Gymnastics at the 1896 Summer Olympics – Men's horizontal bar

The men's horizontal bar was one of eight gymnastics events on the Gymnastics at the 1896 Summer Olympics programme. It was held on 9 April, as the sixth gymnastics event. 15 athletes from four nations entered the competition. Two winners were announced, with Hermann Weingärtner winning his first individual gold medal, which was added to his two team gold medals and his three other individual medals. His countryman, Alfred Flatow, won his first individual medal.[1]

Men's horizontal bar at the Games of the I Olympiad
Hermann Weingärtner (gold) Alfred Flatow (silver)
Venue	Panathinaiko Stadium
Date	April 9
Competitors	15 from 4 nations
Medalists
Hermann Weingärtner  Germany Alfred Flatow  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 and 5 gymnasts from 3 other nations.[2]

Competition format

Judges awarded the prizes, but little is known of the scoring and rankings.[2][3]

Schedule

The men's parallel bars was held in the evening of the fourth day of events. It was the sixth gymnastics event held that day, and went late enough that the remaining two had to be postponed until the next day.[3]

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

Results

Schuhmann performed for the audience, rather than the judges, with "circus tricks."[2]

Rank	Gymnast	Nation
	Hermann Weingärtner	Germany
	Alfred Flatow	Germany
3–15	Konrad Böcker	Germany
	Gustav Flatow	Germany
	Georg Hilmar	Germany
	Gyula Kakas	Hungary
	Fritz Manteuffel	Germany
	Karl Neukirch	Germany
	Antonios Papaigannou	Greece
	Richard Röstel	Germany
	Gustav Schuft	Germany
	Carl Schuhmann	Germany
	Leonidas Tsiklitiras	Greece
	Desiderius Wein	Hungary
	Louis Zutter	Switzerland

References

1. "Gymnastics at the 1896 Athina Summer Games: Men's Horizontal Bar". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 10 July 2019.
2. "Horizontal Bar, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 8 December 2020.
3. Official Report, p. 81.

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.