Athletics at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Men's discus throw

This was the 25th appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. The returning finalists from the 2000 Games were gold medalist (and 1996 finalist) Virgilijus Alekna of Lithuania, silver medalist (and 1996 gold medalist) Lars Riedel of Germany, [[bronze medalist Frantz Kruger of South Africa, fourth-place finisher Vasiliy Kaptyukh of Belarus, sixth-place finisher Jason Tunks of Canada, ninth-place finisher Aleksander Tammert of Estonia, tenth-place finisher Michael Möllenbeck of Germany, and eleventh-place finisher Dmitriy Shevchenko of Russia. Alekna was also the reigning world champion and runner-up in the 2002 European championship. The European winner was Hungarian Róbert Fazekas; he and Alekna were the favorites in Athens.[2]

Moldova made its debut in the men's discus throw. The United States made its 24th appearance, most of any nation, having missed only the boycotted 1980 Games.

The qualification period for Athletics was 1 January 2003 to 9 August 2004. For the men's discus throw, each National Olympic Committee was permitted to enter up to three athletes that had thrown 64.00 metres or further during the qualification period. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. If an NOC had no athletes that qualified under that standard, one athlete that had thrown 62.55 metres or further could be entered.[5]

Each athlete received three throws in the qualifying round. All who achieved the qualifying distance 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.[6]

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

World record	Jürgen Schult (GDR)	74.08	Neubrandenburg, East Germany	6 June 1986
Olympic record	Lars Riedel (GER)	69.40	Atlanta, United States	31 July 1996

Virgilijus Alekna broke the Olympic record with his first throw in the final, marked at 69.89 metres. His only other legal throw, his fifth, surpassed the old record but not the new one, at 69.49 metres. Róbert Fazekas was the first man to throw over 70 metres in Olympic competition, but his disqualification for doping meant that his 70.93 metres throw was not counted as a record.

All times are Greece Standard Time (UTC+2)

• Official Olympic Report