At the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, nine events in gymnastics were contested.[1] Finland led all nations with six gold medals and ten medals overall.[2][3]
Shortly after the Czech team arrived in London, 22 year old team member Eliška Misáková was taken ill and confined to an iron lung. She died of infantile paralysis on the same day that her teammates competed.[4] When the Czech flag was raised at the medal ceremony, it was bordered with a black ribbon.[4]
Men's events
| Event | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
|---|---|---|---|
| individual all-round | Veikko Huhtanen Finland | Walter Lehmann Switzerland | Paavo Aaltonen Finland |
| team all-around |  Finland (FIN)Paavo Aaltonen Veikko Huhtanen Kalevi Laitinen Olavi Rove Aleksanteri Saarvala Sulo Salmi Heikki Savolainen Einari Teräsvirta |  Switzerland (SUI)Karl Frei Christian Kipfer Walter Lehmann Robert Lucy Michael Reusch Josef Stalder Emil Studer Melchior Thalmann | .svg.png){kind=small} Hungary (HUN)László Baranyai Jozsef Fekete Gyözö Mogyorosi János Mogyorósi-Klencs Ferenc Pataki Lajos Sántha Lajos Tóth Ferenc Várkõi |
| floor exercises | Ferenc Pataki.svg.png){kind=small} Hungary | János Mogyorósi-Klencs Hungary | Zdeněk Růžička Czechoslovakia |
| horizontal bar | Josef Stalder Switzerland | Walter Lehmann Switzerland | Veikko Huhtanen Finland |
| parallel bars | Michael Reusch Switzerland | Veikko Huhtanen Finland | Josef Stalder Switzerland |
| Christian Kipfer Switzerland | |||
| pommel horse | Paavo Aaltonen Finland | none awarded [A] | none awarded [A] |
| Veikko Huhtanen Finland | |||
| Heikki Savolainen Finland | |||
| rings | Karl Frei Switzerland | Michael Reusch Switzerland | Zdeněk Růžička Czechoslovakia |
| vault | Paavo Aaltonen Finland | Olavi Rove Finland | János Mogyorósi-Klencs Hungary |
| Ferenc Pataki Hungary | |||
| Leo Sotorník Czechoslovakia |
Women's events
| Event | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
|---|---|---|---|
| team all-around |  Czechoslovakia (TCH)Zdeňka Honsová Marie Kovářová Miloslava Misáková Milena Müllerová Věra Růžičková Olga Šilhánová Božena Srncová Zdeňka Veřmiřovská | Hungary (HUN) Edit Weckinger Mária Zalai-Kövi Irén Karcsics Erzsébet Gulyás-Köteles Erzsébet Balázs Olga Tass Anna Fehér Margit Nagy-Sándor | .svg.png){kind=small} United States (USA)Ladislava Bakanic Marian Barone Consetta Lenz Dorothy Dalton Meta Elste Helen Schifano Clara Schroth Anita Simonis |
| Individual all-around† | Zdeňka Honsová Czechoslovakia | Edit Weckinger Hungary Laura Micheli  Italy | n/a |
| Vault† | Karin Lindberg Sweden | Joan Airey Great BritainClara Schroth .svg.png){kind=small} United States | n/a |
| Uneven Bars†, †† | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Balance Beam† | Zdeňka Honsová Czechoslovakia | Irén Karcsics Hungary | Margit Nagy Hungary Miloslava Misáková Czechoslovakia |
| Flying Rings†, ††† | Zdeňka Honsová Czechoslovakia | Edit Weckinger Hungary Laura Micheli Italy | n/a |
| Floor Exercise†, †††† | n/a | n/a | n/a |
† Within the sport of artistic gymnastics, although men were recognized with individual medals at the time, the women weren’t. The list of the individual medalists within this table reflects the individuals who garnered a top-three placement in the team competition on the respective apparatus (or all 3 combined, in the case of the all-around) and who would have been awarded a medal with the rules that commenced with the 1952 Helsinki Summer Olympic Games and that would change periodically at future Olympic Games with respect to the debut of individual finals competitions at the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics and with respect to the New Life rules that made their Olympic debut at the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympics.
†† Women did not compete on the Uneven Bars apparatus during these Olympic Games.
††† This was the only time that women gymnasts competed on this apparatus at an Olympic Games.
†††† Women’s Floor Exercise was not an event that existed at the time.
Notes
- ^[A] Other sources[5][6] claim that Luigi Zanetti (Italy) also won a silver medal and Guido Figone (Italy) also won a bronze medal in the pommel horse event, despite the three gold medals awarded for the three-way first place tie.
Medal table
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Finland (FIN) | 6 | 2 | 2 | 10 |
| 2 | Switzerland (SUI) | 3 | 4 | 2 | 9 |
| 3 | Hungary (HUN) | 1 | 2 | 3 | 6 |
| 4 | Czechoslovakia (TCH) | 1 | 0 | 3 | 4 |
| 5 | United States (USA) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Totals (5 nations) | 11 | 8 | 11 | 30 | |
References
- ^ (ed.) Lord Burghley (1951). The Official Report of the Organising Committee for the XIV Olympiad (PDF). London: Organising Committee for the XIV Olympiad. pp. 389–405. Retrieved 2008-02-04.
- ^ "Olympic Medal Winners". International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 2006-11-18.
- ^ "Gymnastics at the 1948 London Summer Games". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 20 July 2019.
- ^ a b Wallechinsky, David (1984). The Complete Book of the Olympics. England: Penguin Books. p. 323. ISBN 0140066322.
- ^ Lord Killanin; Rodda, John (1983). The Olympic Games 1984. Willow. ISBN 0-00-218062-6.
- ^ Greenberg, Stan (1996). The Guinness Book of Olympic Facts and Feats. Guinness Publishing. ISBN 0-85112-639-1.