The men's shot put event was part of the track and field athletics programme

Athletics at the 1952 Summer Olympics

At the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, 33 athletics events were contested, 24 for men and 9 for women. There were a total number of 963 participating athletes from 57 countries.-Medal table:-Men's events:-Women's events:-References:...

 at the 1952 Summer Olympics

1952 Summer Olympics

The 1952 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event held in Helsinki, Finland in 1952. Helsinki had been earlier given the 1940 Summer Olympics, which were cancelled due to World War II...

 in Helsinki

Helsinki

Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...

, Finland

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

. The competition was held on July 21 at Helsinki Olympic Stadium

Helsinki Olympic Stadium

The Helsinki Olympic Stadium , located in the Töölö district about from the center of the Finnish capital Helsinki, is the largest stadium in the country, nowadays mainly used for hosting sports events and big concerts. The stadium is best known for being the center of activities in the 1952...

. The finals were swept by the United States, with Americans Parry O'Brien

Parry O'Brien

William Parry O'Brien, Jr. was an American shot put champion. Born in Santa Monica, California, he competed in four consecutive Summer Olympics where he won two gold medals and one silver medal . In his last Olympic competition he placed fourth. For this, he is inducted in the U.S...

 taking the gold medal, Darrow Hooper

Darrow Hooper

Clarence Darrow Hooper is an American athlete who competed mainly in the shot put.In 1949 he graduated from North Side High School in Fort Worth, Texas, and went on to attend Texas A&M University. He won the NCAA shot put title in 1951. By the time he graduated from college, he had a wife and two...

 earning silver and Jim Fuchs

Jim Fuchs

James "Jim" Emanuel Fuchs was an American athlete who competed in both the discus and shot put. He developed a new shot-putting technique in order to compensate for a leg injury, and then used what he called "the sideways glide" to set world records and dominate the sport over a two-year span in...

 receiving his second consecutive bronze medal in the event.

While recuperating from surgery to deal with a knee injury, Fuchs developed a technique he called "the sideways glide" which enabled him to compete without pain and gain greater distance on his tosses. Fuchs, who was the world record holder at the time of the games, was nursing a pulled ligament in his right hand, which interfered with his ability to compete. In the years after his bronze medal performance at the 1948 Summer Olympics

1948 Summer Olympics

The 1948 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XIV Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was held in London, England, United Kingdom. After a 12-year hiatus because of World War II, these were the first Summer Olympics since the 1936 Games in Berlin...

 in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, Fuchs was the best shot putter in the world, winning 88 consecutive meets and setting four world records in a stretch of 14 months.

Using a technique that became known as the "O'Brien glide", Parry O'Brien broke Fuchs's consecutive meet winning streak and started a streak of his own that ran from July 1952 to June 1956 in which he won 116 consecutive meets and set 17 world records, in addition to becoming the first person to break through the distances of 18 meters, 60 feet and 19 meters. Parry would go on to repeat his gold medal performance at the 1956 Summer Olympics

1956 Summer Olympics

The 1956 Melbourne Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVI Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was held in Melbourne, Australia, in 1956, with the exception of the equestrian events, which could not be held in Australia due to quarantine regulations...

 in Melbourne

Melbourne

Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

 and win a silver medal at the 1960 Summer Olympics

1960 Summer Olympics

The 1960 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event held from August 25 to September 11, 1960 in Rome, Italy...

 in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

, before falling just out of the medals in the 1964 Summer Olympics

1964 Summer Olympics

The 1964 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVIII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event held in Tokyo, Japan in 1964. Tokyo had been awarded with the organization of the 1940 Summer Olympics, but this honor was subsequently passed to Helsinki because of Japan's...

 in Tokyo

Tokyo

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

.

Hooper beat both O'Brien and Fuchs in the 1952 Final Trials with a throw of 17.41m (57-1⅝), a distance that would have won him a gold medal if he had been able to repeat it in Helsinki. In the first round of the final O'Brien reached a distance of 17.41 (57-1½), which gave him the lead, holding on until the final round when Hooper's 17.39 (57-0¾) put him just two centimeters short of a gold medal.

Final

Rank	Athlete	Nationality	Attempts						Distance	Note
			1	2	3	4	5	6
	Parry O'Brien Parry O'Brien William Parry O'Brien, Jr. was an American shot put champion. Born in Santa Monica, California, he competed in four consecutive Summer Olympics where he won two gold medals and one silver medal . In his last Olympic competition he placed fourth. For this, he is inducted in the U.S...		17.41	17.21	16.79	16.87	17.12	16.53	17.41	OR
	Darrow Hooper Darrow Hooper Clarence Darrow Hooper is an American athlete who competed mainly in the shot put.In 1949 he graduated from North Side High School in Fort Worth, Texas, and went on to attend Texas A&M University. He won the NCAA shot put title in 1951. By the time he graduated from college, he had a wife and two...		17.02	16.59	17.08	16.90	16.93	17.39	17.39
	Jim Fuchs Jim Fuchs James "Jim" Emanuel Fuchs was an American athlete who competed in both the discus and shot put. He developed a new shot-putting technique in order to compensate for a leg injury, and then used what he called "the sideways glide" to set world records and dominate the sport over a two-year span in...		16.93	foul	foul	foul	17.06	foul	17.06
4	Oto Grigalka								16.78
5	Roland Nilsson Roland Nilsson (athlete) Roland "Fritz" Nilsson is a former athlete who was a member of the Swedish Olympic teams in 1948 and 1952. He was also a member of the Michigan Wolverines men's track and field team...								16.55
6	John Savidge								16.19
7	Georgy Fyodorov								16.06
8	Per Stavem Per Stavem Per Stavem was a Norwegian shot putter and discus thrower. He represented Stabæk IF.At the 1948 Summer Olympics he competed in the decathlon and finished eleventh with 6151 points. At the 1952 Summer Olympics he finished eighth in the shot final with 16.02 metres and sixteenth in discus throw with...								16.02
9	Jiří Skobla Jirí Skobla Jiří Skobla was a Czechoslovakian athlete who competed mainly in the shot put.He competed for Czechoslovakia in the 1956 Summer Olympics held in Melbourne, Australia in the shot put where he won the bronze medal....								15.92
10	Tadeusz Krzyżanowski								15.08
11	Lucien Guillier								14.84
12	Angiolo Profeti								14.74
13	Alois Schwabl								14.45

Key: OR = Olympic record