The men's

hammer throw The hammer throw (HT for short) is one of the four throwing events in regular outdoor track-and-field competitions, along with the discus throw, shot put and Javelin throw, javelin. The hammer used in this sport is not like any of the tools a ...

at the

1960 Summer Olympics The 1960 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XVII Olympiad () and commonly known as Rome 1960 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 25 August to 11 September 1960 in Rome, Italy. Rome had previously been awar ...

took place on September 2 (qualifying) and September 3 (final) at the

Stadio Olimpico Stadio Olimpico (; ), colloquially known as l'Olimpico (The Olympic), is an Italian multi-purpose sports venue located in Rome. Seating over 70,000 spectators, it is the largest sports facility in Rome and the second-largest in Italy, after ...

. The qualifying standards for the 1960 event were . There were 28 competitors from 18 nations. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The event was won by

Vasily Rudenkov Vasily Vasilyevich Rudenkov (; ; 3 May 1931 – 2 November 1982) was a Soviet athlete who competed mainly in the hammer throw. He was born in Zhlobin. Rudenkov competed for the USSR in the 1960 Summer Olympics held in Rome, Italy in the ham ...

of the Soviet Union, the nation's first victory in the event.

Gyula Zsivótzky Gyula Zsivótzky (25 February 1937 – 29 September 2007) was a Hungarian hammer thrower. He won a gold medal at the 1968 Olympics, silvers in 1960 and 1964, and finished fifth in 1972. Zsivótzky set two world record: one in 1965 and the othe ...

took silver, Hungary's fourth medal in the last four Games in the men's hammer throw.

Tadeusz Rut Tadeusz Rut (11 October 1931 – 27 March 2002) was a Polish athlete. He competed at the 1956, 1960 and 1964 Olympics in the hammer throw and won a bronze medal in 1960. In 1956 he also finished 17th in the discus throw and was selected as the Li ...

's bronze was Poland's first medal in the event.

Background

This was the 13th appearance of the event, which has been held at every Summer Olympics except 1896. Ten of the 15 finalists from the 1956 Games returned: gold medalist

Hal Connolly Harold Vincent "Hal" Connolly (August 1, 1931 – August 18, 2010) was an American athlete and hammer thrower from Somerville, Massachusetts. He won a gold medal in the hammer throw at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne. Connolly became the f ...

of the United States, bronze medalist

Anatoli Samotsvetov Anatoliy Vasilyevich Samotsvetov () (27 November 1932 – 17 August 2014)Albert Hall The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London, England. It has a seating capacity of 5,272. Since the hall's opening by Queen Victoria in 1871, the world's leading artists from many performance genre ...

of the United States, fifth-place finisher (and 1952 gold medalist)

József Csermák József Csermák (14 February 1932 – 12 January 2001 in Tapolca) was a Hungarian hammer thrower. He won the gold medal at the 1952 Summer Olympics with a throw of 60.34 m, setting a new world record and becoming the first athlete to break the ...

of Hungary, sixth-place finisher

Krešimir Račić Krešimir "Krešo" Račić (15 August 1932 – 19 June 1994) was a Croatian hammer thrower. He competed for Yugoslavia in the 1956 and 1960 Summer Olympics and placed sixth in 1956. He won a gold medal in the 1959 Mediterranean Games and a bronz ...

of Yugoslavia, eighth-place finisher (and 1952 finalist)

Sverre Strandli Sverre Gunnar Strandli (30 November 1925 – 4 March 1985) was a Norway, Norwegian hammer thrower, who won the gold medal at the European Championships in 1950 European Championships in Athletics, 1950 and the silver medal in 1954 European Champ ...

of Norway, eleventh-place finisher

Muhammad Iqbal Muhammad Iqbal (9 November 187721 April 1938) was a South Asian Islamic philosopher, poet and politician. Quote: "In Persian, ... he published six volumes of mainly long poems between 1915 and 1936, ... more or less complete works on philoso ...

of Pakistan, thirteenth-place finisher

Guy Husson Guy Husson (2 March 1931 – 18 June 2025) was a French track and field athlete known primarily for the hammer throw. He was born in Vitry-sur-Seine, Val-de-Marne, France. He represented his native country in three Olympics from 1956 to 1964. H ...

of France, fourteenth-place finisher

of Poland, and

Birger Asplund Karl Birger Asplund (21 July 1929 – 1 July 2023) was a Swedish hammer thrower. He represented his native country at the 1956, 1960, and 1964 Olympics with the best result of 21st place in 1964. At the 1958 European Athletics Championships Th ...

of Sweden, who did not make a legal mark in the final.

of the Soviet Union was the favorite over defending champion Connolly. Portugal and Spain each made their debut in the event; East and West Germany competed together as the United Team of Germany for the first time. The United States appeared for the 13th time, the only nation to have competed at each appearance of the event to that point.

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 60.00 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. 149.

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows: The Olympic record was beaten by

in the qualifying round with a distance of 64.80 metres.

bettered that with a distance of 67.03 metres.

Anatoli Samotsvetov Anatoliy Vasilyevich Samotsvetov () (27 November 1932 – 17 August 2014)Central European Time Central European Time (CET) is a standard time of Central, and parts of Western Europe, which is one hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). The UTC offset, time offset from UTC can be written as UTC+01:00. It is used in most parts of Eur ...

(

UTC+1 +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 **Brit ...

)

Results

Qualifying round

Throwers achieving 60.00 metres advanced to the final.

Final

The six highest-ranked competitors after three rounds qualified for the final three throws to decide the medals.

References

External links

Olympic Games Official Report 1960 Rome-Volume IOlympic Games Official Report 1960 Rome-Volume II
{{DEFAULTSORT:Athletics at the 1960 Summer Olympics - Men's hammer throw M Hammer throw at the Olympics Men's events at the 1960 Summer Olympics