The men's trap 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 sixth appearance of the event. The competition was held on 25 and 26 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 ...

. 40 shooters from 22 nations competed. Each nation could have up to 2 shooters.Official Report, p. 454. The event was won by

George Genereux George Patrick Genereux (March 1, 1935 – April 10, 1989) was a Canadian gold medal-winning trap shooter and physician. Genereux was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, the son of Catherine Mary (née Devine), a nurse who was originally from M ...

of Canada, the nation's first victory (and first medal) in the event since 1908. Sweden, which had never before medaled in the men's trap, took two medals this Games, with

Knut Holmqvist Knut Holmqvist (15 July 1918 – 28 August 2000) was a Swedish sport shooter Shooting sports is a group of competitive and recreational sporting activities involving proficiency tests of accuracy, precision and speed in shooting — the art of ...

earning silver and

Hans Liljedahl Hans Gustaf Liljedahl (7 April 1913 – 9 November 1991) was a Swedish sport shooter. He competed in trap shooting at the 1952 and 1956 Olympics and finished third and eighth, respectively. He won three world titles in this event, in 1947 and 195 ...

bronze.

Background

This was the sixth appearance of what had been standardised as the men's

ISSF Olympic trap Olympic Trap is a shooting sport discipline contested at the Olympic Games and sanctioned by the International Shooting Sport Federation. Usually referred to simply as "trap", the discipline is also known in the United States as international tra ...

event. The event was held at every Summer Olympics from 1896 to 1924 (except 1904, when no shooting events were held) and from 1952 to 2016. As with most shooting events, it was nominally open to women from 1968 to 1980; the trap remained open to women through 1992. Very few women participated these years. The event returned to being men-only for 1996, though the new double trap had separate events for men and women that year. In 2000, a separate women's event was added and it has been contested at every Games since. There was also a men's team trap event held four times from 1908 to 1924. Unsurprisingly, none of the shooters from the 1924 Games (the last edition of the trap) returned. The reigning World Champion from the 1952 ISSF World Shooting Championships, Argentina's Pablo Grossi, did not compete in Helsinki; the silver and bronze medalists (17-year-old

of Canada and

of Sweden, respectively) did. Argentina, Bulgaria, Egypt, Monaco, Poland, Puerto Rico, Soviet Union, and Switzerland each made their debut in the event. Great Britain made its sixth appearance, the only nation to have competed at each edition of the event to that point.

Competition format

The trap competitions prior to World War II had featured 100 target competitions, with winners reaching scores of 98. When trap returned to the Olympics in these Games, it used 200 targets in two courses of 100. Each course consisted of 4 series of 25 targets.Official Report, p. 468.

Records

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

set the initial Olympic record for the 200-shot event with 192 points.

Schedule

Results

The end of the first day had Liljedahl and Aasnæs leading at 96, followed closely by Genereux, Čapek, and Holmqvist at 95. Aasnæs dropped early in the second course. Liljedahl still held the 1-point lead over Genereux and Holmqvist after 150 shots, but Genereux took the lead with a perfect 25-hit series from targets to 151 to 175 while Liljedahl hit only 21. Holmqvist hit 24 during that run, falling behind Genereux by 1 but ahead of Liljedahl by 2. Genereux's 24 out of the last 25 ensured that Liljedahl could not catch him; Holmqvist needed to be perfect to move back up to tied with the Canadian, but only equaled Genereux's 24 in the final 25 shots.Official Report, p. 454.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shooting At The 1952 Summer Olympics - Men's Trap Shooting at the 1952 Summer Olympics Trap at the Olympics