Athletics at the 1968 Summer Olympics – Men's shot put

This was the 16th appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. Returning finalists from the 1964 Games were silver medalist Randy Matson of the United States, bronze medalist Vilmos Varju of Hungary, seventh-place finisher Les Mills of New Zealand, ninth-place finisher Władysław Komar of Poland, and twelfth-place finisher Dieter Hoffmann of the United Team of Germany (now competing for East Germany). Matson had been the best shot putter in the world since the 1964 Games, breaking the world record twice.[2]

El Salvador and Nicaragua each made their debut in the men's shot put; East Germany and West Germany competed separately for the first time. The United States appeared for the 16th time, the only nation to have competed in all Olympic shot put competitions to date.

The competition consisted of two rounds, qualification and final. Each athlete received three throws in the qualifying round. All who achieved the qualifying distance of 18.90 metres progressed to the final. If fewer than twelve athletes achieved this mark, then the twelve furthest throwing athletes reached the final. Each finalist was allowed three throws in last round, with the top eight athletes after that point being given three further attempts.

Prior to the competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

World record	Randy Matson (USA)	21.78	College Station, United States	23 April 1967
Olympic record	Dallas Long (USA)	20.33	Tokyo, Japan	17 October 1964

Randy Matson broke the Olympic record with a throw of 20.68 metres in the qualifying round. Nobody, including Matson, was able to surpass that mark in the final.

All times are Central Standard Time (UTC-6)

• Official Olympic Report, la84foundation.org. Retrieved August 13, 2012.