Athletics at the 1912 Summer Olympics – Men's shot put
| Men's shot put at the Games of the V Olympiad
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Left-right: Pat McDonald, Lawrence Whitney, Ralph Rose
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| Date | July 10 | ||||||||||||
| Competitors | 22 from 14 nations | ||||||||||||
| Medalists | |||||||||||||
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Pat McDonald |
 United States
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Ralph Rose |
United States
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Lawrence Whitney |
United States
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The men's shot put was a track and field athletics event held as part of the athletics at the 1912 Summer Olympics 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.
These were the standing world and Olympic records (in metres) prior to the 1912 Summer Olympics.
(*) unofficial, set in an exhibition
Ralph Rose, the two-time defending Olympic champion and holder of the Olympic record (14.81 metres, set at the 1904 Summer Olympics), 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'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.
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