The men's shot put competition at the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

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. The event was held at the

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on 18 August.Men's Shot Put – Standings
. rio2016.com Thirty-four athletes from 24 nations competed. The event was won by

Ryan Crouser Ryan Crouser (born December 18, 1992) is an American track and field athlete who competes in the shot put and Discus throw, discus. He specializes in the shot put, in which he is the only three-time Olympic gold medalist, having won in Athletics ...

of the United States, the nation's first victory in the event since 2004 (and 18th overall). His teammate

Joe Kovacs Joseph Mathias Kovacs ( ; born June 28, 1989) is an American track and field athlete who competes in the shot put and has a personal record of 23.23 meters outdoors and 22.05 meters indoors. He won gold medals at the 2015 and 2019 Wo ...

took silver.

Tomas Walsh Tomas Walsh (born 1 March 1992) is a New Zealand athlete who competes mainly in the shot put.Tomas W ...

earned New Zealand's first medal in the men's shot put (in the country's first appearance in the event since 1972).

Summary

In the final, the surprise find of the season

set the tone with a 21.15 m on the first throw of the competition. Two throwers later,

O'Dayne Richards O'Dayne Valentin Richards (born 14 December 1988 in St. Andrew) is a Jamaican athlete competing in the shot put and discus throw. He studied at the University of Technology, Jamaica The University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech, Ja.), form ...

also set his tone with a big first throw, but his foot went over the toe board. Two time defending champion

Tomasz Majewski Tomasz Majewski (born 30 August 1981) is a Polish shot putter and a double Olympic Games, Olympic List of Olympic medalists in athletics (men)#Shot put, gold medalist (2008 Olympic Games, 2008 Beijing, 2012 Olympic Games, 2012 London). He is th ...

and his Polish teammate, two time world junior champion

Konrad Bukowiecki Konrad Bukowiecki (; born 17 March 1997) is a Polish athlete competing primarily in the shot put. He won the silver medal at the 2018 European Championships, gold medals at the 2017 and 2019 European Under-23 Championships, and gold at the 2017 ...

also had foul trouble. Bukowiecki never got a legal throw in. On the fourth throw of the competition, the home crowd got a thrill as

Darlan Romani Darlan Romani (born 9 April 1991 in Concórdia) is a Brazilian track and field athlete specialising in the shot put. He was the Indoor World Champion in 2022, finished 4th at the 2020 Olympic Games, 4th at the 2019 World Championships, and was c ...

threw the Brazilian National Record 21.02 m, beating the mark he set earlier in the morning. Two more throws later,

Franck Elemba Franck Dannique Elemba Owaka (born 21 July 1990
(in French)) is an athlete from the

national record for the Congo. On the tenth throw, the 2016 world leader

threw 21.78 m to take over the lead at the end of the first round. Starting the second round, Crouser tossed 22.22 m, to not only take the lead but to become tied for the number 17 thrower in history. Near the end of the round,

Tomas Walsh Tomas Walsh (born 1 March 1992) is a New Zealand athlete who competes mainly in the shot put.Tomas W ...

threw 21.20 m, to equal Elemba's distance, but with his second throw of 21.00 Elemba held the tiebreaker for bronze position. For his third round throw, Crouser improved his best to 22.26 m, to advance to become the number 14 thrower in history. After dropping off four competitors and changing the throwing order, Walsh moved into the bronze medal position with a 21.36 m in the fifth round. Then Crouser put the exclamation point on his night's work with a , beating

Ulf Timmermann Ulf Béla Timmermann (, ; born 1 November 1962 in East Berlin) is a German former shot putter who broke the world record several times during the 1980s, and is the first and one of only four people to ever throw over 23 metres (along with Rand ...

's Olympic Record from 1988; the days of East German doping dominance. It moved him into a tie for the number 10 thrower in history. Since 2004, only Kovacs has thrown farther. The medals were presented by

Issa Hayatou Issa Hayatou (9 August 1946 – 8 August 2024) was a Cameroonian sports executive, athlete, and football administrator best known for serving as the president of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) between 1988 and 2017. He served as th ...

