Athletics at the 1988 Summer Olympics – Men's hammer throw

This was the 20th appearance of the event, which has been held at every Summer Olympics except 1896. Four of the 12 finalists from the 1984 Games returned: gold medalist Juha Tiainen and sixth-place finisher Harri Huhtala of Finland, and Christoph Sahner of West Germany and Matthew Mileham of Great Britain, both of whom had failed to make a legal mark in the final. Also returning were Soviets Yuriy Sedykh, Sergey Litvinov, and Jüri Tamm, who had swept the medals (in that order) in 1980 but had been kept out of the 1984 Games due to the Soviet-led boycott. Sedykh had also won gold in 1976. He and Litvinov had dominated the event since that year, with Sedykh winning two Olympic gold medals and Litvinov winning both World Championships to date (1983 and 1987). Sedykh's world record of 86.74 metres, set in 1986, still stands as of 2021. Tamm was also a serious contender; in addition to the 1980 bronze, he had finished second at the 1987 World Championship.{{cite web |url=https://www.olympedia.org/results/63556 |work=Olympedia |title=Hammer Throw, Men |access-date=27 January 2021}}

No nations made their debut in the event. The United States appeared for the 19th time, most of any nation, having missed only the boycotted 1980 Games.

The competition used the two-round format introduced in 1936, with the qualifying round completely separate from the divided final. In qualifying, each athlete received three attempts; those recording a mark of at least 77.00 metres advanced to the final. If fewer than 12 athletes achieved that distance, the top 12 would advance. The results of the qualifying round were then ignored. Finalists received three throws each, with the top eight competitors receiving an additional three attempts. The best distance among those six throws counted.Official Report, vol. 2, p. 245.

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

{{World Olympic Record

| world_athlete = {{flagathlete|Yuriy Sedykh|URS}}

| world_mark = 86.74

| world_place = Stuttgart, West Germany

| world_date = 30 August 1986

| olympic_athlete = {{flagIOCathlete|Yuriy Sedykh|URS|1980 Summer}}

| olympic_mark = 81.80

| olympic_place = Moscow, Soviet Union

| olympic_date = 31 July 1980

}}

Sergey Litvinov broke the Olympic record with his first throw in the final, of 84.76 metres, and improved on that with his fifth throw, of 84.80 metres. All six of Litvinov's throws in the final surpassed the old record, as did four of Sedykh's five legal marks.

All times are Korea Standard Time adjusted for daylight savings (UTC+10)

• 1986 Men's European Championships Hammer Throw (Stuttgart)
• 1987 Men's World Championships Hammer Throw (Rome)
• 1988 Hammer Throw Year Ranking
• 1990 Men's European Championships Hammer Throw (Split)
• 1991 Men's World Championships Hammer Throw (Tokyo)

{{reflist}}

• {{in lang|en}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20070930155747/http://www.la84foundation.org/6oic/OfficialReports/1988/1988v2.pdf Official Report]
• {{in lang|en}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20100226035124/http://hammerthrow.wz.cz/ hammerthrow.wz]

{{OlympicsHammer Throw}}

{{Footer Olympic Champions Hammer Throw Men}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Athletics At The 1988 Summer Olympics - Men's Hammer Throw}}

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Category:Hammer throw at the Olympics

Category:Men's events at the 1988 Summer Olympics