Gymnastics at the 1948 Summer Olympics – Men's pommel horse

Men's pommel horse
at the Games of the XIV Olympiad
Earls Court Exhibition Centre (2012)
VenueEarls Court Exhibition Centre
Dates12–13 August
Competitors121 from 16 nations
Winning score38.7
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Paavo Aaltonen  Finland
1st place, gold medalist(s) Veikko Huhtanen  Finland
1st place, gold medalist(s) Heikki Savolainen  Finland
← 1936
1952 →
Gymnastics at the
1948 Summer Olympics
List of gymnasts
Artistic
Team all-aroundmenwomen
Individual all-aroundmen
Vaultmen
Floormen
Pommel horsemen
Ringsmen
Parallel barsmen
Horizontal barmen

The men's pommel horse competition at the 1948 Summer Olympics was held at Earls Court Exhibition Centre on 12 and 13 August. It was the seventh appearance of the event.[1] There were 121 competitors from 16 nations, with each nation sending a team of up to 8 gymnasts. The event ended in a three-way tie for the gold medal, with all three winners from Finland: Paavo Aaltonen, Veikko Huhtanen, and Heikki Savolainen. It was the third time the medals had been swept in the event (United States in 1904, Switzerland in 1924). Another three-way tie would occur in 1988. It was Finland's first victory in the event, and first medal since 1928.

Background

This was the seventh 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). One of the top 10 gymnasts from 1936 returned: seventh-place finisher Michael Reusch of Switzerland. Reusch had won the 1938 world championship, the last before World War II; there had not yet been another since the war, so he was the reigning champion.[2]

Argentina, Cuba, Denmark, and Egypt each made their debut in the men's pommel horse. The United States made its sixth appearance, most of any nation, having missed only the inaugural 1896 Games.

Competition format

The gymnastics format continued to use the aggregation format. Each nation entered a team of up to eight gymnasts (Cuba and Argentina had only 7; Mexico only 5). All entrants in the gymnastics competitions performed both a compulsory exercise and a voluntary exercise for each apparatus, with the scores summed to give a final total. The scores in each of the six apparatus competitions were added together to give individual all-around scores; the top six individual scores on each team were summed to give a team all-around score. No separate finals were contested.

For each exercise, four judges gave scores from 0 to 10 in one-tenth point increments. The top and bottom scores were discarded and the remaining two scores summed to give the exercise total. If the two scores were sufficiently far apart, the judges would "confer" and decide on a score. Thus, exercise scores ranged from 0 to 20, apparatus scores from 0 to 40, individual totals from 0 to 240, and team scores from 0 to 1,440.[3]

Schedule

All times are British Summer Time (UTC+1)

Date Time Round
Thursday, 12 August 1948 9:00 Compulsory
Friday, 13 August 1948 9:00 Voluntary

