The "free" pistol is former and still unofficially used name for the men's ISSF 50 meter pistol competition held at the Olympics. "Free" pistol is used to distinguish between other pistol disciplines (air, rapid fire, standard, sport, military/centre-fire). The competition was first held at the inaugural 1896 Olympics (at 30 metres) and then held at 50 metres (or yards, in 1908) each time that shooting was on the programme (that is, excluding 1904) until 1920. It was dropped from the programme for amateurism reasons from 1924 to 1932, but returned in 1936. It was held again at every Games from then until 2016; the event, which had no women's equivalent, was dropped after 2016 to make room for a mixed team air pistol event as the sport moved toward gender equality. In all, the event was held 24 times.[1] The event was open to women from 1968 to 1980, although very few women participated these years.
A team event was held four times from 1904 to 1920.
| 1896 Athens | ||||
| 1900 Paris | ||||
| 1904 St. Louis | Not held | |||
| 1908 London | ||||
| 1912 Stockholm | ||||
| 1920 Antwerp | ||||
| 1924 Paris | Not held | |||
| 1928 Amsterdam | Not held | |||
| 1932 Los Angeles | Not held | |||
| 1936 Berlin | ||||
| 1948 London | ||||
| 1952 Helsinki | ||||
| 1956 Melbourne | ||||
| 1960 Rome | ||||
| 1964 Tokyo | ||||
| 1968 Mexico City (mixed) | ||||
| 1972 Munich (mixed) | ||||
| 1976 Montreal (mixed) | ||||
| 1980 Moscow (mixed) | ||||
| 1984 Los Angeles | ||||
| 1988 Seoul | ||||
| 1992 Barcelona | ||||
| 1996 Atlanta | ||||
| 2000 Sydney | ||||
| 2004 Athens | ||||
| 2008 Beijing | ||||
| 2012 London | ||||
| 2016 Rio de Janeiro |
| Rank | Gymnast | Nation | Olympics | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | align=left data-sort-value="Jin Jong-oh" | 2004–2016 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 4 | ||
| 2 | align=left data-sort-value="Skanåker, Ragnar" | 1972, 1984–1992 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | ||
| 3 | align=left data-sort-value="Lane, Alfred" | 1912–1920 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | ||
| align=left data-sort-value="Ullman, Torsten" | 1936–1948 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | |||
| 5 | align=left data-sort-value="Vollmar, Harald" | 1968, 1976–1980 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | ||
| align=left data-sort-value="Basinski, Igor" | 1988, 1996–2000 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | |||
| 7 | align=left data-sort-value="Umarov, Makhmud" | 1956–1960 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 8 | align=left data-sort-value="Wang Yifu" | 1988–1992 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||
| 9 | align=left data-sort-value="Yoshikawa, Yoshihisa" | 1960–1964 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | ||
| align=left data-sort-value="Dollinger, Rudolf" | 1972–1976 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 9 | |
| 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 6 | |
| 3 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 5 | |
| 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 | |
| 5 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | |
| 6 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | |
| 7 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 | |
| 8 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | |
| 9 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | |
| 10 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | |
| 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 12 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | |
| 13 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 15 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | |
| 16 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| 17 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 23 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | |
| 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | ||
| 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | ||
| 26 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 1900 Paris | ||||
| 1908 London | ||||
| 1912 Stockholm | ||||
| 1920 Antwerp |
| Rank | Gymnast | Nation | Olympics | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | align=left data-sort-value="Dietz, John" | 1908–1912 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| align=left data-sort-value="Lane, Alfred" | 1912–1920 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | |
| 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | |
| 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 6 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | |
| 7 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |