George Eyser
| George Eyser | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| — Gymnast — | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Full name | Georg Ludwig Friedrich Julius Eÿser | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Country represented |
 United States
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| Born | August 31, 1870 Dänisch-Nienhof near Kiel, Germany |
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| Died | March 6, 1919 (aged 48) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Residence | St. Louis, Missouri, United States | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 170 cm (5.6 ft) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Discipline | Men's artistic gymnastics | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Club | Concordia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Medal record
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George Louis Eyser (August 31, 1870 – March 6, 1919) was a German-American gymnast who competed in the 1904 Summer Olympics, earning six medals in one day, including three gold and two silver medals. Eyser competed with a wooden prosthesis for a left leg, having lost his real leg after being run over by a train. Despite his disability, he won gold in the vault, an event which then included a jump over a long horse without aid of a springboard.
Eyser was born on August 31, 1870 in Kiel, Germany as the only child of Georg Sophus Jasper Eÿser and Auguste Friederike Henriette Eÿser (née Marxen). When he was 14, his family emigrated to the United States. They first lived in Denver, Colorado, but then moved to St. Louis, Missouri where Eyser worked as a bookkeeper at a construction factory. There, he joined a local gymnastics club Concordia Turnverein Saint Louis. In 1894 Eyser obtained US citizenship. At some point of his youth, he lost most of his left leg, which had to be amputated after a train ran over it. It was replaced by a wooden prosthesis which allowed physical activities such as running and jumping. A keen sportsman, Eyser pursued training, aiming for the 1904 Olympics.
The 1904 Olympics, held in St. Louis, were the third Olympics and the first ones where gold, silver and bronze medals were introduced for the first three places. Cups or trophies were given to the winners at the previous games. The 1904 games in general had a confusing program of events, which were spread out over several months, and the gymnastics competition was no different. There were two sets of gymnastic events: International Turners' Championship, which was held on July 1–2 and comprised the all-around, triathlon, and team events, and Olympic Gymnastics Championships, held on October 29, which comprised seven individual apparatus events and the combined event. The individual all-around was a combination of the gymnastic triathlon competition and the athletics triathlon. The team competition was a combination of individual scores from the individual all-around. The parallel bars, horizontal bar, vault, and pommel horse scores for each gymnast were summed to get the "combined" score.
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