Jim Hartung

James Nicholas Hartung (June 7, 1960 – January 10, 2026) was an American gymnast. He was a member of the United States men's national artistic gymnastics team and won a gold medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics.

Early life, education, and high school success

Hartung was born in Omaha, Nebraska, on June 7, 1960 where he was also raised. . He was the son of James, a power company employee, and Karna (née Madsen), a homemaker, and was one of four children, with two brothers, John and Jeff, and one sister named Laura.

Hartung’s high school competitive record was prodigious. He won back-to-back Junior Olympic Sr. Nationals all-around titles in 1976 and 1977. He sheerly dominated the Nebraska State High School Championships three years in a row (1975-1977) where he took the all-around title all three years, and won at least 4 (of 6) apparatus titles all three of those years, as well.

He attended the University of Nebraska where he received a Bachelor’s Degree in Business in 1983. At the USAG national championships, Hartung won the all-around gold in 1981. Over several years, he collected 13 golds on apparatuses. Additionally, he is a three-time (1978, 1980, 1982) national Pommel Horse Champion

Hartung was a member of the 1980 Olympic team but did not compete due to the U.S. boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, USSR. As a consolation, he was one of 461 athletes to receive a Congressional Gold Medal many years later.

In 1984, he was a member of the gold-medal winning Olympic Team, which is, to date, the only Olympic Team Gold the USA men have ever won. NCAA Championships and USA World Trials (1st at all 3); 1982 – NCAA Championships (2nd) and USA Championships (3rd); 1983 – USA Championships and Worlds Trials (3rd at both); and 1984 – USA Championships (3rd)). The next year at the 1982 USA Championships, a particularly low score of 8.600 marred his all-around competitive 12-event score, placing him in 3rd overall, however he came back in the apparatus finals to take 4 of 6 gold medals (Floor exercise, Pommel horse, Rings, Vault) in a competitive field that included eventual individual Olympic Champions Vidmar and Mitch Gaylord.

At the level of the World Championships and Olympic Games, Hartung was never quite a standout individual star (although he logged two respectable top-15 finishes at two different World Championships (1979 and 1981 respectively) which was a crucial part of helping ensure that his USA team won their first-ever World Championship team medal (by and including that edition of the World Championships, which is officially numbered as the 20th edition, they had existed for 76 years). Also, at the 1981 World Championships, his 12-event total of 115.75 placed him 3rd on his 5-member team (which placed 5th) and at the 1983 World Championships, his 12-event total of 116.40 placed him 4th on his 6-member team (which placed 4th). The culmination of his career was, of course, at the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics where he helped his team to their historic Gold medal with his trademark consistency and dependability by logging, among his 12 performances, no score lower than a 9.7 - a feat shared, on his team, only by Bart Conner and Peter Vidmar.

Post-competitive career and later life

After gymnastics, Hartung became a high-level gymnastics judge. From 1988 until at least 2007, he was a coach of the USA National team.

Accolades, awards and honors

Within a couple of days after Hartung’s death, the University of Nebraska’s Athletics department memorialized him in an official statement by saying "Jim is a true Husker legend and his impact on the sport of gymnastics will carry on for decades to come." Chuck Chmelka, Head Coach for the University of Nebraska's head gymnastics coach at the time of his death, said "He was the toughest man I knew". Hartung was inducted into the Nebraska High School Hall of Fame in its very first year (1994). . He was also a member of the Nebraska Athletics Hall of Fame (inducted in 2015), and was a part of the first College Gymnastics Association Hall of Fame Class in 2024.