The men's shot put at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens was held on 18 August 2004 at the Ancient Olympia Stadium. It was originally planned to hold the discus throw at this venue, but it was discovered that the field was not large enough to accommodate the range of modern discus throwers, and would have posed a danger to spectators. As such, it was decided instead to hold the shot put at the site, despite the fact that the shot put was not contested at the Ancient Olympic Games. All distances are given in metres. Thirty-nine athletes from 26 nations competed. The original gold medalist, Ukrainian Yuriy Bilonoh, was disqualified on 5 December 2012 after a positive re-test of his doping samples. After the announcement of the disqualification, there was a new distribution of medals on 5 March 2013: according to a statement from the IOC sent to the Spanish Olympic Committee, the gold medal went to original silver medalist Adam Nelson of the United States, the silver to Joachim Olsen of Denmark, and the bronze to Manuel Martínez of Spain. This gave the United States its 17th victory in the men's shot put, and Denmark and Spain their first medals in the event. Nelson was also the 13th man to win a second shot put medal, with his retrospective gold following his 2000 silver. Background 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 silver medalist Adam Nelson and bronze medalist John Godina of the United States, fifth-place finisher Yuriy Bilonoh of Ukraine, sixth-place finisher Manuel Martínez Gutiérrez of Spain, seventh-place finisher Janus Robberts of South Africa, and ninth-place finisher Andrey Mikhnevich of Belarus. Mikhnevich, Nelson, and Bilonoh (in that order) had medaled at the 2003 world championships. Nelson had also finished second at the 2001 worlds. Serbia and Montenegro and Slovenia both made their debut in the men's shot put. The United States made its 24th appearance, most of any nation, having missed only the boycotted 1980 Games. Qualification The qualification period for Athletics was 1 January 2003 to 9 August 2004. For the men's shot put, each National Olympic Committee was permitted to enter up to three athletes that had thrown 20.30 metres or further during the qualification period. The maximum number of athletes