Shot Put

The shot put at the Summer Olympics is one of four track and field throwing events held at the multi-sport event. The men's shot put has been present on the Olympic athletics programme since 1896 (one of two throws events at the first Olympics, alongside the discus). The women's event was added to the programme at the 1948 Olympics just over fifty years later.

The Olympic records for the events were both set by East German athletes in the 1980s: Ilona Slupianek broke the women's record with a put of 22.41 m (73 ft 6¹⁄₄ in) in 1980 and Ulf Timmermann set the men's mark at 22.47 m (73 ft 8¹⁄₂ in) in 1988.

Two variations on the event have been contested at the Olympics: a two-handed competition at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, with athletes using both left and right arm putting techniques, and a stone throw at the 1906 Intercalated Games.

History, Records and Statistics of Men's Shot Put

History, Records and Statistics of Women's Shot Put

Medalists

Men

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1896 Athens	Robert Garrett  United States	Miltiadis Gouskos  Greece	Georgios Papasideris  Greece
1900 Paris	Richard Sheldon  United States	Josiah McCracken  United States	Robert Garrett  United States
1904 St. Louis	Ralph Rose  United States	Wesley Coe  United States	Lawrence Feuerbach  United States
1908 London	Ralph Rose  United States	Denis Horgan  Great Britain	John Garrels  United States
1912 Stockholm	Pat McDonald  United States	Ralph Rose  United States	Lawrence Whitney  United States
1920 Antwerp	Ville Pörhölä  Finland	Elmer Niklander  Finland	Harry Liversedge  United States
1924 Paris	Bud Houser  United States	Glenn Hartranft  United States	Ralph Hills  United States
1928 Amsterdam	John Kuck  United States	Herman Brix  United States	Emil Hirschfeld  Germany
1932 Los Angeles	Leo Sexton  United States	Harlow Rothert  United States	František Douda  Czechoslovakia
1936 Berlin	Hans Woellke  Germany	Sulo Bärlund  Finland	Gerhard Stöck  Germany
1948 London	Wilbur Thompson  United States	Jim Delaney  United States	Jim Fuchs  United States
1952 Helsinki	Parry O'Brien  United States	Darrow Hooper  United States	Jim Fuchs  United States
1956 Melbourne	Parry O'Brien  United States	Bill Nieder  United States	Jiří Skobla  Czechoslovakia
1960 Rome	Bill Nieder  United States	Parry O'Brien  United States	Dallas Long  United States
1964 Tokyo	Dallas Long  United States	Randy Matson  United States	Vilmos Varjú  Hungary
1968 Mexico City	Randy Matson  United States	George Woods  United States	Eduard Gushchin  Soviet Union
1972 Munich	Władysław Komar  Poland	George Woods  United States	Hartmut Briesenick  East Germany
1976 Montreal	Udo Beyer  East Germany	Yevgeniy Mironov  Soviet Union	Aleksandr Baryshnikov  Soviet Union
1980 Moscow	Vladimir Kiselyov  Soviet Union	Aleksandr Baryshnikov  Soviet Union	Udo Beyer  East Germany
1984 Los Angeles	Alessandro Andrei  Italy	Mike Carter  United States	Dave Laut  United States
1988 Seoul	Ulf Timmermann  East Germany	Randy Barnes  United States	Werner Günthör  Switzerland
1992 Barcelona	Mike Stulce  United States	Jim Doehring  United States	Vyacheslav Lykho  Unified Team
1996 Atlanta	Randy Barnes  United States	John Godina  United States	Oleksandr Bagach  Ukraine
2000 Sydney	Arsi Harju  Finland	Adam Nelson  United States	John Godina  United States
2004 Athens	Adam Nelson  United States	Joachim Olsen  Denmark	Manuel Martínez  Spain
2008 Beijing	Tomasz Majewski  Poland	Christian Cantwell  United States	Dylan Armstrong  Canada
2012 London	Tomasz Majewski  Poland	David Storl  Germany	Reese Hoffa  United States
2016 Rio de Janeiro	Ryan Crouser  United States	Joe Kovacs  United States	Tomas Walsh  New Zealand

Multiple medalists

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Olympics	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1=	Ralph Rose	United States (USA)	1904–1912	2	1	0	3
1=	Parry O'Brien	United States (USA)	1952–1960	2	1	0	3
3	Tomasz Majewski	Poland (POL)	2008–2012	2	0	0	2
4=	Bill Nieder	United States (USA)	1956–1960	1	1	0	2
4=	Randy Matson	United States (USA)	1964–1968	1	1	0	2
4=	Randy Barnes	United States (USA)	1988–1996	1	1	0	2
4=	Adam Nelson	United States (USA)	2000–2004	1	1	0	2
8=	Dallas Long	United States (USA)	1960–1964	1	0	1	2
8=	Udo Beyer	East Germany (GDR)	1976–1980	1	0	1	2
10	George Woods	United States (USA)	1968–1972	0	2	0	2
11=	Aleksandr Baryshnikov	Soviet Union (URS)	1976–1980	0	1	1	2
11=	John Godina	United States (USA)	1996–2000	0	1	1	2
13	Jim Fuchs	United States (USA)	1948–1952	0	0	2	2

