The men's shot put was a track and field athletics

Track and field

Track and field is a sport comprising various competitive athletic contests based around the activities of running, jumping and throwing. The name of the sport derives from the venue for the competitions: a stadium which features an oval running track surrounding a grassy area...

 event held as part of the athletics at the 1912 Summer Olympics

Athletics at the 1912 Summer Olympics

These are the results of athletics competition at the 1912 Summer Olympics. 30 events were contested, all for men only.The athletics programme grew by 4 events since the 1908 Summer Olympics. The 5000 and 10000 metre races were introduced for the first time, as the 5 mile event was eliminated...

 programme. It was the fifth appearance of the event, which is one of 12 to have been held at every Summer Olympics. The competition was held on Wednesday, July 10, 1912.

Twenty-two shot putters from 14 nations competed.

Records

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in metres) prior to the 1912 Summer Olympics.

World Record	15.54	Ralph Rose Ralph Rose Ralph Waldo Rose was an American track and field athlete.He was born in Healdsburg, California....	San Francisco San Francisco, California San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...  (USA United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... )	August 21, 1909
	16.56(*)	Ralph Rose Ralph Rose Ralph Waldo Rose was an American track and field athlete.He was born in Healdsburg, California....	Healdsburg Healdsburg, California Healdsburg is a city located in Sonoma County, California, in the United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a population of 11,254...  (USA United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... )	June 26, 1909
Olympic Record	14.81	Ralph Rose Ralph Rose Ralph Waldo Rose was an American track and field athlete.He was born in Healdsburg, California....	St. Louis St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...  (USA United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... )	August 31, 1904

(*) unofficial, set in an exhibition

Results

Ralph Rose

Ralph Rose

Ralph Waldo Rose was an American track and field athlete.He was born in Healdsburg, California....

, the two-time defending Olympic champion and holder of the Olympic record (14.81 metres, set at the 1904 Summer Olympics

1904 Summer Olympics

The 1904 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the III Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event which was celebrated in St. Louis, Missouri, in the United States from 1 July 1904, to November 23, 1904, at what is now known as Francis Field on the campus of Washington University...

), was unseated by Pat McDonald after a colossal throw in the final. Rose bettered his own record with his first throw, coming just shy of 15 metres. With his third throw, Rose again topped himself, heaving the shot 15.25 metres while none of the other competitors had yet matched his first throw. At the end of the preliminaries, Rose's 15.25 stood well above McDonald's 14.78 metres and Lawrence Whitney

Lawrence Whitney

Lawrence Whitney was an American athlete and baseball player who competed in the 1912 Summer Olympics held in Stockholm, Sweden. He won the bronze medal in the shot put, and also competed for the US in the exhibition baseball tournament.-External links:*...

's 13.93 metres.

Each of the three finalists received three more throws for the finals, but only two out of the combined 9 throws were legal marks. Whitney, who had scratched twice in the preliminaries, did so three more times to make his 13.93 metres the only legal throw of his 6. Rose's first throw in the finals was measured at 14.96 metres, giving him three throws that were better than the old record. McDonald, however, launched his first throw fully 15.34 metres to take the record and the gold medal after none of the three throwers could make a legal mark in their second or third throws.

Place	Athlete	Preliminary				Final			Best mark
		1	2	3	Rank	4	5	6
1		14.54	14.27	14.78	2nd	15.34 OR	—	—	15.34
2		14.98 OR	14.68	15.25 OR	1st	14.96	—	—	15.25
3		—	—	13.93	3rd	—	—	—	13.93
4		13.52	—	13.65	4th				13.65
5		12.84	13.13	—	5th				13.13
6					6th				12.81
7		12.18	—	12.62	7th				12.62
8					8th				12.53
9		—	11.74	12.41	9th				12.41
10					10th				12.40
11					11th				12.05
12		10.52	11.25	11.57	12th				11.57
13		11.44	—	—	13th				11.44
14					14th				11.16
15					15th				11.15
16		9.81	10.61	11.11	16th				11.11
17		10.68	11.04	—	17th				11.04
18		—	—	10.90	18th				10.90
19		10.33	—	10.63	19th				10.63
20		—	—	10.44	20th				10.44
21		—	10.33	—	21st				10.33
22		9.41	—	—	22nd				9.41