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First Vault Included Olympics
The summer Olympics of 1896 was the first Olympics that contained the vault. However, at this time, it was only available for men to compete in. Women did not compete in this area until much later. -
Carl Schuhmann
Carl Schuhmann was a competitor in the 1896 Athens Olympic Games. He competed in gymnastics and wrestling. He was known in those games as a incredible vault competitor. He won 3 golds for gymnastics one including his only individual, most known one, the men's vault. -
George Eyser
Eyser was a Olympic vaulter in the 1904 St. Louis. He won a gold for the U.S.A. in the vault. He got a medal along with Anton Heida and William Merz who also won their medals for the U.S.A. All three of these men were incredible but George Eyser was especially exceptional. -
The First Olympics with Women's Vault
The women began to compete in the Olympics in 1900 but did not get to compete in gymnastics in at least one area until 1928. The vault didn't come into the picture for the women until 1952. -
Larisa Latynina
Now, for a famous women. Latynina is considered one of the top ten most incredible women vaulters of all time. She competed in three Olympic games: Melbourne/ Stockholm 1956, Rome 1960, Tokyo 1964. In these three games she won 9 gold medals, 5 silvers, and 4 bronze. Of these medals 3 of them were for vault. She won a medal for vault at every Olympics she competed in. -
The New Vault
A Dutch Gymnastics Company created a new version of the vault in the mid 1990's. It is no longer called the horse, it is now called the table. Even though this was created in the 90's it was not used in the considered for the Olympics until about 2003. The table vault is the vault we use today; we used this vault in the most recent Olympics ( Rio ). -
Kerri Strug
Strug has one of the most inspiring Olympics stories ever. Her team needed one more good vault to help them to win for gymnastics. The woman that went before her was one of the best on the team and fell on both of her tries. Kerri was the last one on the team to go and... she fell on her first try and injured her ankle. Strug could barely walk. However she did the next vault anyway and landed.. on one foot. Kerri Strug has won 2 Olympic medals.
