1959 Chicago Pan American Games

1959 Chicago Pan American Games
Official poster
City	Chicago, USA
Team Gold Medalist	USA
All-Around Gold Medalist	Ernestine Russell (CAN)
Vault Gold Medalist	Ernestine Russell (CAN)
Uneven Bars Gold Medalist	Ernestine Russell (CAN)
Balance Beam Gold Medalist	Ernestine Russell (CAN)
Floor Exercise Gold Medalist	Theresa Montefusco (USA)
Preceded by	N/A
Succeeded by	1963 São Paulo Pan American Games

The 1959 Pan American Games were held from August 28th to September 7th in Chicago, USA. This was the third ever Pan American Games, the first to be held on U.S. soil, and the first to include women's gymnastics.

Format of Competition

The format was very similar to that of the Olympic Games. Each country was allowed to enter a team of eight gymnasts, but not more than six of them were allowed to participate in all exercises. Nations with incomplete teams, could enter one to three gymnasts for the individual competition. Six best gymnasts on the apparatus in the team competition (by sum of two scores - for compulsory and optional routine) qualified for that apparatus finals.

The scoring in the team competition was similar to the one at the previous Olympics: the five best scores constituted the team's score for the routine; these scores constituted the overall team's totals.

Results

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Team	USA Betty Maycock Cassie Collawn Theresa Montefusco Sharon Phelps Judy Klauser Sharon Richardson	Canada Ernestine Russell Marie-Claire Larsen Louise Parker Leissa Kroll Rosemary Ripley Margaret Schran	N/A
All-Around	Ernestine Russell Canada (CAN)	Betty Maycock United States of America (USA)	Marie-Claire Larsen Canada (CAN)
Vault	Ernestine Russell Canada (CAN)	Betty Maycock United States of America (USA)	Louise Parker Canada (CAN)
Uneven Bars	Ernestine Russell Canada (CAN)	Theresa Montefusco United States of America (USA)	Marie-Claire Larsen Canada (CAN)
Balance Beam	Ernestine Russell Canada (CAN)	Betty Maycock United States of America (USA)	Cassie Collawn United States of America (USA)
Floor Exercise	Theresa Montefusco United States of America (USA)	Ernestine Russell Canada (CAN)	Sharon Phelps United States of America (USA)

Medal Count

Rank	Country				Total
1	Canada	4	2	3	9
2	USA	2	4	2	8