The Germans captured the gold and bronze medals, while Zutter won the silver for Switzerland.

The men's vault was one of only four events in 1896 that had no Greek competitors.

Each gymnast had two minutes and could perform as many vaults as he wished during that time.

Judges awarded the prizes, but little is known of the scoring and rankings.

[2][3] The men's vault was held in the afternoon of the fourth day of events, following the 800 metres, team parallel bars, and team horizontal bar.