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Gymnastics at the 1956 Summer Olympics – Men's vault

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Men's vault
at the Games of the XVI Olympiad
Artistic gymnastics pictogram
VenueFestival Hall
Dates3–7 December
Competitors63 from 18 nations
Winning score18.85
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Helmut Bantz
 United Team of Germany
1st place, gold medalist(s) Valentin Muratov
 Soviet Union
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Yuri Titov
 Soviet Union
← 1952
1960 →

The men's vault competition was one of eight events for male competitors in artistic gymnastics at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne. It was held from 3 to 7 December at the Melbourne Festival Hall. There were 63 competitors from 18 nations (down sharply from the 185 gymnasts in 1952), with nations in the team competition having up to 6 gymnasts and other nations entering up to 3 gymnasts.[1] The event was won by Helmut Bantz of the United Team of Germany and Valentin Muratov of the Soviet Union, who tied for the top place. Soviet Yuri Titov finished third to win the bronze medal.

Background

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This was the ninth 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). Seven of the top 12 (including ties for 9th) gymnasts from 1952 returned: gold medalist Viktor Chukarin of the Soviet Union, silver medalist Masao Takemoto and bronze medalist Takashi Ono of Japan, and fifth-place finisher Theo Wied of Germany (now the United Team of Germany). The reigning (1954) world champion, Leo Sotorník of Czechoslovakia, did not compete in Melbourne, but the runner-up (Helmut Bantz of the United Team of Germany) did.[1]

Australia and Canada each made their debut in the men's vault; East and West Germany competed together as the United Team of Germany for the first time. The United States made its eighth appearance, most of any nation, having missed only the inaugural 1896 Games.

Competition format

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The gymnastics format continued to use the aggregation format, mostly following the scoring tweaks made in 1952. Each nation entered either a team of six gymnasts or up to three individual gymnasts. The event used a "vaulting horse" aligned parallel to the gymnast's run (rather than the modern "vaulting table" in use since 2004). All entrants in the gymnastics competitions performed both a compulsory exercise and a voluntary exercise for each apparatus. The 2 exercise scores were summed to give an apparatus total. No separate finals were contested.

Exercise scores ranged from 0 to 10 and apparatus scores from 0 to 20.[2]

Schedule

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All times are Australian Eastern Standard Time (UTC+10)

Date Time Round
Monday, 3 December 1956
Tuesday, 4 December 1956
Wednesday, 5 December 1956
Thursday, 6 December 1956
Friday, 7 December 1956
8:00 Final

Results

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Rank Gymnast Nation Compulsory Voluntary Total
1st place, gold medalist(s) Valentin Muratov  Soviet Union 9.40 9.45 18.85
Helmut Bantz  United Team of Germany 9.40 9.45 18.85
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Yury Titov  Soviet Union 9.35 9.40 18.75
4 Boris Shakhlin  Soviet Union 9.35 9.35 18.70
Theo Wied  United Team of Germany 9.30 9.40 18.70
6 Masao Takemoto  Japan 9.20 9.45 18.65
7 Viktor Chukarin  Soviet Union 9.25 9.35 18.60
Jack Beckner  United States 9.25 9.35 18.60
Robert Klein  United Team of Germany 9.30 9.30 18.60
Jakob Kiefer  United Team of Germany 9.30 9.30 18.60
11 Albert Azaryan  Soviet Union 9.15 9.40 18.55
Kalevi Suoniemi  Finland 9.15 9.40 18.55
Martti Mansikka  Finland 9.20 9.35 18.55
Vladimír Kejř  Czechoslovakia 9.10 9.45 18.55
Attila Takács  Hungary 9.20 9.35 18.55
16 Takashi Ono  Japan 9.20 9.30 18.50
William Thoresson  Sweden 9.20 9.30 18.50
Erich Wied  United Team of Germany 9.20 9.30 18.50
19 Shinsaku Tsukawaki  Japan 9.20 9.25 18.45
Josef Škvor  Czechoslovakia 9.20 9.25 18.45
Charles Simms  United States 9.15 9.30 18.45
Kurt Wigartz  Sweden 9.25 9.20 18.45
23 Ferdinand Daniš  Czechoslovakia 9.30 9.10 18.40
Olavi Leimuvirta  Finland 9.10 9.30 18.40
Jaroslav Mikoška  Czechoslovakia 9.20 9.20 18.40
Josy Stoffel  Luxembourg 9.00 9.40 18.40
Armando Vega  United States 9.10 9.30 18.40
28 Pavel Stolbov  Soviet Union 9.10 9.25 18.35
Bill Tom  United States 9.10 9.25 18.35
Stoyan Stoyanov  Bulgaria 9.15 9.20 18.35
Mincho Todorov  Bulgaria 9.05 9.30 18.35
Bruce Sharp  Australia 9.25 9.10 18.35
33 Masami Kubota  Japan 9.25 9.05 18.30
Akira Kono  Japan 9.00 9.30 18.30
Hans Pfann  United Team of Germany 9.05 9.25 18.30
36 Velik Kapsazov  Bulgaria 9.10 9.15 18.25
Onni Lappalainen  Finland 9.00 9.25 18.25
Raymond Dot  France 9.00 9.25 18.25
39 Zdeněk Růžička  Czechoslovakia 9.10 9.10 18.20
János Héder  Hungary 9.00 9.20 18.20
41 Nobuyuki Aihara  Japan 9.20 8.90 18.10
Raimo Heinonen  Finland 9.05 9.05 18.10
43 Dick Beckner  United States 8.85 9.20 18.05
Ed Gagnier  Canada 9.00 9.05 18.05
David Gourlay  Australia 9.00 9.05 18.05
46 Jaroslav Bím  Czechoslovakia 9.00 9.00 18.00
47 Abie Grossfeld  United States 8.85 9.10 17.95
Brian Blackburn  Australia 9.00 8.95 17.95
Hans Sauter  Austria 9.00 8.95 17.95
50 Berndt Lindfors  Finland 8.80 9.10 17.90
Michel Mathiot  France 8.80 9.10 17.90
Jean Guillou  France 8.90 9.00 17.90
Ronnie Lombard  South Africa 9.00 8.90 17.90
Noel Punton  Australia 9.05 8.85 17.90
55 Rafael Lecuona  Cuba 8.95 8.90 17.85
56 Graham Bond  Australia 9.00 8.80 17.80
57 Frank Turner  Great Britain 8.90 8.70 17.60
58 Nik Stuart  Great Britain 8.65 8.90 17.55
59 Jack Wells  South Africa 8.60 8.85 17.45
60 Sham Lal  India 8.35 8.15 16.50
61 John Lees  Australia 7.50 8.90 16.40
62 Pritam Singh  India 8.15 8.05 16.20
63 Anant Ram  India 8.45 7.20 15.65

References

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  1. ^ a b "Horse Vault, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 25 November 2020.
  2. ^ Official Report, p. 472.