Shooting at the 1920 Summer Olympics – Men's 300 metre free rifle, three positions explained

Event:	Men's 300 metre free rifle, three positions
Games:	1920 Summer
Venue:	Beverloo Camp
Date:	31 July
Competitors:	70
Nations:	14
Win Value:	996
Win Label:	Winning score
Longnames:	yes
Gold:	Morris Fisher
Goldnoc:	USA
Silver:	Niels Larsen
Silvernoc:	DEN
Bronze:	Østen Østensen
Bronzenoc:	NOR
Prev:	1912
Next:	1948

The men's 300 m rifle three positions was a shooting sports event held as part of the Shooting programs at the 1920 Summer Olympics programme. It was the fourth appearance of the 300 metre rifle three positions event at an Olympic Games. The competition was held on 31 July 1920, with 70 shooters from 14 nations competing.^[1] The event was won by Morris Fisher of the United States, the nation's first victory in the event. Niels Larsen of Denmark earned silver (the first man to win multiple medals in the event, adding to his 1912 bronze), while Østen Østensen of Norway took bronze.

Background

This was the fourth appearance of the men's 300 metre three-positions rifle event, which was held 11 times between 1900 and 1972.^[2] ^[3] Seven of the top 10 shooters from 1912 returned: gold medalist Paul Colas of France, silver medalist Lars Jørgen Madsen of Denmark (who had also competed in 1900 and 1908), bronze medalist Niels Larsen of Denmark, fourth-place finisher Hugo Johansson of Sweden, fifth-place finisher Gudbrand Skatteboe of Norway, seventh-place finisher (and 1908 gold medalist) Albert Helgerud of Norway, and tenth-place finisher Erik Blomqvist of Sweden.^[4]

Czechoslovakia, Greece, Italy, and Spain made their debut in the event. Denmark, France, and Norway each made their fourth appearance, the only nations to have competed at every appearance of the event to date.

Participating nations and athletes

The scores are only known for the shooters of the best eight nations, and so according to sports-reference.com 40 shooters from 8 nations participated in this event. However the scores for the Men's team free rifle uses the scores from this event (the summed score of the five athletes form each nation). Because these events were contested concurrently, shooters that competed in the team event should have competed automatically in this event. In that case 5 athletes from Italy, Spain, Belgium, Greece, Czechoslovakia and South Africa would also have competed in this event, making 70 athletes from 14 nations.^[5]

Competition format

The competition had each shooter fire 120 shots, 40 shots in each of three positions: prone, standing, and kneeling (with sitting permitted instead in 1920). The target was 1 metre in diameter, with 10 scoring rings; targets were set at a distance of 300 metres. Thus, the maximum score possible was 1200 points. Any rifle could be used. As in 1900 (but not 1908 or 1912), the scores for each individual were summed to give a team score.^[4]

Records

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

The top two shooters in 1920 broke the Olympic record. Morris Fisher ended with the new record, at 996 points; Niels Larsen had 989.

Results

The scores are only known for the shooters of the best eight nations. The maximum score was 1200. The scores of this event were summed to the result of the team free rifle competition.

Rank	Shooter	Nation	Score				Notes
Rank	Shooter	Nation	Prone	Standing	Kneeling^[6]	Total	Notes
			347	288	361	996
			328	320	341	989
			347	309	324	980
4			353	280	347	980
5			351	294	330	975
5			341	306	328	975
7			357	301	316	974
7			347	294	333	974
9–70			336	295	335	966
			341	277	347	965
			329	307	325	961
			345	282	334	961
			351	267	342	960
			323	287	349	959
			337	302	316	955
			324	307	320	951
			352	269	326	947
			347	270	328	945
			Unknown	939
			338	263	333	934
			317	303	310	930
			339	261	329	929
			338	264	323	925
			345	272	307	924
			324	303	296	923
			322	274	313	909
			Unknown	909
			343	283	282	908
			306	282	318	906
			313	297	295	905
			294	280	329	903
			303	278	315	896
			338	260	295	893
			285	301	292	878
			Unknown	866
			320	241	289	850
			320	236	293	849
			Unknown	841
			300	261	275	836
			Unknown	828
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External links

Official Report
Web site: Wudarski . Pawel . 1999 . Wyniki Igrzysk Olimpijskich . 22 December 2007. pl.

Notes and References

Web site: Shooting at the 1920 Antwerpen Summer Games: Men's Free Rifle, Three Positions, 300 metres . https://web.archive.org/web/20200417193131/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/summer/1920/SHO/mens-free-rifle-three-positions-300-metres.html . dead . 17 April 2020 . 13 December 2014 . sports-reference.com.
Web site: Historical Results . ISSF . 12 December 2020.
The event was open to women in 1968 and 1972.
Web site: Free Rifle, Three Positions, 300 metres, Men . Olympedia . 10 December 2020.
Web site: Shooting at the 1920 Antwerpen Summer Games: Men's Free Rifle, Three Positions, 300 metres, Team . https://web.archive.org/web/20200417193128/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/summer/1920/SHO/mens-free-rifle-three-positions-300-metres-team.html . dead . 17 April 2020 . 14 December 2014 . sports-reference.com.
Or sitting.