Pommel horse

A gymnast performs flairs on the pommel horse

The pommel horse is an artistic gymnastics apparatus. Traditionally, it is used by only male gymnasts. Originally made of a metal frame with a wooden body and a leather cover, the modern pommel horse has a metal body covered with foam rubber and leather, with plastic handles (or pommels).^[1]

Apparatus[]

History[]

An early pommel horse

Dimensions[]

Measurements of the apparatus are published by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG) in the Apparatus Norms brochure.^[2]

Height from top surface to floor: 115 centimetres (3.77 ft) ± 1 centimetre (0.39 in)
Length at top: 160 centimetres (5.2 ft) ± 1 centimetre (0.39 in)
Length at bottom: 155 centimetres (5.09 ft) ± 1 centimetre (0.39 in)
Width at top: 35 centimetres (14 in) ± 1 centimetre (0.39 in)
Width at bottom: 30 centimetres (12 in) ± 1 centimetre (0.39 in)
Height of the pommels: 12 centimetres (4.7 in) ± 0.5 centimetres (0.20 in)
Distance between the pommels: 40 centimetres (16 in) – 45 centimetres (18 in) (adjustable)

Routines[]

Alberto Braglia

A typical pommel horse exercise involves both single leg and double leg work. Single leg skills are generally in the form of scissors. Double leg work however, is the main staple of this event. The gymnast swings both legs in a circular motion (clockwise or counterclockwise depending on preference) and performs such skills on all parts of the apparatus. To make the exercise more challenging, gymnasts will often include variations on a typical circling skill by turning (moores and spindles), by straddling their legs (Flairs), placing one or both hands on the pommel or the leather, or moving up and down the horse placing their hands on the pommel and/or the leather (travelling). Routines end when the gymnast performs a dismount, either by swinging his body over the horse or going through a handstand to land on the mat. The pommel horse, its gymnastic elements, and various rules are all regulated by the Code of Points.

Pommel horse is considered one of the more difficult men's events.^[3] While it is well noted that all events require a certain build of muscle and technique, pommel horse tends to favor technique over muscle. This is because horse routines are done from the shoulders in a leaning motion and that no moves need to be held, unlike other events. Therefore, stress induced in one's arms is reduced, meaning less muscle is needed in this event than events like still rings or parallel bars.

International level routines[]

A pommel horse routine should contain at least one element from all element groups:^[4]

Single leg swings and scissors
Circles and flairs, with and/or without spindles and handstands
Side and cross support travels
Dismounts

Scoring and rules[]

As with all events in the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique guidelines, form is crucial to any successful routine. For pommel horse, form consists of keeping one's feet pointed and legs straight during the entire routine. The gymnast should keep his legs together during all elements, exceptions beings scissors, single legged elements, and flairs.^[4] Gymnasts are also deducted for not using all three sections of the horse and pausing or stopping on the apparatus.^[4] Deductions also apply for brushing and hitting the apparatus.^[5]

Olympic pommel horse medalists[]

The most decoated and successful Olympic pommel worker in history is Great Britain's Max Whitlock, with three medals including two gold medals. Two other gymnasts have three pommel horse Olympic medals across three Games; Romania's Marius Urzică with one gold and two silver medals, and Whitlock's compatriot and teammate Louis Smith with two silvers, and a bronze - under historic rules Smith would have shared gold in 2012, but was awarded silver behind Kristian Berki after a tie was broken on execution score.

Three other pommel workers have two Olympic gold medals, and each is considered a legend of the sport; the Soviet Union gymnast Boris Shakhlin. the Yugoslav Miroslav Cerar and the Hungarian master, Zoltán Magyar.

