Gymnastics at the 1904 Summer Olympics – Men's vault

The men's vault was an artistic gymnastics event held as part of the gymnastics programme at the 1904 Summer Olympics. It was only the second time that the event was held at the Olympics. An unknown number of gymnasts competed, only five are known. The competition was held on Friday, October 28, 1904.[1]

Men's vault
at the Games of the III Olympiad
George Eyser
VenueFrancis Olympic Field
DateOctober 28
Competitors? from ? nations
Winning score36
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) George Eyser  United States
1st place, gold medalist(s) Anton Heida  United States
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) William Merz  United States
← 1896
1924 →

Background edit

This was the second 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). Little is known of who competed in this event, with only five Americans known and an unknown number of other gymnasts. The event was not held at the 1903 world championships. Anton Heida was the AAU champion in 1902.[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 performed three vaults. For each vault, three judges each gave a score from 0 to 5. The scores were summed to give a final total. Thus, the maximum score per vault was 15 and the maximum overall score was 45.[2]

Schedule edit

Date Time Round
Friday, 28 October 1904 Final

Results edit

Rank Gymnast Nation Score
  George Eyser   United States 36
Anton Heida   United States 36
  William Merz   United States 31
4–5 John Duha   United States
Edward Hennig   United States

References edit

  1. ^ "Gymnastics at the 1904 St. Louis Summer Games: 1904 St. Louis Summer Games:". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
  2. ^ a b "Horse Vault, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 25 November 2020.

Sources edit