The men's discus throw competition at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens was held at the Olympic Stadium on 21–23 August. It was originally planned to hold the discus throw at the Ancient Olympia Stadium, 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 to move the discus throw and to hold the shot put at the ancient stadium, despite the fact that the shot put was not contested at the Ancient Olympic Games. Thirty-nine athletes from 26 nations competed.
Gerd Kanter is a retired Estonian discus thrower. He was the 2007 World Champion in the event and won the gold medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics, and bronze in London 2012. His personal best throw of 73.38 m is the Estonian record and the third best mark of all time.
Dani Stevens is a retired Australian discus thrower who in 2009 became the youngest ever female world champion in the event. She is the current national and Oceanian record holder. Stevens qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and threw 58.77m in the Women's dicus throw. This was not a sufficient distance to qualify her for the final.
Stephanie Storp is a retired female shot putter from Germany. Her best performance was winning the bronze medal at the 1997 World Championships, with a throw of 19.22 metres. She also won the silver medal at the 1993 World Indoor Championships, and represented her country in the Summer Olympics of 1992 and 1996. She ended her athletics career in 1998, having taken up basketball as a new sport.
Germán Luján Lauro is an Argentine shot putter and discus thrower. He is the South American record holder in the shot put both indoors and outdoors with marks of 21.04 m and 21.26 m, respectively. His personal best in the discus is 63.55 metres.
David Storl is a German track and field athlete who specialises in the shot put. He was successful on the youth and junior athletics circuit, winning gold medals at the World Youth Championships and World Junior Championships. Storl won his first senior medal, a silver, at the 2011 European Athletics Indoor Championships.
Katherine Proudfoot is a cerebral palsy athlete from Australia competing mainly in throwing events. She competed in the F36 classification at the 2008, 2012 and the 2016 Summer Paralympics, winning medals at each Game. Following a medical review request in early 2017, she now competes in seated throws in the F32 classification. At the 2017 Australian Athletics Championships she threw 7.04m in the Women's Shot Put Secured event, bettering the Women's F32 shot put world record mark of 6.55m.
Russell Luke Short, OAM is an Australian legally blind athlete, who has competed at eight Paralympics from 1988 to 2016 and won six gold, two silver and four bronze medals at the Games. He competes in discus, javelin, and shot put.
Ronald Odair de Oliveira Julião is a Brazilian track and field athlete who competes in the shot put and discus throw. He is a member of BM&F Bovespa's track club and is trained by João Paulo Alves da Cunha. He is the Brazilian record holder in the discus throw (65.55 m). He is the second highest ranked South American discus thrower after Jorge Balliengo and has won straight titles at the Brazil championships since 2005.
Timothy "Tim" Nedow is a Canadian track and field athlete who competes in the shot put and discus throw. He has personal bests of 200.10 m and 21.38 m for the events, respectively. He was the bronze medallist for Canada at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and the 2013 Francophonie Games.
Guy Nicholas Henly is an Australian Paralympic athlete. He currently competes in discus and shot put and has won medals at the 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019 World Para Athletics Championships and 2023 World Para Athletics Championships. He represented Australia at the 2016 Rio Paralympics and 2020 Tokyo Paralympics.
Lukas Weißhaidinger is an Austrian discus thrower and shot putter. He was European junior discus champion in 2011 and holds the Austrian record in men's discus throw. He won bronze medals at the 2018 European Championships, 2019 World Athletics Championships, and 2020 Summer Olympics.
Alena Vasilyeuna Abramchuk, née Kapiets is a Belarusian track and field athlete who competes in the shot put. She was the bronze medallist at the 2013 European Athletics Indoor Championships. Her personal best is 19.24 m, set in 2013.
Oto Yanovich Grigalka was a Latvian track and field athlete who competed in the shot put and discus throw. He represented the Soviet Union at the Summer Olympics in 1952 and 1956. He placed fourth in the shot put and sixth in the discus in 1952,then came fifth at the 1956 Olympic discus competition.
Navjeet Kaur Dhillon is an Indian track and field athlete who competes as a Discus thrower. Her current world ranking in the Women's Discus Throw category is 46, and in the Women's Overall ranking is 4165. She was the bronze medalist at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, with her final throw of 57.43 m and became the second Indian to win a medal at the World Junior Championships in Athletics in 2014. She holds a personal best of 59.18 m, set in 2018 in Indian Grand Prix in February, 2018.
Lara Baars is a Dutch Paralympic athlete competing in shot put and discus throw events. She was born with achondroplasia, a form of dwarfism.
Oney Tapia is a visually impaired Italian-Cuban Paralympic athlete competing in discus throw and shot put events. He represented Italy at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and he won the silver medal in the men's discus throw F11 event. He represented Italy at the 2020 Summer Paralympics in the discus throw and shot put events, winning two bronze medals.
Akeem Stewart is a Trinidad and Tobago Paralympic athlete competing in F43/F44-classification discus throw, javelin throw and shot put events.
K. Y. Venkatesh is an Indian para-athlete and shot putter from Bengaluru, Karnataka, India. He won his first gold for India in the shot put in 1999 in Australia. In 1994, he represented India at the 1st International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Athletics World Championships in Berlin, Germany. He was awarded India's fourth highest civilian award the Padma Shri in 2021.
Alida van Daalen is a Dutch track and field athlete who competes in shot put and discus.