Results

Rank Gymnast Nation Compulsory Voluntary Total
1st place, gold medalist(s) Paavo Aaltonen  Finland 19.2 19.5 38.7
Veikko Huhtanen  Finland 19.2 19.5 38.7
Heikki Savolainen  Finland 19.3 19.4 38.7
4 Luigi Zanetti  Italy 18.9 19.4 38.3
5 Guido Figone  Italy 19.0 19.2 38.2
6 Frank Cumiskey  United States 18.8 19.1 37.9
7 Michael Reusch  Switzerland 18.6 19.2 37.8
8[4] Aleksanteri Saarvala  Finland 19.2 18.5 37.7
Josef Stalder  Switzerland 19.3 18.4 37.7
Emil Studer  Switzerland 18.7 19.0 37.7
11 Walter Lehmann  Switzerland 18.4 19.2 37.6
12 Ettore Perego  Italy 18.9 18.6 37.5
13 Quinto Vadi  Italy 18.4 19.0 37.4
14 Christian Kipfer  Switzerland 18.3 18.9 37.2
Lucien Masset  France 19.1 18.1 37.2
16 Robert Lucy  Switzerland 18.8 18.3 37.1
Lajos Sántha  Hungary 18.3 18.8 37.1
18 Einari Teräsvirta  Finland 18.2 18.8 37.0
19 Jozsef Fekete  Hungary 18.4 18.5 36.9
Savino Guglielmetti  Italy 18.2 18.7 36.9
Kalevi Laitinen  Finland 17.5 19.4 36.9
22 Domenico Grosso  Italy 18.5 18.1 36.6
23 Joe Kotys  United States 17.9 18.6 36.5
Olavi Rove  Finland 17.9 18.6 36.5
Melchior Thalmann  Switzerland 18.3 18.2 36.5
26 Karl Frei  Switzerland 18.5 17.9 36.4
Bill Roetzheim  United States 18.5 17.9 36.4
Ernst Wister  Austria 18.0 18.4 36.4
Ferenc Várkõi  Hungary 18.4 18.0 36.4
30 László Baranyai  Hungary 17.3 19.0 36.3
Karl Bohusch  Austria 17.9 18.4 36.3
Zdeněk Růžička  Czechoslovakia 18.8 17.5 36.3
Auguste Sirot  France 18.0 18.3 36.3
Lajos Tóth  Hungary 18.1 18.2 36.3
35 Marcel de Wolf  France 18.0 18.2 36.2
36 Michel Mathiot  France 18.0 18.0 36.0
Hans Sauter  Austria 18.1 17.9 36.0
38 Egidio Armelloni  Italy 18.4 17.5 35.9
39 Alec Wales  Great Britain 17.6 18.2 35.8
40 André Weingand  France 18.4 17.3 35.7
41 Konrad Grilc  Yugoslavia 17.7 17.9 35.6
Gustav Hrubý  Czechoslovakia 18.7 16.9 35.6
Ed Scrobe  United States 17.4 18.2 35.6
Ray Sorensen  United States 17.8 17.8 35.6
45 Vincent D'Autorio  United States 18.7 16.5 35.2
Ferenc Pataki  Hungary 17.6 17.6 35.2
Sulo Salmi  Finland 16.9 18.3 35.2
48 Alphonse Anger  France 17.6 17.3 34.9
Willi Schreyer  Austria 16.9 18.0 34.9
50 Gyözö Mogyorosi  Hungary 17.8 17.0 34.8
Antoine Schildwein  France 16.8 18.0 34.8
52 Danilo Fioravanti  Italy 18.1 16.3 34.4
53 Freddy Jensen  Denmark 18.1 16.2 34.3
Rafael Lecuona  Cuba 18.0 16.3 34.3
János Mogyorósi-Klencs  Hungary 17.8 16.5 34.3
56 Jey Kugeler  Luxembourg 16.7 17.5 34.2
57 František Wirth  Czechoslovakia 18.3 15.6 33.9
58 Poul Jessen  Denmark 17.7 16.1 33.8
59 Pavel Benetka  Czechoslovakia 18.1 15.5 33.6
Vladimír Karas  Czechoslovakia 17.2 16.4 33.6
61 Hans Friedrich  Austria 18.1 15.4 33.5
62 William Bonsall  United States 16.1 17.1 33.2
63 Miroslav Málek  Czechoslovakia 17.0 16.1 33.1
64 Ivica Jelić  Yugoslavia 16.2 16.7 32.9
65 Stjepan Boltižar  Yugoslavia 15.8 17.0 32.8
66 Drago Jelić  Yugoslavia 17.0 15.75 32.75
Frank Turner  Great Britain 17.0 15.75 32.75
68 Josy Stoffel  Luxembourg 16.0 16.5 32.5
69 Raymond Dot  France 18.2 14.2 32.4
70 Vratislav Petráček  Czechoslovakia 15.6 16.7 32.3
71 Elkana Grønne  Denmark 18.0 14.25 32.25
72 Josip Kujundžić  Yugoslavia 15.4 16.6 32.0
73 Arnold Thomsen  Denmark 15.25 16.4 31.65
74 Robert Pranz  Austria 13.5 18.1 31.6
George Weedon  Great Britain 15.5 16.1 31.6
76 Leo Sotorník  Czechoslovakia 17.0 14.4 31.4
77 Raimundo Rey  Cuba 15.1 14.75 29.85
78 Miro Longyka  Yugoslavia 14.1 15.5 29.6
79 Fernando Lecuona  Cuba 16.5 13.0 29.5
80 Volmer Thomsen  Denmark 16.3 13.0 29.3
81 Jakob Šubelj  Yugoslavia 14.5 14.75 29.25
82 Vilhelm Møller  Denmark 14.75 13.95 28.7
83 Georges Wengler  Luxembourg 15.25 13.0 28.25
84 Alejandro Díaz  Cuba 14.5 13.25 27.75
85 Gunner Olesen  Denmark 14.3 13.0 27.3
86 Ken Buffin  Great Britain 14.95 12.25 27.2
87 Percy May  Great Britain 14.0 12.75 26.75
88 Jack Flaherty  Great Britain 12.0 14.5 26.5
89 Moustafa Abdelal  Egypt 12.0 13.75 25.75
90 Menn Krecke  Luxembourg 11.2 14.0 25.2
91 Polo Welfring  Luxembourg 10.0 15.0 25.0
92 Ahmed Khalaf Ali  Egypt 11.6 13.25 24.85
93 Roberto Villacián  Cuba 14.4 10.0 24.4
94 Glyn Hopkins  Great Britain 11.45 12.5 23.95
95 Karel Janež  Yugoslavia 13.6 10.0 23.6
96 Ivor Vice  Great Britain 11.0 12.5 23.5
97 Arturo Amos  Argentina 9.1 14.25 23.35
Mohamed Roushdi  Egypt 10.6 12.75 23.35
99 Pierre Schmitz  Luxembourg 9.8 12.75 22.55
100 Enrique Rapesta  Argentina 10.0 11.5 21.5
Baldomero Rubiera  Cuba 10.5 11.0 21.5
René Schroeder  Luxembourg 10.5 11.0 21.5
103 Ángel Aguiar  Cuba 10.2 10.0 20.2
104 Jos Bernard  Luxembourg 7.0 12.75 19.75
105 Pedro Lonchibuco  Argentina 6.0 12.5 18.5
106 Ali Zaky  Egypt 6.3 11.75 18.05
107 Jorge Soler  Argentina 6.0 11.0 17.0
108 Gottfried Hermann  Austria 16.4 — 16.4
109 Børge Minerth  Denmark 16.0 — 16.0
110 Ali El-Hefnawi  Egypt 5.3 9.75 15.05
111 Ahmed Khalil El-Giddawi  Egypt 5.5 9.0 14.5
112 Mahmoud Abdel-Aal  Egypt 4.8 9.25 14.05
113 Dario Aguilar  Mexico 4.0 10.0 14.0
César Bonoris  Argentina 4.0 10.0 14.0
Rubén Lira  Mexico 7.5 6.5 14.0
116 Mohamed Aly  Egypt 3.5 9.0 12.5
117 Louis Bordo  United States 12.0 — 12.0
Roberto Núñez  Argentina 4.0 8.0 12.0
119 Jorge Vidal  Argentina 11.8 — 11.8
120 Jorge Castro  Mexico 3.0 8.0 11.0
121 Everardo Rios  Mexico 4.7 — 4.7

References

  1. ^ "Gymnastics at the 1948 London Summer Games: Men's Pommelled Horse". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 16 October 2019.
  2. ^ "Pommelled Horse, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 30 November 2020.
  3. ^ Official Report, p. 343.
  4. ^ The Official Report indicates Saarvala finished 5th in this event, but his score is 8th place. Other sources list him in 8th place.