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Men's 50 metre free pistol
at the Games of the XXI Olympiad
Men's 50 metre free pistol; at the Games of the XXI Olympiad
	Shooting pictogram
Venue	Olympic Shooting Range, L'Acadie
Date	18 July
Competitors	47 from 31 nations
Winning time	573 WR
Medalists
	← 1972 1980 →

The mixed (or "open") ISSF 50 meter pistol was a shooting sports event held as part of the Shooting at the 1976 Summer Olympics programme. It was the fourteenth appearance of the event. The competition was held on 18 July 1976 at the shooting ranges in Montreal. 47 shooters from 31 nations competed.^[1] Nations had been limited to two shooters each since the 1952 Games. The event was won by Uwe Potteck, with East Germany finishing 1–2 as Harald Vollmar took silver. It was East Germany's first victory in the event. Rudolf Dollinger of Austria repeated as bronze medalist. Vollmar (the 1968 bronze winner) and Dollinger were the fifth and sixth men to win multiple medals in the free pistol. Potteck had only begun the sport 23 months prior to his victory and his previous personal best in domestic competitions was a 568. In addition, his practice scores leading up to the games averaged around 563 to 565.^[2]^[3]

Background

This was the 14th appearance of the ISSF 50 meter pistol event. The event was held at every Summer Olympics from 1896 to 1920 (except 1904, when no shooting events were held) and from 1936 to 2016; it was nominally open to women from 1968 to 1980, although very few women participated these years. A separate women's event would be introduced in 1984.^[4] 1896 and 1908 were the only Games in which the distance was not 50 metres; the former used 30 metres and the latter 50 yards.^[5]^[6]

Six of the top 10 shooters from the 1972 Games returned: gold medalist Ragnar Skanåker of Sweden, silver medalist Daniel Iuga of Romania, bronze medalist Rudolf Dollinger of Austria, fifth-place finisher (and 1968 bronze medalist) Harald Vollmar of East Germany, eighth-place finisher (and 1968 gold medalist) world record holder Grigory Kosykh of the Soviet Union, and tenth-place finisher Kjell Jacobsson of Sweden. Reigning (1974) world champion Georgi Zapolski was not on the Soviet Olympic team, but runner-up Ivan Nemethy of Czechoslovakia and third-place finisher Harald Vollmar (who had won in 1970) were competing in Montreal.

For the first time, no nations made their debut in the event. The United States made its 13th appearance, most of any nation, having missed only the 1900 event.

Potteck used a Tula TOZ 35.

Competition format

Each shooter fired 60 shots, in 6 series of 10 shots each, at a distance of 50 metres. The target was round, 50 centimetres in diameter, with 10 scoring rings. Scoring for each shot was up to 10 points, in increments of 1 point. The maximum score possible was 600 points. Any pistol was permitted.^[6]^[7]

Records

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

World record	Grigory Kosykh (URS) Harald Vollmar (GDR)	572	Plzeň, Czechoslovakia Madrid, Spain	1969 1975	[1][2]
Olympic record	Ragnar Skanåker (SWE)	567	Munich, West Germany	27 August 1972	[3]

Uwe Potteck beat the world record by 1 point, finishing at 573 points. Harald Vollmar, in second place, matched the old Olympic record.

Schedule

Date	Time	Round
Sunday, 18 July 1976	8:00	Final

Results

Rank	Shooter	Nation	Score	Notes
	Uwe Potteck	East Germany	573	WR
	Harald Vollmar	East Germany	567
	Rudolf Dollinger	Austria	562
4	Heinz Mertel	West Germany	560
5	Ragnar Skanåker	Sweden	559
6	Vincenzo Tondo	Italy	559
7	Grigory Kosykh	Soviet Union	559
8	Dencho Denev	Bulgaria	557
9	Bertino de Souza	Brazil	556
10	Hershel Anderson	United States	556
11	Jean Faggion	France	554
12	Laszlo Antal	Great Britain	553
12	Sławomir Romanowski	Poland	553
14	André Porthault	France	552
	Kjell Jacobsson	Sweden	552
	Ivan Némethy	Czechoslovakia	552
17	Enzo Contegno	Italy	551
18	Lyubcho Dyakov	Bulgaria	550
	Roman Burkard	Switzerland	550
	Akin Ersoy	Turkey	550
2T	Shigetoshi Tashiro	Japan	549
2T	John Rødseth	Norway	549
23	Tom Guinn	Canada	548
24	Jules Sobrian	Canada	547
24	Gerhard Beyer	West Germany	547
26	Tüdeviin Myagmarjav	Mongolia	546
26	Marlen Papava	Soviet Union	546
28	Masanobu Ohata	Japan	545
29	Paulo Lamego	Brazil	544
30	Hubert Garschall	Austria	543
31	Niels Dahl	Denmark	542
32	Norman Harrison	Australia	540
32	Johnny Cannizzaro	Puerto Rico	540
34	Daniel Iuga	Romania	539
35	Miroslav Štefan	Czechoslovakia	537
36	Tserenjavyn Ölziibayar	Mongolia	536
37	Arturo Macapagal	Philippines	534
37	Richard Crawford	United States	534
39	Jaime Sánchez	Bolivia	531
39	Javier Padilla	Mexico	531
41	Sutham Aswanit	Thailand	529
42	Jonathan Gillman	Australia	525
43	Juan Casey	Argentina	515
43	Anne Goffin	Belgium	515
45	Veera Uppapong	Thailand	507
46	Camilo Pedro	Hong Kong	490
47	John Waight	Belize	419

References

^ "Shooting at the 1976 Montreal Summer Games: Mixed Free Pistol, 50 metres". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
^ "3 U.S Shooters Win In Montreal". www.mcmillan.info. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
^ "Leserinterview MIT: Uwe Potteck". www.armas.es. Retrieved 18 January 2023.
^ "Shooting". Olympedia. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
^ "Historical Results". issf-sports.org. International Shooting Sport Federation. Retrieved 15 December 2020.
^ ^a ^b "Free Pistol, 50 Metres, Open". Olympedia. Retrieved 15 December 2020.
^ Official Report, vol. 2, p. 430.