Four years earlier, while still attending the University of Kansas, Nieder had become the first collegiate athlete to better 60 feet (18.28 metres) with the 16-pound shot and had won silver at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics behind fellow American Parry O’Brien, the defending champion, who set an Olympic record of 18.57m.

Before the 1960 Rome Olympics Nieder had established himself as favourite by setting three world records in the space of six months, throwing 19.45m on March 19, 19.99m on April 2 and 20.06m on August 12.

But he failed to qualify at the 1960 US Olympic trials, being named as a reserve after finishing fourth.

An injury to Dave Davis led to Nieder being called up, however, and he went on to take gold in a dramatic final with his two US rivals, O’Brien and Dallas Long.

Having bettered O’Brien’s 1956 winning mark with his opening effort of 18.67m, Nieder saw the double Olympic champion respond immediately to reclaim the Olympic record with a mark of 18.77m.

By the end of the second round Nieder was in bronze medal position after Long had trumped O’Brien with an Olympic record of 18.88m, only for O’Brien to respond again with 19.11m.

In the fifth round, however, Nieder regained the lead with an Olympic record of 19.68m that remained in place by the end of a tumultuous competition.

Nieder promptly retired, and turned his attention to boxing.

He was knocked out in his first bout and hung up the gloves for good.

He found more gainful employment working for 3M and played a key part in developing artificial athletic turf.

He went on to sell the first-ever synthetic track surface for an Olympics to the organisers of the 1968 Mexico Games.