Athletics at the 1976 Summer Olympics – Men's hammer throw

This was the 17th appearance of the event, which has been held at every Summer Olympics except 1896. Seven of the 20 finalists from the 1972 Games returned: gold medalist Anatoliy Bondarchuk of the Soviet Union, silver medalist Jochen Sachse of East Germany, seventh-place finisher Edwin Klein of West Germany, eighth-place finisher Shigenobu Murofushi of Japan, tenth-place finisher Karl-Hans Riehm of West Germany, seventeenth-place finisher Peter Sternad of Austria, and nineteenth-place finisher Jacques Accambray of France. The Soviets and West Germans were favored, particularly Yuriy Sedykh and Karl-Hans Riehm.[2]

New Zealand made its debut in the event. The United States appeared for the 17th time, the only nation to have competed at each appearance of the event to that point.

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 69.00 metres progressed to the final. If fewer than twelve athletes achieved this mark, then the twelve furthest throwing athletes would reach 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	Walter Schmidt (FRG)	79.30	Frankfurt, West Germany	14 August 1975
Olympic record	Anatoliy Bondarchuk (URS)	75.50	Munich, West Germany	7 September 1972

Yuriy Sedykh broke the Olympic record with his second throw of the final, at 77.52 metres. That throw was unbeaten through the rest of the competition. Aleksey Spiridonov also (but later) bettered the old record, with 76.08 metres; Anatoliy Bondarchuk's best throw was 2 centimetres short of his own old record.

All times are Eastern Daylight Time (UTC-4)

• Official Olympic Report, la84foundation.org. Retrieved August 18, 2012.