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
Venue	Panathinaiko Stadium
Date	April 9
Competitors	15 from 5 nations
Medalists
Carl Schuhmann  Germany Louis Zutter  Switzerland Hermann Weingärtner  Germany

Background

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

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

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

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

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. "Horse Vault, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 25 November 2020.
3. Official Report, p. 80.

Sources

• Lampros, S.P.; Polites, N.G.; De Coubertin, Pierre; Philemon, P.J.; Anninos, C. (1897). The Olympic Games: BC 776 – AD 1896. Athens: Charles Beck. (Digitally available at )
• Mallon, Bill; Widlund, Ture (1998). The 1896 Olympic Games. Results for All Competitors in All Events, with Commentary. Jefferson: McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-0379-9. (Excerpt available at )
• Smith, Michael Llewellyn (2004). Olympics in Athens 1896. The Invention of the Modern Olympic Games. London: Profile Books. ISBN 1-86197-342-X.