George
Gulack won a gold medal in Flying Rings at the 1932 Olympic
Games in Los Angeles. His
gold medal
marked the United States’ last Olympic
men’s gymnastics championship for 52
years—until the U.S. Team captured an
assortment of medals at the 1984
Olympic Games. (Only one U.S. gymnastics
medal was won during the 52-
year drought, a bronze in 1976.)
As a 16-year-old student, Gulack
won the Latvian All-Around Championship
in 1921. Between 1928 and 1935,
he won four U.S. Amateur Athletic
Union (AAU) titles, two on the Rings
and one each on Parallel Bars and Floor
Exercises.
Upon retiring from competition
in 1935, Gulack became a
force on the administration side
of gymnastics. In 1948, he
helped draft a new set of AAU
rules designed to conform with
international regulations, a major
advance in the American national
gymnastics program.
That same year, he served as
manager of the U.S. men’s and
women’s Olympic gymnastic
teams.
Gulack served as a member
of the U.S. Olympic Committee
from 1934 to 1958; chairman of
the AAU Gymnastics Technical Committee from 1936 to 1958;
chairman of the AAU Gymnastics
Committee in 1958; U.S.
Olympic Gymnastics chairman
in 1960 and 1964; a member of
the executive committee of the International Gymnastics Federation
(FIG) in 1960, and FIG
vice president from 1964 to
1972; president of the PanAmerican Gymnastics Federation
in 1959; and honorary
chairman of the Central American
Gymnastics Federation in
1970.
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