Frank Josef Kriz (March 26, 1894 – January 11, 1955) was an American

gymnast Gymnastics is a type of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, dedication and endurance. The movements involved in gymnastics contribute to the development of the arms, legs, sh ...

and Olympic champion. A member of the New York

Sokol The Sokol movement (, ''falcon'') is an all-age gymnastics organization first founded in Prague in the Czech region of Austria-Hungary in 1862 by Miroslav Tyrš and Jindřich Fügner. It was based upon the principle of " a strong mind in a so ...

and the Bohemian Gymnastic Association, he competed in the

1920 Events January * January 1 ** Polish–Soviet War in 1920: The Russian Red Army increases its troops along the Polish border from 4 divisions to 20. ** Kauniainen, completely surrounded by the city of Espoo, secedes from Espoo as its own ma ...

1924 Events January * January 12 – Gopinath Saha shoots Ernest Day, whom he has mistaken for Sir Charles Tegart, the police commissioner of Calcutta, and is arrested soon after. * January 20– 30 – Kuomintang in China hol ...

, and

1928 Summer Olympics The 1928 Summer Olympics ( nl, Olympische Zomerspelen 1928), officially known as the Games of the IX Olympiad ( nl, Spelen van de IXe Olympiade) and commonly known as Amsterdam 1928, was an international multi-sport event that was celebrated from ...

. In 1924, he received a gold medal in vault."1924 Summer Olympics – Paris, France – Gymnastics"
''databaseOlympics.com'' (Retrieved on March 26, 2008) In 1922 and 1924, he won the

Amateur Athletic Union The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) is an amateur sports organization based in the United States. A multi-sport organization, the AAU is dedicated exclusively to the promotion and development of amateur sports and physical fitness programs. It has ...

national gymnastics title. In 1959, he was one of the initial inductees to the USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame. Kriz was the very first U.S. gymnast, male or female, to win a medal of any sort at a Summer Olympic Games or World Championships on foreign soil, and would remain the only one to win any medal at those such games on foreign soil for nearly half a century until

Cathy Rigby Cathleen Roxanne Rigby (later Mason, later McCoy, born December 12, 1952), known as Cathy Rigby, is an actress, speaker, and former artistic gymnast. Her performance in the 1968 Summer Olympics helped to popularize the sport of gymnastics in th ...

won a silver on balance beam at the 1970 World Championships in

Ljubljana Ljubljana (also known by other historical names) is the capital and largest city of Slovenia. It is the country's cultural, educational, economic, political and administrative center. During antiquity, a Roman city called Emona stood in the ar ...

and

Peter Kormann Peter Kormann (born June 21, 1955) is an American retired gymnast and gymnastics coach. In the 1976 Olympics, he became the first American to medal in competition against the Soviets when he won a bronze medal in the men's floor competition. Kor ...

won a bronze medal on floor exercise at the 1976 Montreal Summer Olympic Games.

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* 1894 births 1955 deaths American male artistic gymnasts Gymnasts at the 1920 Summer Olympics Gymnasts at the 1924 Summer Olympics Gymnasts at the 1928 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for the United States in gymnastics Medalists at the 1924 Summer Olympics 20th-century American people {{US-Olympic-medalist-stub