Shooting at the 1952 Summer Olympics – Men's trap

Men's trap at the Games of the XV Olympiad
Gold medalist George Genereux during the competition
Venue	Helsinki, Finland
Dates	25–26 July 1952
Competitors	40 from 22 nations
Winning score	192 OR
Medalists
George Genereux   Canada Knut Holmqvist   Sweden Hans Liljedahl   Sweden
←  1924 1956  →

The men's trap was a shooting sports event held as part of the Shooting at the 1952 Summer Olympics programme. It was the sixth appearance of the event. The competition was held on 25 and 26 July 1952 at the shooting ranges in Helsinki. 40 shooters from 22 nations competed. ^[1] Each nation could have up to 2 shooters. ^[2] The event was won by George Genereux of Canada, the nation's first victory (and first medal) in the event since 1908. Sweden, which had never before medaled in the men's trap, took two medals this Games, with Knut Holmqvist earning silver and Hans Liljedahl bronze.

Background

This was the sixth appearance of what had been standardised as the men's ISSF Olympic trap event. The event was held at every Summer Olympics from 1896 to 1924 (except 1904, when no shooting events were held) and from 1952 to 2016. As with most shooting events, it was nominally open to women from 1968 to 1980; the trap remained open to women through 1992. Very few women participated these years. The event returned to being men-only for 1996, though the new double trap had separate events for men and women that year. In 2000, a separate women's event was added and it has been contested at every Games since. There was also a men's team trap event held four times from 1908 to 1924. ^{[3] [4]}

Unsurprisingly, none of the shooters from the 1924 Games (the last edition of the trap) returned. The reigning World Champion from the 1952 ISSF World Shooting Championships, Argentina's Pablo Grossi, did not compete in Helsinki; the silver and bronze medalists (17-year-old George Genereux of Canada and Knut Holmqvist of Sweden, respectively) did. ^[5]

Argentina, Bulgaria, Egypt, Monaco, Poland, Puerto Rico, Soviet Union, and Switzerland each made their debut in the event. Great Britain made its sixth appearance, the only nation to have competed at each edition of the event to that point.

Competition format

The trap competitions prior to World War II had featured 100 target competitions, with winners reaching scores of 98. When trap returned to the Olympics in these Games, it used 200 targets in two courses of 100. Each course consisted of 4 series of 25 targets. ^{[6] [5]}

Records

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

World record
Olympic record	New format

George Genereux set the initial Olympic record for the 200-shot event with 192 points.

Schedule

Date	Time	Round
Friday, 25 July 1952	9:00	Course 1
Saturday, 26 July 1952	9:00	Course 2

Results

The end of the first day had Liljedahl and Aasnæs leading at 96, followed closely by Genereux, Čapek, and Holmqvist at 95. Aasnæs dropped early in the second course. Liljedahl still held the 1-point lead over Genereux and Holmqvist after 150 shots, but Genereux took the lead with a perfect 25-hit series from targets to 151 to 175 while Liljedahl hit only 21. Holmqvist hit 24 during that run, falling behind Genereux by 1 but ahead of Liljedahl by 2. Genereux's 24 out of the last 25 ensured that Liljedahl could not catch him; Holmqvist needed to be perfect to move back up to tied with the Canadian, but only equaled Genereux's 24 in the final 25 shots. ^{[5] [2] [6]}

Rank	Shooter	Nation	Total
	George Genereux	Canada	192
	Knut Holmqvist	Sweden	191
	Hans Liljedahl	Sweden	190
4	František Čapek	Czechoslovakia	188
5	Konrad Huber	Finland	188
6	Ioannis Koutsis	Greece	187
7	Galliano Rossini	Italy	187
8	Italo Bellini	Italy	186
9	Józef Kiszkurno	Poland	185
10	Ivan Isayev	Soviet Union	185
11	Hans Aasnæs	Norway	185
12	Seifollah Ghaleb	Egypt	184
13	Roy Cole	Canada	184
14	Enoch Jenkins	Great Britain	183
15	Yury Nikandrov	Soviet Union	183
16	Ivan Ivanov	Bulgaria	182
17	Youssef Fares	Egypt	181
18	André Taupin	France	181
19	Igor Treybal	Czechoslovakia	181
20	Olgierd Darżynkiewicz	Poland	181
21	Albert Fichefet	Belgium	178
22	Laszlo Szapáry	Austria	178
23	Kurt Schöbel	Germany	175
24	Panagiotis Linardakis	Greece	175
25	Juan de Giacomo	Argentina	175
26	Claude Lagarde	France	173
27	Rafael de Juan	Spain	173
28	Gaston Van Roy	Belgium	169
29	Sven-Erik Rosenlew	Finland	168
30	Khristo Shopov	Bulgaria	168
31	Allan Christensen	Denmark	165
32	Georges Robini	Monaco	165
33	Antonio Vega	Spain	164
34	Louis Cavalli	Switzerland	159
35	Charles Lucas	Great Britain	159
36	Pierre-André Flückiger	Switzerland	159
37	Svein Helling	Norway	148
38	Marcel Rué	Monaco	146
39	José Ángel Galiñanes	Puerto Rico	117
40	Fulvio Rocchi	Argentina	109

References

1. "Shooting at the 1952 Helsinki Summer Games: Men's Trap". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 9 February 2015.
2. Official Report, p. 454.
3. "Shooting". Olympedia. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
4. "Historical Results". issf-sports.org. International Shooting Sport Federation. Retrieved 11 June 2021.
5. "Trap, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 11 June 2021.
6. Official Report, p. 468.