Athletics at the 1896 Summer Olympics - Men's discus throw

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Robert Garrett throwing the discus

The men's discus throw was one of two throwing events on the Athletics at the 1896 Summer Olympics programme. The discus throw was the fourth event held. It was contested on 6 April. 11 athletes competed, including one each from France, Sweden, the United States, and Great Britain as well as three Greeks and two Danes.

[edit] Medallists

Gold	Silver	Bronze
Robert Garrett United States	Panagiotis Paraskevopoulos Greece	Sotirios Versis Greece

[edit] Results

Place	Athlete	Nation	Distance	1	2	3	4	5
1	Robert Garrett	United States	29.15 metres	27.53	X	Unknown	28.72	29.15
2	Panagiotis Paraskevopoulos	Greece	28.95 metres	28.51	Unknown		28.88	28.95
3	Sotirios Versis	Greece	27.78 metres	Unknown
4	George S. Robertson	Great Britain	25.20 metres	Unknown			Did not advance
5-9	Alphonse Grisel	France	Unknown	Unknown
	Viggo Jensen	Denmark	Unknown	Unknown
	Holger Nielsen	Denmark	Unknown	Unknown
	Georgios Papasideris	Greece	Unknown	Unknown
	Henrik Sjöberg	Sweden	Unknown	Unknown

Many of the competitors had never thrown a discus before, as the event had never been held at an international competition. Robert Garrett of the United States was the last foreigner in the competition, and eventually defeated the famed Greek competitors to win the second modern Olympic gold medal.

[edit] References

Lampros, S.P.; Polites, N.G.; De Coubertin, Pierre; Philemon, P.J.; & Anninos, C. (1897). The Olympic Games: BC 776 – AD 1896. Athens: Charles Beck. (Digitally available at AAFLA.org)
Mallon, Bill; & Widlund, Ture (1998). The 1896 Olympic Games. Results for All Competitors in All Events, with Commentary. Jefferson: McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-0379-9. (Excerpt available at AAFLA.org)
Smith, Michael Llewellyn (2004). Olympics in Athens 1896. The Invention of the Modern Olympic Games. London: Profile Books. ISBN 1-86197-342-X.