Athletics at the 1996 Summer Olympics – Men's shot put
Randy Barnes won gold, his second Olympic medal in the shot put.
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The men's shot put event at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, featured 36 competitors from 26 nations. Twelve athletes reached the final, which took place on July 26, 1996. Randy Barnes of the United States won the gold medal, giving the nation its second consecutive and 16th overall victory in the event.
Background
The men's shot put at the 1996 Summer Olympics marked the 23rd time the event was contested, making it one of a dozen athletics events present at every Games. Dragan Perić, who placed seventh in 1992 as an Independent Olympic Participant, was the only returning finalist, this time competing for Yugoslavia. Randy Barnes, the 1988 silver medalist and current world record holder since 1990, returned after a suspension kept him out of the 1992 Games.
He entered as the favorite, having recorded the year's best throw. Nine nations debuted: American Samoa, Belarus, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and Venezuela. The United States made its 22nd appearance, the most of any country, having only missed the boycotted 1980 Olympics.
Competition format
The men's shot put followed the two-round format first used in 1936. The qualifying round and the final were separate stages. Each athlete got three throws in qualifying; anyone reaching 19.80 meters or further advanced. If fewer than 12 hit that mark, the top 12 qualifiers moved on.
Qualifying results were discarded. In the final, all competitors had three throws, and the top eight got three more. Only the best of those six attempts counted.
More in Athletics at the 1996 Summer Olympics
Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Athletics at the 1996 Summer Olympics – Men's shot put (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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