| Date | 11 July 1912 — 09:30-12:30, 14:00-16:00 | |
|---|---|---|
| Status | Olympic | |
| Location | Stockholms Olympiastadion, Stockholm | |
| Participants | 91 from 5 countries | |
| Format | One team per nation. Teams of 16-40 gymnasts performing simultaneously. Time limit: 1 hour, including march in and march out. The Organizing Committee provided fixed apparatus: 4 horizontal bars, 4 parallel bars, 4 pommel horses, and 4 Roman rings. Each team had to provide their own hand apparatus for the free-standing exercises. Exercises on the horizontal bar, parallel bars, and pommel horse-persondatory. Maximum points on each apparatus 12. Maximum points for free-standing exercises 12 and for free exercises 10. Maximum possible points 58. Scoring by 5 judges, with all scores to count. | |
| Judge | Abraham Clod-Hansen |  DEN |
| Judge | Cesare Tifi |  ITA |
| Judge | Alfred Syson |  GBR |
| Judge | Ernst Wagner-Hohenlobbese |  GER |
| Judge | Mihály Bély |  HUN |
This event figured on the Olympic Programme for the first time in 1912, and would appear only once more, in 1920 at Antwerp. Deutsche Turnerschaft, the German Gymnastic Association, the world’s foremost gymnastics association, declined to send a team. The German team at Stockholm was a mediocre university team from Leipzig. Had the Deutsche Turnerschaft team appeared, it would likely have won easily.
The Italian team had finished 6th in the only team competition at the 1908 Olympics, which was free gymnastics without apparatus. At Stockholm, they dominated this event, winning with almost a 20% margin of victory over the runner-up Hungarians. Of the five judges, four placed Italy first, while the Hungarian judge placed Hungary first. The Italians would win this event again at the 1920 Olympics, in Antwerp. Sweden had won the team gymnastics event in 1908, but did not enter this event, as German turnen was not practiced in Sweden. In Sweden, German turnen was considered to be acrobatics, and to belong in a circus arena rather than the gymnastics hall.
LUX