Athletics at the 1992 Summer Olympics – Men's shot put

The men's shot put was an event at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. There were 26 participating athletes from 18 nations. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The event took place on 31 July 1992.[1] The event was won by Mike Stulce of the United States, the nation's first victory in the men's shot put since 1968 (and 15th overall). His countryman Jim Doehring took silver. Vyacheslav Lykho of the Unified Team earned bronze, the first medal for a Soviet or former Soviet athlete in the event since 1980.

Men's shot put
at the Games of the XXV Olympiad
Pictogram for athletics
VenueEstadi Olímpic Lluís Companys
DateJuly 31 (qualification and final)
Competitors26 from 18 nations
Winning distance21.70
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Mike Stulce
 United States
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Jim Doehring
 United States
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Vyacheslav Lykho
 Unified Team
← 1988
1996 →

Summary

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Switzerland's Werner Günthör was again favored, having won the 1987 and 1991 World Championships. But he was below par and placed only fourth. American Mike Stulce was leading, having the four longest throws of the event, and winning gold with 21.70. He won over teammate Jim Doehring, who threw 20.96 in round two for the silver. Russian Vyacheslav Lykho had his two best throws in the first two rounds, getting the bronze with 20.94. The outcome of this event was a surprise to pundits and spectators alike, with Stulce's win being considered one of the most unexpected upsets of the 1992 games.[2][3]

Background

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This was the 22nd appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. The returning finalists from the 1988 Games were defending champion Ulf Timmermann of East Germany (now representing unified Germany), bronze medalist (and 1984 finalist) Werner Günthör of Switzerland, fourth-place finisher (and 1976 gold medalist and 1980 bronze medalist) Udo Beyer of East Germany, sixth-place finisher Gert Weil of Chile, seventh-place finisher (and 1984 gold medalist) Alessandro Andrei of Italy, and eleventh-place finisher Jim Doehring of the United States. Günthör had won the 1987 and 1991 world championships; as in 1988, he was favored over the three men who had previously won the event. American Randy Barnes, the silver medalist in 1988, had set the world record in 1990 (a record that still stands as of 2020), but was suspended and could not compete.[4]

Bosnia and Herzegovina and Qatar each made their debut in the men's shot put, one Yugoslav competitor competed as an Independent Olympic Participant, and some former Soviet republics competed as the Unified Team. The United States made its 21st appearance, most of any nation, having missed only the boycotted 1980 Games.

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 19.80 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 eight competitors receiving an additional three attempts. The best distance among those six throws counted.[4][5]

Records

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The standing world and Olympic records prior to the 1992 Games were as follows.

World record   Randy Barnes (USA) 23.12 Los Angeles, United States 22 May 1988
Olympic record   Ulf Timmermann (GDR) 22.47 Seoul, South Korea 23 September 1988

No new world or Olympic records were set during the competition.

Schedule

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All times are Central European Summer Time (UTC+2)

Date Time Round
Friday, 31 July 1992 10:00
18:55
Qualifying
Final

Results

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Qualifying

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Rank Athlete Nation 1 2 3 Distance Notes
1 Jim Doehring   United States 19.77 20.53 20.53 Q
2 Werner Günthör   Switzerland 20.50 20.50 Q
3 Luciano Zerbini   Italy 20.25 20.25 Q
4 Dragan Perić   Independent Olympic Participants X 18.35 20.24 20.24 Q
5 Vyacheslav Lykho   Unified Team X 20.24 20.24 Q
6 Mike Stulce   United States 20.18 20.18 Q
7 Aleksandr Klimenko   Unified Team 19.33 20.16 20.16 Q
8 Alessandro Andrei   Italy 19.51 19.51 20.14 20.14 Q
9 Ulf Timmermann   Germany 19.62 19.73 19.93 19.93 Q
10 Klaus Bodenmüller   Austria 19.56 19.86 19.86 Q
11 Ron Backes   United States 19.71 19.35 X 19.71 q
12 Sören Tallhem   Sweden 18.41 19.18 19.65 19.65 q
13 Gert Weil   Chile 18.51 19.04 19.41 19.41
14 Pétur Guðmundsson   Iceland 18.46 18.76 19.15 19.15
15 Paul Edwards   Great Britain 18.57 19.03 18.80 19.03
16 Andriy Nemchaninov   Unified Team 18.91 18.98 X 18.98
17 Gheorghe Guşet   Romania 18.41 X 18.96 18.96
18 Kent Larsson   Sweden 18.46 X 18.56 18.56
19 Udo Beyer   Germany 18.47 X X 18.47
20 Antero Paljakka   Finland 18.42 X X 18.42
21 Khaled Al-Khalidi   Saudi Arabia 17.56 17.72 17.50 17.72
22 Victor Costello   Ireland 15.99 17.15 X 17.15
23 Paul Quirke   Ireland 16.71 17.01 16.99 17.01
24 Bilal Saad Mubarak   Qatar 16.91 16.98 X 16.98
25 Peter Dajia   Canada X X 16.81 16.81
26 Zlatan Saračević   Bosnia and Herzegovina X 15.12 16.38 16.38
Kalman Konya   Germany DNS

Final

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The final was held on July 31, 1992.

Rank Athlete Nation 1 2 3 4 5 6 Distance
  Mike Stulce   United States 21.49 21.58 X 21.11 21.70 X 21.70
  Jim Doehring   United States 19.89 20.96 X 20.17 X 20.03 20.96
  Vyacheslav Lykho   Unified Team 20.93 20.94 20.79 X 19.99 20.35 20.94
4 Werner Günthör   Switzerland 19.74 20.01 20.27 20.85 X 20.91 20.91
5 Ulf Timmermann   Germany 20.12 20.03 19.83 20.49 20.10 20.38 20.49
6 Klaus Bodenmüller   Austria 20.13 20.19 20.48 20.39 19.81 19.92 20.48
7 Dragan Perić   Independent Olympic Participants X 19.90 19.59 20.07 X 20.32 20.32
8 Aleksandr Klimenko   Unified Team X 20.23 X X X 20.14 20.23
9 Luciano Zerbini   Italy 19.88 19.75 19.54 Did not advance 19.88
10 Ron Backes   United States 19.75 X X Did not advance 19.75
11 Alessandro Andrei   Italy 19.46 19.53 19.62 Did not advance 19.62
12 Sören Tallhem   Sweden 18.31 19.32 X Did not advance 19.32

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Athletics at the 1992 Barcelona Summer Games: Men's Shot Put". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 8 January 2018.
  2. ^ "OLYMPICS / Barcelona 1992: Athletics: A clean sweep for former drug takers". 1 August 1992.
  3. ^ "Athletics at the 1992 Barcelona Summer Games: Men's Shot Put | Olympics at Sports-Reference.com". Archived from the original on 2020-04-17. Retrieved 2018-01-08.
  4. ^ a b "Shot Put, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 20 October 2020.
  5. ^ Official Report, vol. 5, p. 50.
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