Without any doubt, the parallel bars are an invention of Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, who put up three trestles in his “Hasenheide” in Berlin …
Initially, the parallel bars were set in the ground. About 30cm under the ground they were fixed with a wooden plank …
Gymnastics at parallel bars were also part of the Olympic Games in Athens 1896.
The German Alfred Flatow is the first Olympic Champion on bars …
In Helsinki in 1952, there were still a lot of broken poles (at the uneven bars as well); only in the mid 1950ies the German Richard Reuther presented “multipurpose parallel bars”. …
Each Wednesday we are linking to a different apparatus posted on GymMEDIA – Apparatus HISTORY. (English and German)
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