IOC The International Olympic Committee (IOC; , CIO) is the international, non-governmental, sports governing body of the modern Olympic Games. Founded in 1894 by Pierre de Coubertin and Demetrios Vikelas, it is based in L ...

member Member may refer to: * Military jury, referred to as "Members" in military jargon * Element (mathematics), an object that belongs to a mathematical set * In object-oriented programming, a member of a class ** Field (computer science), entries in ...

, and

Karim Ibrahim Kareem (alternatively spelled Karim, Kerim or Karem) () is a given name and surname of Arabic origin that means "generous", "noble", "honourable". It is also one of the Names of God. Given name Karim * Karim Abdel Aziz (born 1975), Egyptian acto ...

, Council Member of the

IAAF World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation and International Association of Athletics Federations and formerly abbreviated as the IAAF, is the international sports governing body, governing body for the sport ...

Background

This was the 28th appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. The returning finalists from the 2012 Games were two-time defending gold medalist

of Poland, silver medalist

David Storl David Storl (born 27 July 1990) is a German track and field athlete who specialises in the shot put. He was successful on the youth and junior athletics circuit, winning gold medals at the World Youth Championships and World Junior Championshi ...

of Germany, sixth-place finisher

Germán Lauro Germán Luján Lauro (born 2 April 1984) is an Argentine shot putter and discus thrower. He is the South American record holder in the shot put both indoors and outdoors with marks of 21.04 m and 21.26 m, respectively. His personal be ...

of Argentina, and seventh-place finisher

Asmir Kolašinac Asmir Kolašinac ( sr-cyr, Асмир Колашинац; born 15 October 1984) is a Serbian shot putter who competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics, 2008 Beijing Olympics, 2012 Summer Olympics, 2012 London Olympics, 2016 Summer Olympics, 2016 Rio ...

of Serbia. Storl had won the world championships on either side of the London Games (2011 and 2013), while

had beaten him in 2015 (Storl came second).

had a strong performance at the U.S. trials, joining Storl and Kovacs among the favorites for 2016. The British Virgin Islands, the Republic of the Congo, and Georgia each made their debut in the men's shot put. The United States made its 27th appearance, most of any nation, having missed only the boycotted 1980 Games.

Qualification

National Olympic Committee A National Olympic Committee (NOC) is a national constituent of the worldwide Olympic movement. Subject to the controls of the International Olympic Committee, NOCs are responsible for organizing their people's participation in the Olympic Games ...

(NOC) could enter up to 3 qualified athletes in the men's shot put event if all athletes meet the entry standard during the qualifying period. (The limit of 3 has been in place since the 1930 Olympic Congress.) The qualifying standard was 20.50 metres. The qualifying period was from 1 May 2015 to 11 July 2016. The qualifying distance standards could be obtained in various meets during the given period that have the approval of the

. Only outdoor meets were accepted. NOCs could also use their universality place—each NOC could enter one male athlete regardless of time if they had no male athletes meeting the entry standard for an athletics event—in the shot put.

Competition format

Each athlete received three throws in the qualifying round. All who achieved the qualifying distance of 20.65 metres progressed to the final. If fewer than twelve athletes achieved this mark, then the twelve furthest throwing athletes reached the final. Each finalist was allowed three throws in last round, with the top eight athletes after that point being given three further attempts.

Records

, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

broke the 28-year-old Olympic record with his fifth throw of the final, hitting a mark of 22.52 metres. The following national records were established during the competition:

Schedule

All times are

Brasilia Time Time in Brazil is calculated using standard time, and the country (including its offshore islands) is divided into four standard time zones: Fernando de Noronha time (UTC−02:00), Brasília time (UTC−03:00), Amazon time (UTC−04:00), and Acr ...

( UTC-3)

Results

Qualifying round

Qualification rule: qualification standard 20.65m (Q) or at least best 12 qualified (q).

Final

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Athletics at the 2016 Summer Olympics - Men's shot put Men's shot put

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

Men's events at the 2016 Summer Olympics