Shooting at the 1952 Summer Olympics

Shooting at the Games of the XV Olympiad
Dates	25-29 July 1952

With the competitions in shooting at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, the Olympic shooting program began its expansion. Three new events were added: 100 metre running deer, 50 metre rifle three positions and trap. In total there were seven events held between 25 and 29 July 1952.^[1] No women participated in the 1952 shooting events. This was the first year that a new format was introduced as well: the sights on the guns were now located on the left side of the barrel.^[2]

Shooting at the 1952 Summer Olympics
Rifle
300 metre rifle	men
50 m rifle, three positions	men
50 m rifle, prone	men
Pistol
25 m rapid fire pistol	men
50 metre pistol	men
Shotgun
Trap	men
Running deer
100 m running deer	men

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
rapid fire pistol	Károly Takács  Hungary	579	Szilárd Kun  Hungary	578	Gheorghe Lichiardopol  Romania	578
pistol	Huelet Benner  United States	553	Angel Leon de Gozalo  Spain	550	Ambrus Balogh  Hungary	549
rifle prone	Iosif Sîrbu  Romania	400	Boris Andreyev  Soviet Union	400	Arthur Jackson  United States	399
rifle three positions	Erling Asbjørn Kongshaug  Norway	1164	Vilho Ylönen  Finland	1164	Boris Andreyev  Soviet Union	1163
running deer (single and double shot)	John Larsen  Norway	413	Per Olof Sköldberg  Sweden	409	Tauno Mäki  Finland	407
300 metre rifle three positions	Anatoli Bogdanov  Soviet Union	1123	Robert Bürchler  Switzerland	1120	Lev Weinstein  Soviet Union	1109
trap	George Genereux  Canada	192	Knut Holmqvist  Sweden	191	Hans Liljedahl  Sweden	190

Károly Takács stunned the world after winning the 25-metre rapid fire pistol event. In 1940, he was known as the most skilled shooter in the Hungarian armed forces and was thought to be a favorite in the event. Unfortunately, Takács lost a portion of his hand in an accident involving a hand grenade during an operation simulation. Despite his full recovery, he was no longer able to shoot with his dominant hand. Takács trained for 12 years, making his weak hand shooting ability as skilled as his dominant hand once was. Eventually, he went on to win gold in this sport, shocking the world in the process and motivating people around the world to overcome adversity.^[3]

A total of 218 shooters from 41 nations competed at the Helsinki Games:^[1]

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Norway	2	0	0	2
2	Soviet Union	1	1	2	4
3	Hungary	1	1	1	3
4	Romania	1	0	1	2
	United States	1	0	1	2
6	Canada	1	0	0	1
7	Sweden	0	2	1	3
8	Finland	0	1	1	2
9	Spain	0	1	0	1
	Switzerland	0	1	0	1
Totals (10 entries)		7	7	7	21

• International Olympic Committee medal winners database