Artistic Gymnastics at the 1928 Summer Olympics

Dates 8 – 10 August 1928
Medal Events 8

The 1928 Olympic gymnastics program consisted of seven events for men, with an individual and team all-around and five apparatus events. In addition, women made their first competitive Olympic appearance (they had done exhibitions in the past), but in retrospect, it was a bittersweet début. Fully half of the winning Dutch women’s team was Jewish, including their coach and the alternate competitor. By the end of World War II, all but one of the Jewish Dutch team members (Elka de Levie) would lose their lives, along with their children, in Nazi gas chambers.

As was common through 1936, the gymnastics events were contested outdoors, in the Olympisch Stadion in Amsterdam. Swiss male gymnasts dominated, winning five of the seven events, and nine medals overall, led by Georges Miez, who won the individual all-around, was on the winning team, and also won gold on the horizontal bar.

Events

Event Status Date Participants NOCs
Individual All-Around, Men Olympic 8 – 10 August 1928 88 11
Team All-Around, Men Olympic 8 – 10 August 1928 88 11
Horse Vault, Men Olympic 10 August 1928 85 11
Parallel Bars, Men Olympic 9 August 1928 85 11
Horizontal Bar, Men Olympic 9 August 1928 86 11
Rings, Men Olympic 8 August 1928 88 11
Pommelled Horse, Men Olympic 8 August 1928 88 11
Team All-Around, Women Olympic 8 – 9 August 1928 56 5
144 (88/56) 11 (11/5)

Medals

Event Gold Silver Bronze
Individual All-Around, Men Georges MiezSUI Hermann HänggiSUI Leon ŠtukeljYUG
Team All-Around, Men SwitzerlandSUI CzechoslovakiaTCH YugoslaviaYUG
Horse Vault, Men Eugen MackSUI Emanuel LöfflerTCH Stane DergancYUG
Parallel Bars, Men Ladislav VáchaTCH Jože PrimožičYUG Hermann HänggiSUI
Horizontal Bar, Men Georges MiezSUI Romeo NeriITA Eugen MackSUI
Rings, Men Leon ŠtukeljYUG Ladislav VáchaTCH Emanuel LöfflerTCH
Pommelled Horse, Men Hermann HänggiSUI Georges MiezSUI Heikki SavolainenFIN
Team All-Around, Women NetherlandsNED ItalyITA Great BritainGBR

Medal table

NOC Gold Silver Bronze Total
Switzerland SUI 5 2 2 9
Czechoslovakia TCH 1 3 1 5
Yugoslavia YUG 1 1 3 5
Netherlands NED 1 0 0 1
Italy ITA 0 2 0 2
Finland FIN 0 0 1 1
Great Britain GBR 0 0 1 1