1978 European Athletics Championships
Track events
100 m	men	women
200 m	men	women
400 m	men	women
800 m	men	women
1500 m	men	women
3000 m		women
5000 m	men
10,000 m	men
100 m hurdles		women
110 m hurdles	men
400 m hurdles	men	women
3000 m steeplechase	men
4 × 100 m relay	men	women
4 × 400 m relay	men	women
Road events
Marathon	men
20 km walk	men
50 km walk	men
Field events
Long jump	men	women
Triple jump	men
High jump	men	women
Pole vault	men
Shot put	men	women
Discus throw	men	women
Hammer throw	men
Javelin throw	men	women
Combined events
Pentathlon		women
Decathlon	men
v t e

The men's shot put at the 1978 European Athletics Championships was held in Prague, then Czechoslovakia, at Stadion Evžena Rošického on 31 August and 1 September 1978.^[1]

Gold	Udo Beyer  East Germany
Silver	Aleksandr Baryshnikov  Soviet Union
Bronze	Wolfgang Schmidt  East Germany

1 September

Rank	Name	Nationality	Result	Notes
	Udo Beyer	East Germany	21.08	CR
	Aleksandr Baryshnikov	Soviet Union	20.68
	Wolfgang Schmidt	East Germany	20.30
4	Reijo Ståhlberg	Finland	20.17
5	Anatoliy Yarosh	Soviet Union	20.03
6	Jaromír Vlk	Czechoslovakia	19.53
7	Hreinn Halldórsson	Iceland	19.34
8	Jaroslav Brabec	Czechoslovakia	19.27
9	Valcho Stoev	Bulgaria	19.23
10	Mathias Schmidt	East Germany	19.21
	Geoff Capes	Great Britain	DQ‡
	Yevgeniy Mironov	Soviet Union	DQ†	Doping

^† Yevgeniy Mironov initially won the silver medal with 20.87m, but he was disqualified for drug use.^[2]
‡: Geoff Capes was not permitted to start in the final after he was disqualified for "disorderly conduct" for pushing an official during an argument.^[3][4]

31 August

Rank	Name	Nationality	Result	Notes
1	Reijo Ståhlberg	Finland	20.25	Q
2	Udo Beyer	East Germany	20.03	Q
3	Anatoliy Yarosh	Soviet Union	19.80	Q
4	Jaromír Vlk	Czechoslovakia	19.76	Q
5	Aleksandr Baryshnikov	Soviet Union	19.74	Q
6	Wolfgang Schmidt	East Germany	19.72	Q
7	Hreinn Halldórsson	Iceland	19.62	Q
8	Jaroslav Brabec	Czechoslovakia	19.48	Q
9	Mathias Schmidt	East Germany	19.38	Q
10	Valcho Stoev	Bulgaria	19.26	Q
11	Ralf Reichenbach	West Germany	19.09
12	Jean-Pierre Egger	Switzerland	18.67
13	Miroslav Janoušek	Czechoslovakia	18.61
14	Anders Arrhenius	Sweden	18.48
15	Vladimir Milić	Yugoslavia	18.35
16	Marco Montelatici	Italy	18.14
17	Angelo Groppelli	Italy	18.04
	Yevgeniy Mironov	Soviet Union	DQ	Q†
	Geoff Capes	Great Britain	DQ	Q‡

^†: Yevgeniy Mironov initially reached the final, but he was disqualified for drug use.^[2]
‡: Geoff Capes initially reached the final, but he was disqualified for "disorderly conduct" after pushing an official during an argument.^[3][4]

According to an unofficial count, 19 athletes from 12 countries participated in the event.