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1896 Athens details	Louis Zutter Switzerland	Hermann Weingärtner Germany	none awarded
1900 Paris	not included in the Olympic program
1904 St. Louis details	Anton Heida United States	George Eyser United States	William Merz United States
1908–1920	not included in the Olympic program
1924 Paris details	Josef Wilhelm Switzerland	Jean Gutweninger Switzerland	Antoine Rebetez Switzerland
1928 Amsterdam details	Hermann Hänggi Switzerland	Georges Miez Switzerland	Heikki Savolainen Finland
1932 Los Angeles details	István Pelle Hungary	Omero Bonoli Italy	Frank Haubold United States
1936 Berlin details	Konrad Frey Germany	Eugen Mack Switzerland	Albert Bachmann Switzerland
1948 London details	Paavo Aaltonen Finland	none awarded	none awarded
	Veikko Huhtanen Finland
	Heikki Savolainen Finland
1952 Helsinki details	Viktor Chukarin Soviet Union	Yevgeny Korolkov Soviet Union	none awarded
1952 Helsinki details	Viktor Chukarin Soviet Union	Hrant Shahinyan Soviet Union	none awarded
1956 Melbourne details	Boris Shakhlin Soviet Union	Takashi Ono Japan	Viktor Chukarin Soviet Union
1960 Rome details	Eugen Ekman Finland	none awarded	Shuji Tsurumi Japan
1960 Rome details	Boris Shakhlin Soviet Union	none awarded	Shuji Tsurumi Japan
1964 Tokyo details	Miroslav Cerar Yugoslavia	Shuji Tsurumi Japan	Yury Tsapenko Soviet Union
1968 Mexico City details	Miroslav Cerar Yugoslavia	Olli Laiho Finland	Mikhail Voronin Soviet Union
1972 Munich details	Viktor Klimenko Soviet Union	Sawao Kato Japan	Eizo Kenmotsu Japan
1976 Montreal details	Zoltán Magyar Hungary	Eizo Kenmotsu Japan	Nikolai Andrianov Soviet Union
1976 Montreal details	Zoltán Magyar Hungary	Eizo Kenmotsu Japan	Michael Nikolay East Germany
1980 Moscow details	Zoltán Magyar Hungary	Alexander Dityatin Soviet Union	Michael Nikolay East Germany
1984 Los Angeles details	Li Ning China	none awarded	Timothy Daggett United States
1984 Los Angeles details	Peter Vidmar United States	none awarded	Timothy Daggett United States
1988 Seoul details	Dmitry Bilozerchev Soviet Union	none awarded	none awarded
	Zsolt Borkai Hungary
	Lubomir Geraskov Bulgaria
1992 Barcelona details	Pae Gil-su North Korea	none awarded	Andreas Wecker Germany
1992 Barcelona details	Vitaly Scherbo Unified Team	none awarded	Andreas Wecker Germany
1996 Atlanta details	Donghua Li Switzerland	Marius Urzică Romania	Alexei Nemov Russia
2000 Sydney details	Marius Urzică Romania	Eric Poujade France	Alexei Nemov Russia
2004 Athens details	Teng Haibin China	Marius Urzică Romania	Takehiro Kashima Japan
2008 Beijing details	Xiao Qin China	Filip Ude Croatia	Louis Smith Great Britain
2012 London details	Krisztián Berki Hungary	Louis Smith Great Britain	Max Whitlock Great Britain
2016 Rio de Janeiro details	Max Whitlock Great Britain	Louis Smith Great Britain	Alexander Naddour United States
2020 Tokyo details	Max Whitlock Great Britain	Lee Chih-kai Chinese Taipei	Kazuma Kaya Japan

World pommel horse medalists[]

Pommel horse has been contested at World Championships from their inauguration. The record for most World victories is held by several workers at 3. Three of the four double Olympic champions, Miroslav Cerar, Zoltan Magyar and Max Whitlock have each won the World title three times, to set the record for combined global titles at 5. The most decorated workers at World Championships are Whitlock, Xiao Qin and Kristian Berki, both with three gold and two silver medals.

Bold numbers in brackets denotes record number of victories.

