The men's

ISSF 25 meter rapid fire pistol 25 meter rapid fire pistol is one of the ISSF shooting events and is shot with .22 LR pistols. The event has been a part of the Olympic program ever since the beginning in 1896, although its rules changed greatly before World War II, after which ...

was a

shooting sports Shooting sports is a group of competitive sport, competitive and recreational sporting activities involving proficiency tests of accuracy, precision and speed in shooting — the art of using ranged weapons, mainly small arms (firearms and airgun ...

event held as part of the

Shooting at the 1952 Summer Olympics With the competitions in shooting at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, the Olympic shooting program began its expansion. Three new events were added: 100 metre running deer, 50 metre rifle three positions and trap. In total there were seven e ...

programme. It was the ninth appearance of the event. The competition was held on 27 and 28 July 1952 at the shooting ranges in

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

with 53 shooters from 28 nations competing. The maximum number of shooters per nation was reduced to 2, from 3 in previous Games.Official Report, p. 454. The event was won by

Károly Takács Károly Takács (21 January 1910 – 5 January 1976)Profile
from ...

of Hungary, the first man to successfully defend an Olympic rapid fire title (and second to win multiple medals of any color). Hungary also took the second place, with

Szilárd Kun Szilárd Kun (23 March 1935 – 31 August 1987) was a Hungary, Hungarian Shooting sport, sport shooter who competed in the 1952 Summer Olympics, in the 1956 Summer Olympics, in the 1964 Summer Olympics, in the 1968 Summer Olympics and in the ...

earning silver. Gheorghe Lichiardopol of Romania won bronze in his nation's debut in the event.

Background

This was the ninth appearance of what had been standardised in 1948 as the men's

event, the only event on the 2020 programme that traces back to 1896. The event has been held at every Summer Olympics except 1904 and 1928 (when no shooting events were held) and 1908; it was nominally open to women from 1968 to 1980, although very few women participated these years. There is no women's equivalent on the Olympic programme, as of 2021. The first five events were quite different, with some level of consistency finally beginning with the 1932 event—which, though it had differences from the 1924 competition, was roughly similar. The 1936 competition followed the 1932 one quite closely. The post-

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

event substantially altered the competition once again. Four of the top 10 shooters from 1948 returned: gold medalist

Károly Takács Károly Takács (21 January 1910 – 5 January 1976)Profile
from ...

of Hungary, silver medalist

Carlos Enrique Díaz Sáenz Valiente Carlos Enrique Díaz Sáenz Valiente (25 January 1917 – 14 February 1956) was an Argentine sport shooter and racing driver . He was born in Mar del Plata, Argentina. He won the silver medal in 25 metre rapid fire pistol at the 1948 Summer ...

of Argentina, fourth-place finisher (and 1936 bronze medalist

Torsten Ullman Torsten Ullman (27 July 1908 – 11 May 1993) was a Swedish pistol shooter and entrepreneur, most famous for his gold medal in the 1936 Berlin Olympics, where the Germans were favourites in the free pistol competition but Ullman won by a mar ...

of Sweden, and ninth-place finisher

Michelangelo Borriello Michelangelo Borriello (23 April 1909 – 6 September 1995) was an Italian sports shooter. He competed at the 1936, 1948, 1952 Events January–February * January 26 – Black Saturday in Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central busin ...

of Italy. The two-time reigning (1949 and 1952) world champion was

Huelet Benner Sergeant Major Huelet Leo "Joe" Benner (November 1, 1917 – December 12, 1999) was an American multi-discipline pistol shooter during what many consider the golden era of international and national competition (post-World War II through the ...

of the United States; Penait Calcai of Romania had been the runner-up in 1952 and Valiente (the 1947 world champion) had placed third. Bulgaria, Canada, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, Romania, the Soviet Union, and Venezuela each made their debut in the event. The United States made its seventh appearance in the event, most of any nation.

Competition format

The competition format followed the 1948 format, now very close to the modern rapid fire pistol competition after significant variation before World War II. Each shooter fired 60 shots. These were done in two courses of 30; each course consisted of two stages of 15; each stage consisted of three series of 5. In each stage, the time limit for each series was 8 seconds for the first, 6 seconds for the second, and 4 seconds for the third. A holdover from the previous Games was that full-body silhouettes, rather than round targets, continued to be used; however, scoring rings had been added so that now each shot was scored up to 10 rather than being strictly hit or miss. Hits were the primary measurement of success; points were only used to differentiate between shooters with the same number of hits.

Records

Prior to the competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows. No new world or Olympic records were set during the competition.

Schedule

Results

A shoot-off was held between Kun and Lichiardopol for the silver and bronze medals; both tied at 142 in the first shoot-off round of 15 shots. In the second shoot-off round, Kun won 140 to 137.Official Report, p. 455.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shooting At The 1952 Summer Olympics - Men's 25 Metre Rapid Fire Pistol Shooting at the 1952 Summer Olympics Men's 1952