Athletics at the 2020 Summer Olympics – Men's discus throw

		Daniel Ståhl	Sweden
		Simon Pettersson	Sweden
		Lukas Weißhaidinger	2024  →

Athletics at the 2020 Summer Olympics
Qualification
Track events
100 m	men		women
200 m	men		women
400 m	men		women
800 m	men		women
1500 m	men		women
5000 m	men		women
10,000 m	men		women
100 m hurdles			women
110 m hurdles	men
400 m hurdles	men		women
3000 m steeplechase	men		women
4 × 100 m relay	men		women
4 × 400 m relay	men	mixed	women
Road events
Marathon	men		women
20 km walk	men		women
50 km walk	men
Field events
High jump	men		women
Pole vault	men		women
Long jump	men		women
Triple jump	men		women
Shot put	men		women
Discus throw	men		women
Hammer throw	men		women
Javelin throw	men		women
Combined events
Heptathlon			women
Decathlon	men
v t e

The men's discus throw event at the 2020 Summer Olympics took place between 30 and 31 July 2021 at the Japan National Stadium.^[1] Approximately 35 athletes were expected to compete; the exact number depended on how many nations use universality places to enter athletes in addition to the 32 qualifying through distance or ranking (no universality places were used in 2016).^[2] 32 athletes from 24 nations competed.^[3] Daniel Ståhl of Sweden won gold, with his countryman Simon Pettersson earning silver. It was the first victory in the event for Sweden and the first men's discus throw medal of any color for the nation since 1972. Lukas Weißhaidinger took Austria's first-ever Olympic in the men's discus with his bronze.

Summary

Matthew Denny took the early lead with a 65.76 metres in the first round. After almost fouling out of the qualifying round Lukas Weißhaidinger started the second round with a 66.65 metres to take the lead. Shortly afterward, Simon Pettersson almost matched it with a 66.58 metres of his own. The next thrower was his Swedish teammate Daniel Ståhl who launched the winner 68.90 m (226 ft 1⁄2 in). It turned out to be his only throw of the day good enough to win. In the third, Weißhaidinger would improve to his best of the day 67.07 metres but that couldn't withstand Pettersson's fifth round best of 67.39 metres. Denny would throw a personal best 67.02 metres in the final round, but not enough to get on the medal stand. Not only was it Sweden's first 1–2 finish in the discus, they were the only Swedish medals in the event other than Ricky Bruch's 1972 bronze.

Background

This was the 29th appearance of the event, making it one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics.

Qualification

A

NOCs can also use their universality place—each NOC can enter one male athlete regardless of time if they had no male athletes meeting the entry standard for an athletics event—in the discus throw.[2]

Entry number: 32.

Qualification standard	No. of athletes	NOC	Nominated athletes
Entry standard – 66.00	3	Germany	Daniel Jasinski Clemens Prüfer David Wrobel[6]
	3	Jamaica	Fedrick Dacres Traves Smikle Chad Wright
	3	United States	Mason Finley Reggie Jagers Sam Mattis
	2	Sweden	Simon Pettersson Daniel Ståhl
	1	Australia	Matthew Denny
	1	Austria	Lukas Weißhaidinger
	1	Belarus	Yauheni Bahutski
	1	Colombia	Mauricio Ortega
	1	Cyprus	Apostolos Parellis
	1	Ecuador	Juan Caicedo
	1	France	Lolassonn Djouhan
	1	Great Britain	Lawrence Okoye
	1	Iran	Ehsan Haddadi
	1	Italy	Giovanni Faloci
	1	Lithuania	Andrius Gudžius
	1	Norway	Ola Stunes Isene
	1	Poland	Piotr Małachowski
	1	Romania	Alin Firfirică
	1	Samoa	Alex Rose
	1	Slovenia	Kristjan Čeh
	1	Spain	Lois Maikel Martínez
	1	Ukraine	Mykyta Nesterenko
World ranking	1	Montenegro	Danijel Furtula
	1	Poland	Bartłomiej Stój
Universality places	1	Iceland	Guðni Valur Guðnason
Total	32

Competition format

The 2020 competition will continue to use the two-round format with divided final introduced in 1936. The qualifying round gives each competitor three throws to achieve a qualifying distance (not yet set; 2016 used 65.50 metres); if fewer than 12 men do so, the top 12 will advance. The final provides each thrower with three throws; the top eight throwers receive an additional three throws for a total of six, with the best to count (qualifying round throws are not considered for the final).^[7]

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world, Olympic, and area records are as follows.

