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| Event type

Shot Put, Men

Date28 November 1956
StatusOlympic
LocationMelbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne, Victoria
Participants14 from 10 countries

By 1956 defending champion Parry O’Brien had established himself as the greatest putter in the world. Between Olympics he had broken the world record 15 times, though not all were ratified. In May 1964 he had become the first putter over 60 feet when he threw 18.42 (60-5¼) in a UCLA-USC dual meet. He did it with a revolutionary new technique in which he began with his back to the front of the cirlc and did a 180° turn before releasing the shot. His 1956 gold medal was quite easy, as he had the five longest puts of the competition. American Bill Nieder won the silver medal over Czechoslovakia’s Jiří Škobla. Škobla’s father, Jaroslav, had also won an Olympic medal – a gold in 1932 heavyweight weightlifting.

PosNrAthleteNOCQualifyingFinal
1452Parry O'BrienUSA16.63 (3)18.57 (1)GoldOR
2451Bill NiederUSA16.76 (2)18.18 (2)Silver
3445Jiří SkoblaTCH17.15 (1)17.65 (3)Bronze
4450Ken BantumUSA15.76 (8)17.48 (4)
5456Boris BelyayevURS15.03 (14)16.96 (5)
6435Erik UddebomSWE16.35 (5)16.65 (6)
7447Karl-Heinz WegmannGER15.73 (9)16.63 (7)
8448Georgios TsakanikasGRE15.99 (7)16.56 (8)
9443Barry DonathAUS16.57 (4)16.52 (9)
10449Silvano MeconiITA16.19 (6)16.28 (10)
11444Peter HanlinAUS15.62 (11)16.08 (11)
12428Barclay PalmerGBR15.19 (13)15.81 (12)
13453Vladimir LoshchilovURS15.63 (10)15.62 (13)
14446Raymond ThomasFRA15.42 (12)15.31 (14)
DNS454Vartan OvsepianURS– (DNS)
DNS424Todor ArtarskiBUL– (DNS)
DNS429Gerry CarrGBR– (DNS)
DNS430Mark PharaohGBR– (DNS)

Qualifying Round (28 November 1956 — 10:00)

All those reaching 15.00 metres advanced to the final.

PosOrdAthleteNOCDistanceR1R2R3
114Jiří SkoblaTCH17.1517.15--Q
215Bill NiederUSA16.7616.76--Q
33Parry O'BrienUSA16.6316.63--Q
42Barry DonathAUS16.5716.57--Q
59Erik UddebomSWE16.3516.35--Q
65Silvano MeconiITA16.1916.19--Q
717Georgios TsakanikasGRE15.9914.9315.99-Q
811Ken BantumUSA15.7615.76--Q
96Karl-Heinz WegmannGER15.7315.73--Q
1010Vladimir LoshchilovURS15.6315.63--Q
117Peter HanlinAUS15.6215.62--Q
1213Raymond ThomasFRA15.4215.42--Q
131Barclay PalmerGBR15.1915.19--Q
148Boris BelyayevURS15.0315.03--Q
DNS16Vartan OvsepianURS
DNS4Todor ArtarskiBUL
DNS12Gerry CarrGBR
DNS18Mark PharaohGBR

Final Round (28 November 1956 — 14:30)

PosOrdAthleteNOCDistanceR1R2R3R4R5R6
13Parry O'BrienUSA18.5717.9218.4718.3718.4518.5718.23OR
213Bill NiederUSA18.18×17.6117.8116.8218.18×
312Jiří SkoblaTCH17.6517.3916.7017.3417.5117.0517.65
410Ken BantumUSA17.4816.99×16.2717.48××
57Boris BelyayevURS16.9616.9616.0516.5815.9616.1116.24
68Erik UddebomSWE16.6516.54×16.6515.7416.0616.31
75Karl-Heinz WegmannGER16.6316.4316.6316.37
814Georgios TsakanikasGRE16.56×16.5615.52
92Barry DonathAUS16.52×16.5216.01
104Silvano MeconiITA16.28×16.2815.83
116Peter HanlinAUS16.0815.7616.0815.50
121Barclay PalmerGBR15.8115.8115.1715.65
139Vladimir LoshchilovURS15.6215.6215.3315.39
1411Raymond ThomasFRA15.3115.1115.2815.31