Fritz Hofmann

Friedrich Carl August Hofmann, known as Fritz, was a German athlete born in Berlin on 19 June 1871 who died there on 14 July 1927. At the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens he took part in track and field and gymnastics: he finished second in the 100 metres final behind Thomas Burke of the United States, was long credited with third place in the 400 metres until documents of 1896 placed him fourth, and won a bronze medal in rope climbing after reaching 12.5 metres. He captained the German gymnastics team that won both the team parallel bars and the team horizontal bar. The German gymnastics association banned him and his teammates for competing in an international event, but he stayed involved in athletics, captained German teams at later Games and sat on the German National Olympic Committee from 1904 to 1927.