# Rapid fire pistol at the Olympics

The rapid fire pistol is the only shooting event on the current Olympic programme that dates back to 1896, since the removal of the men's free pistol. The current rapid fire pistol event is the ISSF 25 meter rapid fire pistol. The format and rules for the rapid fire pistol event changed widely in the early Olympics. The event format has been largely standardized since 1924, though there have been significant rule changes since.
There has never been a women's version of the rapid fire pistol event; the current programme pairs the men's rapid fire pistol with the women's free pistol for gender equality. The event was nominally open to women from 1968 to 1980, although very few women participated these years.
A team event was held twice, in 1912 and 1920.

## Variants

The early Games had a few variants of the event:
* 1896: The event featured "muzzle-loading" pistols, which were required to be of .45 caliber. The distance was 25 metres, the current standard. As with other 1896 events, a multiplicative scoring system was used. Timing is unknown.
* 1900: This event was limited to professionals (a significant departure from the general amateurism principles of the time). Only six shots were fired per shooter. The pistols used are sometimes described as "military" pistols. Timing is unknown. Distance was 20 metres.
* 1912: This was a "dueling pistols" event. The timing in this event involved single shots rather than true rapid fire, but the target would appear for only 3 seconds for each shot. A full silhouette target was used. Distance was 30 metres. Hits, rather than score, was used as the first criterion for ranking shooters; only those tied on hits were sorted by score.
* 1920: Like 1900, this is sometimes identified as a "military" pistols event. The distance was 30 metres. Shooters fired 30 shots each, with targets that had scoring circles up to 10 points apiece. Shooters had the option of using their team event score or shooting again for the individual match.
* 1924–1936: These three Games used variations on a hit-or-miss theme. Shots were fired in series of 6 shots, each at 6 targets. The score for the series was how many targets were hit; there were no scoring rings. The initial round used 3 series (maximum score 18), while successive rounds of 1 series each were used to narrow the field from those who scored perfectly. In 1924, the first round had the targets available for 10 seconds, with all later rounds being 8 seconds; for the other two Games, the first round was 8 seconds and the later rounds got faster each round, down to 2 seconds in the fifth round.

## Medals
### Men

| Games | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| 1896 Athens details | Ioannis Frangoudis Greece | Georgios Orphanidis Greece | Holger Nielsen Denmark |
| 1900 Paris details | Maurice Larrouy France | Léon Moreaux France | Eugène Balme France |
| 1904 St. Louis | Not held | Not held | Not held |
| 1908 London | Not held | Not held | Not held |
| 1912 Stockholm details | Alfred Lane United States | Paul Palén Sweden | Johan Hübner von Holst Sweden |
| 1920 Antwerp details | Guilherme Paraense Brazil | Raymond Bracken United States | Fritz Zulauf Switzerland |
| 1924 Paris details | Henry Bailey United States | Vilhelm Carlberg Sweden | Lennart Hannelius Finland |
| 1928 Amsterdam | Not held | Not held | Not held |
| 1932 Los Angeles details | Renzo Morigi Italy | Heinrich Hax Germany | Domenico Matteucci Italy |
| 1936 Berlin details | Cornelius van Oyen Germany | Heinrich Hax Germany | Torsten Ullman Sweden |
| 1948 London details | Károly Takács Hungary | Carlos Enrique Díaz Sáenz Valiente Argentina | Sven Lundquist Sweden |
| 1952 Helsinki details | Károly Takács Hungary | Szilárd Kun Hungary | Gheorghe Lichiardopol Romania |
| 1956 Melbourne details | Ștefan Petrescu Romania | Yevgeny Cherkasov Soviet Union | Gheorghe Lichiardopol Romania |
| 1960 Rome details | Bill McMillan United States | Pentti Linnosvuo Finland | Aleksandr Zabelin Soviet Union |
| 1964 Tokyo details | Pentti Linnosvuo Finland | Ion Tripșa Romania | Lubomír Nácovský Czechoslovakia |
| 1968 Mexico City details (mixed) | Józef Zapędzki Poland | Marcel Roșca Romania | Renart Suleymanov Soviet Union |
| 1972 Munich details (mixed) | Józef Zapędzki Poland | Ladislav Falta Czechoslovakia | Viktor Torshin Soviet Union |
| 1976 Montreal details (mixed) | Norbert Klaar East Germany | Jürgen Wiefel East Germany | Roberto Ferraris Italy |
| 1980 Moscow details (mixed) | Corneliu Ion Romania | Jürgen Wiefel East Germany | Gerhard Petritsch Austria |
| 1984 Los Angeles details | Takeo Kamachi Japan | Corneliu Ion Romania | Rauno Bies Finland |
| 1988 Seoul details | Afanasijs Kuzmins Soviet Union | Ralf Schumann East Germany | Zoltán Kovács Hungary |
| 1992 Barcelona details | Ralf Schumann Germany | Afanasijs Kuzmins Latvia | Vladimir Vokhmyanin Unified Team |
| 1996 Atlanta details | Ralf Schumann Germany | Emil Milev Bulgaria | Vladimir Vokhmyanin Kazakhstan |
| 2000 Sydney details | Sergei Alifirenko Russia | Michel Ansermet Switzerland | Iulian Raicea Romania |
| 2004 Athens details | Ralf Schumann Germany | Sergei Polyakov Russia | Sergei Alifirenko Russia |
| 2008 Beijing details | Oleksandr Petriv Ukraine | Ralf Schumann Germany | Christian Reitz Germany |
| 2012 London details | Leuris Pupo Cuba | Vijay Kumar India | Ding Feng China |
| 2016 Rio de Janeiro details | Christian Reitz Germany | Jean Quiquampoix France | Li Yuehong China |
| 2020 Tokyo details | Jean Quiquampoix France | Leuris Pupo Cuba | Li Yuehong China |
| 2024 Paris details | Li Yuehong China | Cho Yeong-jae South Korea | Wang Xinjie China |