World record	Jürgen Schult (GDR)	74.08	Neubrandenburg, East Germany	6 June 1986
Olympic record	Virgilijus Alekna (LTU)	69.89	Athens, Greece	23 August 2004

Area	Distance (m)	Athlete	Nation
Africa (records)	70.32	Frantz Kruger	South Africa
Asia (records)	69.32	Ehsan Haddadi	Iran
Europe (records)	74.08 WR	Jürgen Schult	East Germany
North, Central America and Caribbean (records )	71.32	Ben Plucknett	United States
Oceania (records)	68.20	Benn Harradine	Australia
South America (records )	70.29	Mauricio Ortega	Colombia

No new records were established during the competition.

Schedule

All times are

The men's discus throw will take place over two separate days.^[1]

Results

Qualifying

Qualification Rules: Qualifying performance 66.00 (Q) or at least 12 best performers (q) advance to the Final.

Rank	Group	Athlete	Nation	1	2	3	Distance	Notes
1	A	Daniel Ståhl	Sweden	66.12			66.12	Q
2	A	Andrius Gudzius	Lithuania	65.94	65.07	x	65.94	q
3	B	Kristjan Čeh	Slovenia	65.45	x	63.34	65.45	q
4	A	Matthew Denny	Australia	61.58	65.13	64.98	65.13	q
5	A	Lukas Weißhaidinger	Austria	x	x	64.77	64.77	q
6	A	Mauricio Ortega	Colombia	61.19	64.49	x	64.49	q
7	B	Simon Pettersson	Sweden	60.62	59.47	64.18	64.18	q
8	A	Sam Mattis	United States	62.31	63.74	63.21	63.74	q, SB
9	A	Daniel Jasinski	Germany	x	61.35	63.29	63.29	q
10	B	Ola Stunes Isene	Norway	61.59	61.84	63.26	63.26	q
11	A	Clemens Prüfer	Germany	62.52	61.45	63.18	63.18	q
12	B	Chad Wright	Jamaica	62.93	60.80	61.37	62.93	q, SB
13	B	Fedrick Dacres	Jamaica	62.91	62.43	x	62.91
14	B	Bartłomiej Stój	Poland	62.84	61.05	x	62.84
15	A	Piotr Małachowski	Poland	x	61.76	62.68	62.68
16	A	Alin Firfirică	Romania	60.42	61.90	x	61.90
17	B	Apostolos Parellis	Cyprus	61.73	62.11	x	62.11	SB
18	B	Alex Rose	Samoa	61.28	61.72	61.30	61.72
19	B	Reginald Jagers III	United States	59.33	x	61.47	61.47
20	B	Mykyta Nesterenko	Ukraine	59.71	60.61	60.95	60.95
21	A	Lolassonn Djouhan	France	60.74	x	60.57	60.74
22	B	David Wrobel	Germany	60.38	x	x	60.38
23	B	Mason Finley	United States	x	x	60.34	60.34
24	A	Danijel Furtula	Montenegro	59.65	x	59.93	59.93
25	A	Traves Smikle	Jamaica	59.04	x	x	59.04
26	A	Ehsan Haddadi	Iran	58.48	58.98	x	58.98	SB
27	B	Yauheni Bahutski	Belarus	58.65	x	x	58.65
28	A	Juan Caicedo	Ecuador	x	57.75	x	57.75
29	B	Giovanni Faloci	Italy	x	x	57.33	57.33
30	B	Lois Maikel Martínez	Spain	x	54.69	x	54.69
—	A	Lawrence Okoye	Great Britain	x	x	x	-	NM
	B	Guðni Valur Guðnason	Iceland	x	x	x	-	NM

Final

Rank	Athlete	Nation	1	2	3	4	5	6	Distance	Notes
	Daniel Ståhl	Sweden	63.72	68.90	65.16	66.10	67.03	64.58	68.90
	Simon Pettersson	Sweden	61.39	66.58	x	66.24	67.39	65.39	67.39
	Lukas Weißhaidinger	Austria	62.92	66.65	67.07	66.86	x	x	67.07
4	Matthew Denny	Australia	65.76	65.53	65.94	65.00	66.06	67.02	67.02	PB
5	Kristjan Čeh	Slovenia	x	62.95	x	66.05	x	66.37	66.37
6	Andrius Gudžius	Lithuania	64.05	x	63.82	64.11	62.81	x	64.11
7	Mauricio Ortega	Colombia	61.06	63.51	x	64.08	63.87	x	64.08
8	Sam Mattis	United States	61.18	63.88	63.14	x	62.39	x	63.88	SB
9	Chad Wright	Jamaica	61.43	61.42	62.56	Did not advance			62.56
10	Daniel Jasinski	Germany	61.75	62.44	x	Did not advance			62.44
11	Clemens Prüfer	Germany	61.75	60.73	x	Did not advance			61.75
12	Ola Stunes Isene	Norway	60.95	61.18	x	Did not advance			61.18

References