Athletics at the 1964 Summer Olympics – Men's shot put

Men's shot put at the Games of the XVIII Olympiad
Men's shot put at the 1964 Olympics on a stamp of Sharjah
Venue	Olympic Stadium
Date	17 October
Competitors	22 from 13 nations
Winning time	20.33 OR
Medalists
Dallas Long  United States Randy Matson  United States Vilmos Varju  Hungary

Official Video Highlights @40:15 Video on YouTube

The men's shot put was one of four men's throwing events on the Athletics at the 1964 Summer Olympics program in Tokyo. It was held on 17 October 1964. 25 athletes from 15 nations entered, with 3 not starting in the qualification round. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The event was won by Dallas Long of the United States, the nation's fifth consecutive and 13th overall victory in the men's shot put. His teammate Randy Matson took silver, making 1964 the fifth straight Games the Americans had finished one-two. A second consecutive sweep was prevented when Vilmos Varju of Hungary took third over American Parry O'Brien. Long was the sixth man to win two shot put medals (adding to his 1960 bronze); Matson would later become the seventh (winning gold in 1968). O'Brien's fourth place finish kept him from being the first man to win four—he had taken gold in 1952 and 1956 and silver in 1960.

Background

This was the 15th appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. Returning finalists from the 1960 Games were silver medalist (and 1952 and 1956 gold medalist) Parry O'Brien and bronze medalist Dallas Long of the United States, fourth-place finisher Viktor Lipsnis of the Soviet Union, fifth-place finisher Mike Lindsay and eighth-place finisher Martyn Lucking of Great Britain, sixth-place finisher Alfred Sosgórnik of Poland, eleventh-place finisher Les Mills of New Zealand, thirteenth-place finisher (and 1956 finalist) Silvano Meconi of Italy, and fourteenth-place finisher Zsigmond Nagy of Hungary. O'Brien was attempting to be the first man to win three gold medals or four medals overall in the shot put, though he was not as dominant as he had been in the 1950s. Long had broken the world record four times since the Rome Games and was favored, with the third American (teenager Randy Matson) a strong challenger.

The Ivory Coast, South Korea, and Morocco each made their debut in the men's shot put. The United States appeared for the 15th time, the only nation to have competed in all Olympic shot put competitions to date.

Competition format

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 17.80 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 six competitors receiving an additional three attempts. The best distance among those six throws counted.

Records

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in metres) prior to the 1964 Summer Olympics.

World record	Dallas Long (USA)	20.68	Los Angeles, United States	25 July 1964
Olympic record	Bill Nieder (USA)	19.68	Rome, Italy	31 August 1960

Randy Matson broke the Olympic record with his third throw of the final, at 19.88 metres. He extended his new record to 20.20 metres, in his fourth throw. Dallas Long, however, throwing in the order immediately after Matson, took over the record with his gold medal throw of 20.33 metres.

Schedule

All times are Japan Standard Time (UTC+9)

Date	Time	Round
Saturday, 17 October 1964	10:00 15:00	Qualifying Final

Results

Qualification

The qualification standard was 17.80 metres. Each thrower had three attempts to reach that standard.

Rank	Athlete	Nation	1	2	3	Distance	Notes
1	Dallas Crutcher Long	United States	19.51	—	—	19.51	Q
2	Randy Matson	United States	18.92	—	—	18.92	Q
3	Viktor Lipsnis	Soviet Union	18.90	—	—	18.90	Q
4	Vilmos Varju	Hungary	18.26	—	—	18.26	Q
5	Zsigmond Nagy	Hungary	18.14	—	—	18.14	Q
6	Władysław Komar	Poland	18.05	—	—	18.05	Q
	Les Mills	New Zealand	18.05	—	—	18.05	Q
	Georgios Tsakanikas	Greece	17.72	17.25	18.05	18.05	Q
9	Rudolf Langer	United Team of Germany	17.90	—	—	17.90	Q
10	Adolfas Varanauskas	Soviet Union	17.86	—	—	17.86	Q
11	Parry O'Brien	United States	17.84	—	—	17.84	Q
12	Nikolay Karasyov	Soviet Union	17.83	—	—	17.83	Q
13	Dieter Hoffmann	United Team of Germany	17.45	X	17.82	17.82	Q
14	Heinfried Birlenbach	United Team of Germany	17.10	16.79	17.77	17.77
15	Alfred Sosgórnik	Poland	X	17.75	X	17.75
16	Martyn Lucking	Great Britain	X	X	17.67	17.67
17	Silvano Meconi	Italy	17.29	17.20	X	17.29
18	Lahcen Samsam Akka	Morocco	X	17.24	X	17.24
19	Mike Lindsay	Great Britain	16.77	16.70	17.23	17.23
20	Segui Denis Kragbe	Ivory Coast	16.20	16.59	16.38	16.59
21	Teruo Itokawa	Japan	15.73	15.84	15.56	15.84
22	Im Ho-geun	South Korea	13.47	13.64	13.37	13.64
—	Edmund Piątkowski	Poland	DNS
	Gideon Ariel	Israel	DNS
	Gheorghe Zîmbresteanu	Romania	DNS

Final

The scores from the qualification round were ignored for the final. Each thrower received three attempts; the six that had thrown the longest in those three threw another three times each.

Rank	Athlete	Nation	1	2	3	4	5	6	Distance	Notes
	Dallas Long	United States	19.61	19.55	19.34	20.33 OR	19.09	X	20.33	OR
	Randy Matson	United States	18.53	19.19	19.88 OR	20.20 OR	X	19.62	20.20
	Vilmos Varju	Hungary	19.23	X	19.39	19.29	18.97	19.25	19.39
4	Parry O'Brien	United States	18.95	18.86	19.20	18.32	18.62	18.84	19.20
5	Zsigmond Nagy	Hungary	18.77	X	18.50	18.43	X	18.88	18.88
6	Nikolay Karasiov	Soviet Union	18.86	18.26	X	18.14	17.98	18.18	18.86
7	Les Mills	New Zealand	18.19	18.50	18.52	Did not advance			18.52
8	Adolf Varanauskas	Soviet Union	X	18.30	18.41	Did not advance			18.41
9	Władysław Komar	Poland	18.20	X	X	Did not advance			18.20
10	Victor Lipsnis	Soviet Union	17.45	17.86	18.11	Did not advance			18.11
11	Rudolf Langer	United Team of Germany	17.29	16.90	X	Did not advance			17.29
12	Dieter Hoffmann	United Team of Germany	X	X	17.11	Did not advance			17.11
13	Georges Tsakinikas	Greece	16.87	X	16.38	Did not advance			16.87