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Athletics at the 1956 Summer Olympics – Men's discus throw

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Men's discus throw
at the Games of the XV Olympiad
Left-right: Koch, Oerter, Gordien
VenueOlympic Park Stadium
Date27 November (qualifying and final)
Competitors20 from 15 nations
Winning distance56.36 OR
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Al Oerter
 United States
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Fortune Gordien
 United States
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Des Koch
 United States
← 1952
1960 →
Video on YouTube Official Video @34:58

The men's discus throw was an event at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia. Twenty athletes from 15 nations competed.[1] The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The qualifying round and the final both were held on Tuesday November 27, 1956.[2] The event was won by Al Oerter of the United States, the nation's second consecutive and ninth overall victory in the men's discus throw. It was the first of four straight gold medals for Oerter. The United States earned its second medal sweep in the event (after 1908), as Fortune Gordien took silver and Des Koch took bronze. Gordien became the fifth man to win two medals in the event, and the first to do so in non-consecutive Games (silver in 1948, fourth place in 1952). Italy's three-Games medal streak in the event ended.

Background

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This was the 13th appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. Returning finalists from the 1952 Games were silver medalist (and 1948 gold medalist) Adolfo Consolini of Italy, fourth-place finisher (and 1948 bronze medalist) Fortune Gordien of the United States, fifth-place finisher Ferenc Klics of Hungary, and sixth-place finisher Oto Grigalka and tenth-place finisher Boris Matveyev of the Soviet Union. Consolini, the two-time Olympic medalist and three-time European champion, was the "slight favorite".[1]

However, the American team was also strong. Fortune Gordien came into the Olympics as the world record holder for most of the previous seven years. He had lost the record for a 3 week gap in 1953 to 1952 Olympic champion Sim Iness, before he made another improvement at a small Pasadena, California all comers track meet. Gordien threw the longest throw of the year while winning the United States Olympic Trials by almost three metres over a 20 year old upstart from the University of Kansas, Al Oerter. The third qualifier at those trials was Ron Drummond, but with almost five months to wait until the Olympics, he gave up his Olympic spot to go to dental school, allowing 4th place Des Koch the opportunity to go to Melbourne.

Fiji made its debut in the men's discus throw. The United States made its 13th appearance, having competed in every edition of the Olympic men's discus throw to date.

Summary

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In the qualifying round, Oerter threw 51.19 metres to easily qualify ahead of Commonwealth Games champion Fanie du Plessis and returning silver medalist, 39 year old Adolfo Consolini. The format allowed all who cleared 47 metres to qualify to the finals, Gordien's 47.67 metres made the distance by a little over 2 feet, still he was the twelfth qualifier. The sixteenth and last qualifier into the final was Koch, just 14 cm, less than 6 inches over the minimum.

In the first round of the final, Oerter threw an Olympic record 56.36 m (184 ft 10 in), Gordien 54.75m was second best while Mark Pharaoh held third a meter and a half ahead of Consolini. Those positions held into the third round. With only six going into the final, Koch was in 10th place, needing a big improvement to get into the final. Koch's 53.55m put him into third place. He improved on both his next two attempts to get to 54.40m. In the final round, Pharaoh improved to 54.27m but still 14 cm short of bronze, Gordien improved marginally to 54.81m and Oerter made his third throw of the competition superior to the silver medal throw.

This was the second American sweep of the discus throw (after 1908). Oerter would lead another sweep four years later and would go on to his own sweep, winning the same event four times in a row, an Olympic record.

Competition format

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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 47.00 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.[1][3]

Records

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Prior to the competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

World record  Fortune Gordien (USA) 59.28 Pasadena, United States 22 August 1953
Olympic record  Sim Iness (USA) 55.03 Helsinki, Finland 22 July 1952

Al Oerter set a new Olympic record with his first throw of the final, 56.36 metres. This would hold up as the new record and win the gold medal for him; his fourth throw (55.08 metres) also bettered the old record.

Schedule

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All times are Australian Eastern Standard Time (UTC+10)

Date Time Round
Wednesday, 27 November 1956 10:00
15:25
Qualifying
Final

Results

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Qualifying

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Rank Athlete Nation 1 2 3 Distance Notes
1 Al Oerter  United States 51.19 51.19 Q
2 Fanie du Plessis  South Africa 50.69 50.69 Q
3 Adolfo Consolini  Italy 49.93 49.93 Q
4 Kim Bukhantsov  Soviet Union 49.65 49.65 Q
5 Mark Pharaoh  Great Britain 48.98 48.98 Q
6 Boris Matveyev  Soviet Union 43.62 48.97 48.97 Q
7 Erik Uddebom  Sweden 48.44 48.44 Q
8 Mesulame Rakuro  Fiji 48.21 48.21 Q
9 Oto Grigalka  Soviet Union 48.11 48.11 Q
10 Dako Radošević  Yugoslavia 47.93 47.93 Q
11 Günther Kruse  Argentina 46.28 47.87 47.87 Q
12 Fortune Gordien  United States 47.67 47.67 Q
13 Hernán Haddad  Chile 47.48 47.48 Q
14 Ferenc Klics  Hungary 47.31 47.31 Q
15 Gerry Carr  Great Britain 47.15 47.15 Q
16 Desmond Koch  United States 47.14 47.14 Q
17 Tadeusz Rut  Poland 42.69 46.62 46.23 46.62
18 Pierre Alard  France 38.24 46.18 44.36 46.18
19 Muhammad Ayub  Pakistan 40.93 41.79 44.88 44.88
20 Vesmonis Balodis  Australia 44.24 X 42.36 44.24
Todor Artarski  Bulgaria DNS
Barclay Palmer  Great Britain DNS

Final

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Rank Athlete Nation 1 2 3 4 5 6 Distance Notes
1st place, gold medalist(s) Al Oerter  United States 56.36 OR 53.81 53.22 55.08 53.28 54.93 56.36 OR
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Fortune Gordien  United States 54.75 49.18 51.40 53.84 52.75 54.81 54.81
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Desmond Koch  United States 50.53 X 53.55 53.64 54.40 54.03 54.40
4 Mark Pharaoh  Great Britain 52.52 X 52.36 49.85 54.27 53.16 54.27
5 Oto Grigalka  Soviet Union 51.25 50.09 52.37 49.44 X 50.13 52.37
6 Adolfo Consolini  Italy 51.92 52.21 52.13 X 51.29 52.01 52.21
7 Ferenc Klics  Hungary 51.75 51.82 51.61 Did not advance 51.82
8 Dako Radošević  Yugoslavia 50.99 51.26 51.69 Did not advance 51.69
9 Boris Matveyev  Soviet Union 50.59 49.63 51.38 Did not advance 51.38
10 Gerry Carr  Great Britain 48.03 50.72 48.98 Did not advance 50.72
11 Günther Kruse  Argentina 49.12 45.92 49.89 Did not advance 49.89
12 Kim Bukhantsov  Soviet Union 48.58 47.75 46.86 Did not advance 48.58
13 Fanie du Plessis  South Africa 48.49 46.23 43.31 Did not advance 48.49
14 Erik Uddebom  Sweden 48.28 47.89 44.72 Did not advance 48.28
15 Mesulame Rakuro  Fiji 46.45 47.24 44.60 Did not advance 47.24
16 Hernán Haddad  Chile X 46.00 X Did not advance 46.00

References

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  1. ^ a b c "Discus Throw, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 29 October 2020.
  2. ^ "Athletics at the 1956 Melbourne Summer Games: Men's Discus Throw". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
  3. ^ Official Report, p. 336.
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