Year	Location	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1903	Antwerp	Georges Dejagere Joseph Lux	-	-
1905	Bordeaux	Georges Dejagere	Marcel Lalu	Daniel Lavielle
1907	Prague	František Erben	Jules Rolland
1909	Luxembourg	No pommel horse event held
1911	Turin	Osvaldo Palazzi	Paolo Salvi Giorgio Zampori	-
1913	Paris	Giorgio Zampori	Osvaldo Palazzi Marco Torrès	-
1915–1917	Not held due to World War I
1922	Ljubljana	Miroslav Klinger	Stanislav Indruch Leon Štukelj Peter Šumi	-
1926	Lyon	Jan Karafiát	Jan Gajdoš	Ladislav Vácha
1930	Luxembourg	Josip Primožič	Peter Šumi	Jan Gajdoš
1934	Budapest	Eugen Mack	Eduard Steinemann	Jan Sladek
1938	Prague	Michael Reusch	Vratislav Petráček
1942	Not held due to World War II
1950	Basel	Josef Stalder		Walter Lehmann
1954	Rome	Grant Shaginyan	Josef Stalder	Viktor Chukarin
1958	Moscow	Boris Shakhlin	Pavel Stolbov	Miroslav Cerar
1962	Prague	Miroslav Cerar	Boris Shakhlin	Takashi Mitsukuri
1966	Dortmund	Miroslav Cerar	Mikhail Voronin	Takeshi Katō
1970	Ljubljana	Miroslav Cerar (3)	Eizo Kenmotsu	Viktor Klimenko
1974	Varna	Zoltán Magyar	Nikolai Andrianov	Eizo Kenmotsu
1978	Strasbourg	Zoltán Magyar	Eberhard Gienger	Stoyan Deltchev
1979	Fort Worth	Zoltán Magyar (3)	Kurt Thomas	Kōji Gushiken
1981	Moscow	Li Xiaoping Michael Nikolay	-	György Guczoghy Yuri Korolyov
1983	Budapest	Dmitry Bilozerchev	György Guczoghy Li Xiaoping	-
1985	Montreal	Valentin Mogilny	Li Ning	Hiroyuki Konishi
1987	Rotterdam	Dmitry Bilozerchev Zsolt Borkai	-	Lubomir Geraskov
1989	Stuttgart	Valentin Mogilny	Andreas Wecker	Li Jing
1991	Indianapolis	Valery Belenky	Guo Linyao	Li Jing
1992	Paris	Li Jing Pae Gil-su Vitaly Scherbo	-	-
1993	Birmingham	Pae Gil-su	Andreas Wecker	Károly Schupkégel
1994	Brisbane	Marius Urzică	Éric Poujade	Li Donghua
1995	Sabae	Li Donghua	Yoshiaki Hatakeda Huang Huadong	-
1996	San Juan	Pae Gil-su (3)	Li Donghua	Alexei Nemov
1997	Lausanne	Valery Belenky	Éric Poujade	Pae Gil-su
1999	Tianjin	Alexei Nemov	Marius Urzică	Nikolai Kryukov
2001	Ghent	Marius Urzică	Xiao Qin	Oleksandr Beresch
2002	Debrecen	Marius Urzică (3)	Xiao Qin	Takehiro Kashima
2003	Anaheim	Takehiro Kashima Teng Haibin	-	Nikolai Kryukov
2005	Melbourne	Xiao Qin	Ioan Silviu Suciu	Takehiro Kashima
2006	Aarhus	Xiao Qin	Prashanth Sellathurai	Alexander Artemev
2007	Stuttgart	Xiao Qin (3)	Krisztián Berki	Louis Smith
2009	London	Zhang Hongtao	Krisztián Berki	Prashanth Sellathurai
2010	Rotterdam	Krisztián Berki	Louis Smith	Prashanth Sellathurai
2011	Tokyo	Krisztián Berki	Cyril Tommasone	Louis Smith
2013	Antwerp	Kohei Kameyama	Daniel Corral Max Whitlock	-
2014	Nanning	Krisztián Berki (3)	Filip Ude	Cyril Tommasone
2015	Glasgow	Max Whitlock	Louis Smith	Kazuma Kaya Harutyun Merdinyan
2017	Montreal	Max Whitlock	David Belyavskiy	Xiao Ruoteng
2018	Doha	Xiao Ruoteng	Max Whitlock	Lee Chih-kai
2019	Stuttgart	Max Whitlock (3)	Lee Chih-kai	Rhys McClenaghan

References[]

^ "Janssen & Fritsen presents: History of the Pommel Horse". Retrieved 2010-03-21.
^ "Apparatus Norms" (PDF). FIG. p. II/13. Retrieved 2012-12-01.^{[permanent dead link]}
^ "Jassen + Fritsen". Retrieved 2012-12-01.^{[permanent dead link]}
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c "MAG Code of Points 2013–2016" (PDF). FIG. p. 60. Retrieved 2012-12-01.^{[permanent dead link]}
^ "MAG Code of Points 2013–2016" (PDF). FIG. p. 65. Retrieved 2012-12-01.^{[permanent dead link]}

[history-1] "Janssen & Fritsen presents: History of the Pommel Horse". Retrieved 2010-03-21.

[dimensions-2] "Apparatus Norms" (PDF). FIG. p. II/13. Retrieved 2012-12-01.^{[permanent dead link]}

[3] "Jassen + Fritsen". Retrieved 2012-12-01.^{[permanent dead link]}

[deductions-4] Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c "MAG Code of Points 2013–2016" (PDF). FIG. p. 60. Retrieved 2012-12-01.^{[permanent dead link]}

[5] "MAG Code of Points 2013–2016" (PDF). FIG. p. 65. Retrieved 2012-12-01.^{[permanent dead link]}

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

show v t Artistic gymnastics apparatus and equipment
Women's apparatus	Vault Uneven bars Balance beam Floor
Men's apparatus	Floor Pommel horse Still rings Vault Parallel bars Horizontal bar
Equipment and uniforms	Braces Grips Mats Uniforms

show Authority control
General	Integrated Authority File (Germany)
National libraries	United States
Other	Microsoft Academic