a Polish track and field athlete, who competed in the discus event. Piątkowski was multiple time Polish champion in the discus (1955, 1957–66, 1968–69). He participated in four E ...

and fourteenth-place finisher Zenon Begier of Poland, sixth-place finisher Viktor Kompaniyets, eighth-place finisher Kim Bukhantsov, and fifteenth-place finisher

Vladimir Trusenyov Vladimir Ivanovich Trusenyov (russian: Владимир Иванович Трусенёв; 3 August 1931 – 2001) was a Russian discus thrower who won a European title in 1962 and placed third in 1958. In 1962 he held a world record for a few w ...

of the Soviet Union, ninth-place finisher Pentti Repo of Finland, twelfth-place finisher

Lothar Milde Lothar Milde (born 8 November 1934) was an East German athlete who competed mainly in the discus throw. He was born in Halle an der Saale. Milde competed at three Olympic Games winning the silver medal at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City ...

of the United Team of Germany, twenty-first-place finisher

Warwick Selvey Warwick Perrins Selvey (3 December 1939 – 16 August 2018) was an Australian Olympic athlete who competed in the shot put and discus events. Selvey won a total of 18 Australian Championships in Athletics between 1960 and 1973 which is a rec ...

of Australia, and twenty-second-place finisher Cees Koch of the Netherlands. Bukhantsov had also been a finalist in 1956. Oerter was the first man to break 200 feet, with his first world record in 1962. Ludvik Danek of Czechoslovakia took the world record shortly before the Games, however, breaking 63 and 64 meters (and 210 feet). Oerter lost the U.S. trials to

Jay Silvester L. Jay Silvester (born August 27, 1937) and participated in college athletics at Utah State University from 1956 to 1959 is an American retired athlete who mainly competed in the discus throw. In this event he finished in fourth, fifth, second ...

, and entered the Games hampered by injuries. Iran, the Ivory Coast, and Puerto Rico each made their debut in the men's discus throw. The United States made its 15th 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 55.00 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, vol. 2, p. 53.

Records

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

led the qualifying round with a new Olympic record of 60.54 metres. Ludvik Danek, throwing later, beat the old record but not Oerter's new record. In the final, Danek (three times),

(once), and

(once) all topped the old record but could not beat the new one. Oerter himself managed only one throw past the old record—but it was the best throw of the whole competition, giving Oerter the gold medal and another new Olympic record of 61.00 metres.

Schedule

All times are

Japan Standard Time , or , is the standard time zone in Japan, 9 hours ahead of UTC ( UTC+09:00). Japan does not observe daylight saving time, though its introduction has been debated on several occasions. During World War II, the time zone was often referred to a ...

(

UTC+9 UTC+09:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +09:00. During the Japanese occupations of British Borneo, Burma, Hong Kong, Dutch East Indies, Malaya, Philippines, Singapore, and French Indochina, it was used as a common time with ...

)

Results

Qualifying

The qualification standard was 55.00 metres. Each thrower had three attempts to reach that standard. Since only 10 throwers made the mark, the next two furthest also advanced to meet the minimum 12 in the final. The table shows the results of the three qualifying rounds.

Finals

The scores from the qualification round were erased and each thrower was given three throws. The six best in those three received another three throws, keeping all six. Danek's first throw broke Oerter's record from the qualifier. Weill topped that with his second throw, then Danek took the record back in the fourth throw. Oerter's fifth throw, a full 61 metres to regain the record, silenced the others and won him his third straight gold medal.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Athletics at the 1964 Summer Olympics - Men's discus throw Athletics at the 1964 Summer Olympics Discus throw at the Olympics Men's events at the 1964 Summer Olympics