Shooting at the 1912 Summer Olympics – Men's trap

Men's trap at the Games of the V Olympiad
Gold medalist James Graham
Venue	Råsunda
Dates	2–4 July
Competitors	61 from 11 nations
Winning score	96 OR
Medalists
James Graham  United States Alfred Goeldel  Germany Harry Blau  Russian Empire
← 1908 1920 →

Shooting at the 1912 Summer Olympics
Rifle
50 m rifle, prone	men
300 m free rifle, 3 positions	men
600 m free rifle	men
300 m free rifle, team	men
300 m military rifle, 3 positions	men
Team military rifle	men
25 m small-bore rifle	men
25 m team small-bore rifle	men
50 m team small-bore rifle	men
Pistol
50 m pistol	men
50 m team pistol	men
30 m dueling pistol	men
30 m team dueling pistol	men
Shotgun
Trap	men
Team clay pigeons	men
Running deer
100 m deer, single shots	men
100 m deer, double shots	men
100 m team deer, single shots	men
v t e

The men's trap (originally called clay bird shooting) was a shooting sports event held as part of the shooting at the 1912 Summer Olympics programme. It was the third appearance of the event, which had been introduced in 1900. The competition was held from Tuesday, 2 July 1912 to Thursday, 4 July 1912.^[1] Each nation could send up to 12 shooters.^[2] Sixty-one sport shooters from eleven nations competed. The event was won by James Graham of the United States. Silver went to Alfred Goeldel of Germany and bronze to Haralds Blaus of the Russian Empire. Each of the nations on the podium was making its debut in the event. Graham also received Lord Westbury's Cup, a challenge prize instituted in 1908.^[3]

This was the third appearance of what would become 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; it was open to women from 1968 to 1996.^[4]

Three of the top 10 shooters from 1908 returned: bronze medalists Alexander Maunder of Great Britain and Anastasios Metaxas of Greece and fifth-place finisher Charles Palmer of Great Britain.^[3]

Germany, Norway, the Russian Empire, and the United States each made their debut in the event. France and Great Britain both made their third appearance, having competed at both prior editions of the event.

Shooter faced up to 100 clay pigeons over the course of three stages. The first stage consisted of 20 targets, in 2 series of 10. The top 50% of shooters advanced to the second stage. That stage had 30 targets, in 2 series of 15. The top 50% of shooters by combined score of the two stages advanced to the third stage (that is, 25% of the initial starters). The final stage had 50 targets, in 2 series of 20 and 2 series of 5. Ties were broken, as necessary, by a series of 10.^[2]

There were three traps. The firing line was 15 metres away from the traps. The minimum gauge of the shotgun was 12. Two shots were allowed per clay pigeon.^[5]

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

James Graham set the initial Olympic record for the 100-shot event with 96 points.

The first round saw a four-way tie between Graham, Gleason, von Zedlitz und Leipe, and Horst Goeldel at 19 points. Graham and Gleason remained tied for first after the first two rounds, each hitting 28 that round for a two-round total of 47. Graham was the highest scorer once again in the third round (this time with Blaus tying him) at 49 points to take gold; Gleason, however, had a poor round at only 40. Alfred Goeldel, one point behind the leaders after one round and matching them in the second to stay one point behind, lost another point against Graham to finish 2 back and in silver, holding off Blaus (who had started the last round 4 points behind Alfred Goeldel and could only narrow the gap by 1).^[3]

Rank	Shooter	Nation	Score
	James Graham	United States	96
	Alfred Goeldel	Germany	94
	Haralds Blaus	Russian Empire	91
4	Harold Humby	Great Britain	88
	Albert Preuß	Germany	88
	Anastasios Metaxas	Greece	88
	Franz von Zedlitz und Leipe	Germany	88
	Adolf Schnitt	Finland	88
9	Emile Jurgens	Netherlands	87
	Ralph Spotts	United States	87
	Edward Gleason	United States	87
12	Erland Koch	Germany	86
	Karl Fazer	Finland	86
	Horst Goeldel	Germany	86
	Frank Hall	United States	86
16	William Grosvenor	Great Britain	85
17	Robert Hutcheson	Canada	84
	Erich Graf von Bernstorff	Germany	84
	John Butt	Great Britain	84
	Åke Lundeberg	Sweden	84
21	Charles Palmer	Great Britain	82
	Alfred Swahn	Sweden	82
23	Leonardus Syttin	Russian Empire	81
	Frantz Rosenberg	Norway	81
25	Hans Lüttich	Germany	77
	Charles de Jaubert	France	77
27	André Fleury	France	74
	Carsten Henrik Bruun	Norway	74
29	Henri de Castex	France	38
	Robert Huber	Finland	38
	Hjalmar Frisell	Sweden	38
	Emil Collan	Finland	38
	George Whitaker	Great Britain	38
34	Victor Wallenberg	Sweden	37
35	Georges de Crequi-Montfort	France	36
	Walter Bodneck	Russian Empire	36
	Daniel McMahon	United States	36
38	Edward Benedicks	Sweden	34
39	George Pinchard	Great Britain	33
40	Johan Ekman	Sweden	31
41	Édoard Creuzé	France	14
	Charles W. Billings	United States	14
	Herman Eriksson	Sweden	14
	John H. Hendrickson	United States	14
45	James Kenyon	Canada	13
	William Davies	Canada	13
	Edvard Bacher	Finland	13
	René Texier	France	13
	Alexander Maunder	Great Britain	13
	Herman Nyberg	Sweden	13
51	Henri le Marié	France	12
	Pavel Lieth	Russian Empire	12
53	Alfred Black	Great Britain	11
	Emil Fabritius	Finland	11
	Boris Pertel	Russian Empire	11
56	John Goodwin	Great Britain	10
	Oscar Swahn	Sweden	10
	Otto Bökman	Sweden	10
	Carl Wollert	Sweden	10
	Nils Klein	Sweden	10
61	Alfred Stabell	Norway	3

• Bergvall, Erik, ed. (1913). The Official Report of the Olympic Games of Stockholm 1912 (PDF). Translated by Adams-Ray, Edward. Stockholm: Wahlström & Widstrand. Retrieved 17 March 2023.
• Wudarski, Pawel (1999). "Wyniki Igrzysk Olimpijskich" (in Polish). Retrieved 26 January 2007.