Gymnastics at the 1896 Summer Olympics – Men's vault

The men's vault was one of the eight gymnastics events on the Gymnastics at the 1896 Summer Olympics programme. The third event, it was held on 9 April. 15 athletes from five nations competed. The Germans captured the gold and bronze medals, while Zutter won the silver for Switzerland.[1]

Men's vault
at the Games of the I Olympiad
Carl Schuhmann on the vault
VenuePanathinaiko Stadium
DateApril 9
Competitors15 from 5 nations
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Carl Schuhmann
 Germany
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Louis Zutter
 Switzerland
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Hermann Weingärtner
 Germany
1904 →

Background edit

This was the first appearance of the event, which is one of the five apparatus events held every time there were apparatus events at the Summer Olympics (no apparatus events were held in 1900, 1908, 1912, or 1920). The field consisted of 10 Germans plus five men from four other nations. The men's vault was one of only four events in 1896 that had no Greek competitors.[2]

Competition format edit

The event used a "vaulting horse" aligned parallel to the gymnast's run (rather than the modern "vaulting table" in use since 2004). Each gymnast had two minutes and could perform as many vaults as he wished during that time. Judges awarded the prizes, but little is known of the scoring and rankings.[2][3]

Schedule edit

The men's vault was held in the afternoon of the fourth day of events, following the 800 metres, team parallel bars, and team horizontal bar.[3]

Date Time Round
Gregorian Julian
Thursday, 9 April 1896 Thursday, 28 March 1896 Afternoon Final

Results edit

Rank Gymnast Nation
  Carl Schuhmann   Germany
  Louis Zutter   Switzerland
  Hermann Weingärtner   Germany
4–15 Konrad Böcker   Germany
Charles Champaud   Bulgaria
Alfred Flatow   Germany
Gustav Flatow   Germany
Georg Hilmar   Germany
Gyula Kakas   Hungary
Fritz Manteuffel   Germany
Karl Neukirch   Germany
Richard Röstel   Germany
Gustav Schuft   Germany
Henrik Sjöberg   Sweden
Desiderius Wein   Hungary

References edit

  1. ^ "Gymnastics at the 1896 Athina Summer Games: Men's Horse Vault". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 10 July 2019.
  2. ^ a b "Horse Vault, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 25 November 2020.
  3. ^ a b Official Report, p. 80.

Sources edit