#### Multiple medalists

| Rank | Gymnast | Nation | Olympics | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
| 1 | Ralf Schumann | East Germany (GDR) Germany (GER) | 1988–1996, 2004–2008 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 5 |
| 2 | Károly Takács | Hungary (HUN) | 1948–1952 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 2 | Józef Zapędzki | Poland (POL) | 1968–1972 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 4 | Pentti Linnosvuo | Finland (FIN) | 1960–1964 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 4 | Corneliu Ion | Romania (ROU) | 1980–1984 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 4 | Afanasijs Kuzmins | Soviet Union (URS) Latvia (LAT) | 1988–1992 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 7 | Sergei Alifirenko | Russia (RUS) | 2000–2004 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 7 | Christian Reitz | Germany (GER) | 2008, 2016 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 9 | Heinrich Hax | Germany (GER) | 1932–1936 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 9 | Jürgen Wiefel | East Germany (GDR) | 1976–1980 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 11 | Gheorghe Lichiardopol | Romania (ROU) | 1952–1956 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| 11 | Vladimir Vokhmyanin | Unified Team (EUN) Kazakhstan (KAZ) | 1992–1996 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |

#### Medalists by nation

| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
| 1 | Germany (GER) | 5 | 3 | 1 | 9 |
| 2 | United States (USA) | 3 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| 3 | Romania (ROU) | 2 | 3 | 3 | 8 |
| 4 | France (FRA) | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 |
| 5 | Hungary (HUN) | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| 6 | Poland (POL) | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 7 | East Germany (GDR) | 1 | 3 | 0 | 4 |
| 8 | Soviet Union (URS) | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 |
| 9 | Finland (FIN) | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| 10 | Russia (RUS) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| 11 | Cuba (CUB) | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 11 | Greece (GRE) | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 13 | Italy (ITA) | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| 14 | Brazil (BRA) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 14 | Japan (JPN) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 14 | Ukraine (UKR) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 17 | Sweden (SWE) | 0 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| 18 | Czechoslovakia (TCH) | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 18 | Switzerland (SUI) | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 20 | Argentina (ARG) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 20 | Bulgaria (BUL) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 20 | India (IND) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 20 | Latvia (LAT) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 24 | China (CHN) | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| 25 | Austria (AUT) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 25 | Denmark (DEN) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 25 | Kazakhstan (KAZ) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 25 | Unified Team at the Olympics (EUN) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Totals (28 entries) | Totals (28 entries) | 26 | 26 | 26 | 78 |

## Team rapid fire pistol
### Men

| Games | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| 1912 Stockholm details | Eric Carlberg, Vilhelm Carlberg, Johan Hübner von Holst, Paul Palén Sweden | Amos Kash, Nikolai Melnitsky, Grigori Panteleimonov, Pavel Voyloshnikov Russia | Hugh Durant, Albert Kempster, Horatio Poulter, Charles Stewart Great Britain |
| 1920 Antwerp details | Louis Harant, Alfred Lane, Karl Frederick, James H. Snook, Michael Kelly United States | Alexandros Vrasivanopoulos, Georgios Moraitinis, Iason Sappas, Alexandros Theofilakis, Ioannis Theofilakis Greece | Fritz Zulauf, Joseph Jehle, Gustave Amoudruz, Hans Egli, Domenico Giambonini Switzerland |