Gymnastics at the 1896 Summer Olympics

Gymnastics at the Games of the I Olympiad
Gymnastics pictogram
Venue	Panathinaiko Stadium
Dates	9–11 April 1896
No. of events	8 (8 men, 0 women)
Competitors	71 from 9 nations
1900 →

Gymnastics at the 1896 Summer Olympics
Vault	men
Pommel horse	men
Rings	men
Parallel bars	men
Horizontal bar	men
Rope climbing	men
Team parallel bars	men
Team horizontal bar	men
v t e

At the 1896 Summer Olympics, eight gymnastics events, all for men, were contested in Panathinaiko Stadium. They were organized and prepared by the Sub-Committee for Wrestling and Gymnastics. Events took place on April 9, April 10, and April 11, 1896. There were 71 competitors from 9 nations (including 52 from Greece) that took part in gymnastics.^[1]

Medal summary[edit]

These medals are retroactively assigned by the International Olympic Committee; at the time, winners were given a silver medal and subsequent places received no award.

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Team parallel bars details	Germany (GER) Konrad Böcker Alfred Flatow Gustav Flatow Georg Hilmar Fritz Hofmann Fritz Manteuffel Karl Neukirch Richard Röstel Gustav Schuft Carl Schuhmann Hermann Weingärtner	Greece Nikolaos Andriakopoulos Spyros Athanasopoulos Petros Persakis Thomas Xenakis	Greece Ioannis Chrysafis Ioannis Mitropoulos Dimitrios Loundras Filippos Karvelas
Team horizontal bar details	Germany (GER) Konrad Böcker Alfred Flatow Gustav Flatow Georg Hilmar Fritz Hofmann Fritz Manteuffel Karl Neukirch Richard Röstel Gustav Schuft Carl Schuhmann Hermann Weingärtner	only one team competed
Vault details	Carl Schuhmann  Germany	Louis Zutter  Switzerland	Hermann Weingärtner  Germany
Pommel horse details	Louis Zutter  Switzerland	Hermann Weingärtner  Germany	not known
Rings details	Ioannis Mitropoulos  Greece	Hermann Weingärtner  Germany	Petros Persakis  Greece
Horizontal bar details	Hermann Weingärtner  Germany	Alfred Flatow  Germany	not known
Parallel bars details	Alfred Flatow  Germany	Louis Zutter  Switzerland	not known
Rope climbing details	Nikolaos Andriakopoulos  Greece	Thomas Xenakis  Greece	Fritz Hofmann  Germany

Participating nations[edit]

A total of 71 gymnasts from 9 nations competed at the Athens Games:

•  Bulgaria (1)
•  Denmark (1)
•  France (1)
•  Germany (11)
•  Great Britain (1)
•  Greece (52)
•  Hungary (2)
•  Sweden (1)
•  Switzerland (1)

Medal table[edit]

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Germany	5	3	2	10
2	Greece	2	2	2	6
3	Switzerland	1	2	0	3
Totals (3 entries)		8	7	4	19

Sub-Committee for Wrestling and Gymnastics[edit]

• Joan. Phokianos, president
• George Streit, secretary
• Joan. Yenissarlis
• Loukas Belos
• Nic. Politis
• Chas. Waldstein
• Dimitri Aighinitis
• Dim. Sekkeris
• Spiridon Comoundouros
• Const. Manos
• Sp. Antonopoulos

See also[edit]

• List of Olympic medalists in gymnastics (men)

References[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gymnastics at the 1896 Summer Olympics.

• International Olympic Committee results database
• 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 [1])
• 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 [2])
• Smith, Michael Llewellyn (2004). Olympics in Athens 1896. The Invention of the Modern Olympic Games. London: Profile Books. ISBN 1-86197-342-X.