The men's shot put event at the 2008 Olympic Games took place on 15 August at the

Beijing Olympic Stadium The National Stadium (), also known as the Bird's Nest (), is an 80,000-capacity stadium in Beijing. The stadium was jointly designed by architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron from Basel-based architecture team Herzog & de Meuron, pr ...

. Forty-four athletes from 34 nations competed. The event was won by

Tomasz Majewski Tomasz Majewski (born 30 August 1981) is a Polish shot putter and a double Olympic gold medalist. He is the third shot putter to successfully defend the Olympic title, first European to do so, and the first since Parry O'Brien in 1956. Career M ...

of Poland, the nation's first victory (and first medal) in the men's shot put since 1972.

Christian Cantwell Christian Cantwell (born September 30, 1980 in Jefferson City, Missouri) is a World Champion American shot putter. He placed 4th at the 2012 London Summer Olympics. Biography Cantwell's personal best throw is 22.54 metres, or 73 ft 11½ i ...

of the United States took silver, the seventh consecutive Games in which an American finished first or second.

Andrei Mikhnevich Andrei Anatolyevich Mikhnevich ( be, Андрэй Анатолевіч Міхневіч, Andrej Michnievič, russian: Андрей Анатольевич Михневич; born 12 July 1976 in Babruysk) is a Belarusian shot putter with a persona ...

of Belarus was initially awarded the bronze medal but he was later disqualified for doping and the medal was awarded to 4th-place finisher

Dylan Armstrong Dylan Armstrong (born January 15, 1981) is a Canadian shot putter. He is a two-time Pan American Games champion, a former Commonwealth Games champion and has also won world championship silver and bronze medals. He was awarded the bronze medal ...

of Canada. It was Canada's first men's shot put medal.

Background

This was the 26th appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. The top eight finishers from 2004 returned: Yuriy Bilonoh of Ukraine (whose 2004 gold medal would later be stripped), Adam Nelson of the United States, Joachim Olsen of Denmark,

Manuel Martínez Gutiérrez Manuel "Manolo" Martínez Gutiérrez (born December 7, 1974) is a retired Spanish shot putter. Nicknamed the "Gentle Giant", his personal best throw outdoors is 21.47 metres and he has an indoor best of 21.26 m. These marks are the ...

of Spain,

and Yury Bialou of Belarus, Justin Anlezark of Australia, and

Ralf Bartels Ralf Bartels (born 21 February 1978 in Stavenhagen, Germany, then East Germany, German Democratic Republic) is a German shot putter. He became European Champion at the 2006 European Championships in Athletics in Gothenburg, Sweden after beating ...

of Germany, along with eleventh-place finisher Miran Vodovnik of Slovenia. Nelson had won the 2005 world championships and come in second to Reese Hoffa in 2007. Hoffa, Nelson, and

were favored, with an American sweep thought to be a "real possibility." Chinese Taipei, Iran, Jamaica, Portugal, and Serbia each made their debut in the men's shot put. The United States made its 25th appearance, most of any nation, having missed only the boycotted 1980 Games.

Qualification

The qualifying standards were 20.30 m (66.6 ft) (A standard) and 19.80 m (64.96 ft) (B standard). Each National Olympic Committee (NOC) was able to enter up to three entrants providing they had met the A qualifying standard in the qualifying period (1 January 2007 to 23 July 2008). NOCs were also permitted to enter one athlete providing he had met the B standard in the same qualifying period. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress.

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 20.40 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 eight competitors receiving an additional three attempts. The best distance among those six throws counted.Official Report, Results Book for Athletics.

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows. No new world or Olympic records were set for this event. The following national records were set during the competition:

Schedule

All times are

China standard time The time in China follows a single standard time offset of UTC+08:00 (eight hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time), even though the country spans almost five geographical time zones. The official national standard time is called ''Beijing T ...

(

UTC+8 UTC+08:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +08:00. With an estimated population of 1.708 billion living within the time zone, roughly 24% of the world population, it is the most populous time zone in the world, as well as a ...

)

Results

Qualifying round

Qualification: 20.40 (Q) or at least 12 best performers (q) advance to the final.

Final

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Athletics at the 2008 Summer Olympics - Men's shot put Athletics at the 2008 Summer Olympics Shot put at the Olympics Men's events at the 2008 Summer Olympics