The men's discus throw event was part of the track and field athletics programme at the

1936 Summer Olympics The 1936 Summer Olympics (German: ''Olympische Sommerspiele 1936''), officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad (German: ''Spiele der XI. Olympiade'') and commonly known as Berlin 1936 or the Nazi Olympics, were an international multi-sp ...

. The competition was held on August 5, 1936. Thirty-one athletes from 17 nations competed. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The final was won by Ken Carpenter of the United States. It was the nation's fourth consecutive, and seventh overall, victory in the men's discus throw; it was also the second consecutive Games that the Americans finished with both of the top two places, as

Gordon Dunn Gordon Glover "Slinger" Dunn (April 16, 1912 – July 26, 1964) was an American discus thrower who won a silver medal at the 1936 Summer Olympics, a U.S. Navy lieutenant, and former mayor of Fresno, California from 1949-1957. Godron Dunn was bo ...

took silver.

Giorgio Oberweger Giorgio Oberweger (22 December 1913 – 14 October 1998) was an Italian discus thrower who won a bronze medal at the 1936 Olympics and a silver at the 1938 European Champsionships. He placed sixth at the 1934 European Championships and 15th at th ...

earned Italy's first men's discus throw medal with his bronze.

Background

This was the 10th appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. The returning finalists from 1932 were bronze medalist

Paul Winter Paul Winter (born August 31, 1939) is an American saxophonist, composer, and bandleader. He is a pioneer of world music and earth music, which interweaves the voices of the wild with instrumental voices from classical, jazz and world music. The ...

and fourth-place finisher Jules Noël of France and sixth-place finisher Endre Madarász of Hungary. The favorites were

Harald Andersson Harald "Slaktarn" Andersson (2 April 1907 – 18 May 1985) was a Swedish discus thrower. In 1934 he won a European title Willy Schröder Willy Schröder (7 March 1912 – 28 September 1990) was a German athlete who competed in the 1936 Summer Olympics in the men's discus throw event, finishing in 5th place. In 1935 he set a discus world record of 53.10 m in a competition in ...

of Germany (who had broken Andersson's record in 1935). The Republic of China and Liechtenstein each made their debut in the men's discus throw. The United States made its 10th appearance, having competed in every edition of the Olympic men's discus throw to date.

Competition format

The competition introduced a true two-round format, with the qualifying round completely separate from the divided final (though the official report describes the competition as having three phases, with the final being a "semi-finals" and "final"). In qualifying, each athlete received three attempts; those recording a mark of at least 44.00 metres advanced to the final. 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. 676.

Records

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in metres) prior to the 1932 Summer Olympics. Ken Carpenter broke the Olympic record by throwing 50.48 metres in the fourth throw of the final.

Schedule

Results

Qualifying

Distances are estimated.

Final

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Athletics At The 1936 Summer Olympics - Men's Discus Throw Athletics at the 1936 Summer Olympics Discus throw at the Olympics Men's events at the 1936 Summer Olympics