Medalists by country

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States (USA)	17	19	11	47
2	Poland (POL)	3	0	0	3
3	Finland (FIN)	2	2	0	4
4	East Germany (GDR)	2	0	2	4
5	Soviet Union (URS)	1	2	2	5
6	Germany (GER)	1	1	2	4
7	Italy (ITA)	1	0	0	1
8	Greece (GRE)	0	1	1	2
9=	Denmark (DEN)	0	1	0	1
9=	Great Britain (GBR)	0	1	0	1
11	Czechoslovakia (TCH)	0	0	2	2
12=	Belarus (BLR)	0	0	1	1
12=	Hungary (HUN)	0	0	1	1
12=	New Zealand (NZL)	0	0	1	1
12=	Spain (ESP)	0	0	1	1
12=	Switzerland (SUI)	0	0	1	1
12=	Ukraine (UKR)	0	0	1	1
12=	Unified Team (EUN)	0	0	1	1

Intercalated Games

The 1906 Intercalated Games were held in Athens and at the time were officially recognised as part of the Olympic Games series, with the intention being to hold a games in Greece in two-year intervals between the internationally held Olympics. However, this plan never came to fruition and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) later decided not to recognise these games as part of the official Olympic series. Some sports historians continue to treat the results of these games as part of the Olympic canon.

At this event a men's shot put was held and Martin Sheridan of the United States won the competition. Hungary's Mihály Dávid was the runner-up while Swedish thrower Eric Lemming was the bronze medalist.

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1906 Athens	Martin Sheridan (USA)	Mihály Dávid (HUN)	Eric Lemming (SWE)

Women

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1948 London	Micheline Ostermeyer  France	Amelia Piccinini  Italy	Ina Schäffer  Austria
1952 Helsinki	Galina Zybina  Soviet Union	Marianne Werner  Germany	Klavdiya Tochenova  Soviet Union
1956 Melbourne	Tamara Tyshkevich  Soviet Union	Galina Zybina  Soviet Union	Marianne Werner  United Team of Germany
1960 Rome	Tamara Press  Soviet Union	Johanna Lüttge  United Team of Germany	Earlene Brown  United States
1964 Tokyo	Tamara Press  Soviet Union	Renate Culmberger  United Team of Germany	Galina Zybina  Soviet Union
1968 Mexico City	Margitta Gummel  East Germany	Marita Lange  East Germany	Nadezhda Chizhova  Soviet Union
1972 Munich	Nadezhda Chizhova  Soviet Union	Margitta Gummel  East Germany	Ivanka Khristova  Bulgaria
1976 Montreal	Ivanka Khristova  Bulgaria	Nadezhda Chizhova  Soviet Union	Helena Fibingerová  Czechoslovakia
1980 Moscow	Ilona Slupianek  East Germany	Svetlana Krachevskaya  Soviet Union	Margitta Pufe  East Germany
1984 Los Angeles	Claudia Losch  West Germany	Mihaela Loghin  Romania	Gael Martin  Australia
1988 Seoul	Natalya Lisovskaya  Soviet Union	Kathrin Neimke  East Germany	Li Meisu  China
1992 Barcelona	Svetlana Krivelyova  Unified Team	Huang Zhihong  China	Kathrin Neimke  Germany
1996 Atlanta	Astrid Kumbernuss  Germany	Sui Xinmei  China	Irina Khudoroshkina  Russia
2000 Sydney	Yanina Karolchik  Belarus	Larisa Peleshenko  Russia	Astrid Kumbernuss  Germany
2004 Athens	Yumileidi Cumbá  Cuba	Nadine Kleinert  Germany	Not awarded
2008 Beijing	Valerie Vili  New Zealand	Misleydis González  Cuba	Gong Lijiao  China
2012 London	Valerie Adams  New Zealand	Gong Lijiao  China	Li Ling  China
2016 Rio de Janeiro	Michelle Carter  United States	Valerie Adams  New Zealand	Anita Márton  Hungary

Multiple medalists

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Olympics	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Valerie Adams	New Zealand (NZL)	2008–2016	2	1	0	3
2	Tamara Press	Soviet Union (URS)	1960–1964	2	0	0	2
3=	Galina Zybina	Soviet Union (URS)	1952–1964	1	1	1	3
3=	Nadezhda Chizhova	Soviet Union (URS)	1968–1976	1	1	1	3
5	Margitta Gummel	East Germany (GDR)	1968–1972	1	1	0	2
6=	Ivanka Khristova	Bulgaria (BUL)	1972–1976	1	0	1	2
6=	Astrid Kumbernuss	Germany (GER)	1996–2000	1	0	1	2
8=	Marianne Werner	Germany (GER)	1952–1956	0	1	1	2
8=	Kathrin Neimke	East Germany (GDR)  Germany (GER)	1988–1992	0	1	1	2

Medalists by country

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Soviet Union (URS)	6	3	3	12
2	East Germany (GDR)	2	2	1	6
3	New Zealand (NZL)	2	1	0	3
4	Belarus (BLR)	1	1	1	3
5	Bulgaria (BUL)	1	0	1	2
6=	Cuba (CUB)	1	0	0	1
6=	France (FRA)	1	0	0	1
6=	Unified Team (EUN)	1	0	0	1
6=	West Germany (FRG)	1	0	0	1
10	Germany (GER)[nb]	0	4	3	7
11	China (CHN)	0	2	2	4
12	Russia (RUS)	0	2	1	3
13=	Italy (ITA)	0	1	0	1
13=	Romania (ROM)	0	1	0	1
15=	Australia (AUS)	0	0	1	1
15=	Austria (AUT)	0	0	1	1
15=	Czechoslovakia (TCH)	0	0	1	1
5=	United States (USA)	1	0	1	2

• ^nb The German total includes teams both competing as Germany and the United Team of Germany, but not East or West Germany.