The men's rings competition was one of eight events for male competitors in artistic gymnastics at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul. The qualification and final rounds took place on September 18, 20, and 24th at the Olympic Gymnastics Hall. There were 89 competitors from 23 nations, with nations competing in the team event having 6 gymnasts and other nations having up to 3 gymnasts. For the second consecutive Games, the event ended in a way tie for first place. Dmitry Bilozerchev of the Soviet Union and Holger Behrendt of East Germany each received a gold medal. It was East Germany's first medal in the rings. The Soviets had had an eight-Games medal streak (and two-Games gold medal streak) in the event snapped by their boycott of the 1984 Games; Bilozerchev's medal put the nation back on the podium after that one-Games absence. Sven Tippelt, also of East Germany, took bronze.

Background

This was the 17th appearance of the event, which is one of the five apparatus events held every time there were apparatus events at the Summer Olympics (no apparatus events were held in 1900, 1908, 1912, or 1920). Two of the eight finalists from 1984 returned: gold medalist Li Ning of China and eighth-place finisher Josef Zellweger of Switzerland. Two-time world champion Yuri Korolyov of the Soviet Union was injured and unable to compete in Seoul. Li had shared gold with Korolyov at the 1985 World Championships and silver with Dmitry Bilozerchev of the Soviet Union at the 1987 World Championships.

Chinese Taipei made its debut in the men's rings. The United States made its 15th appearance, most of any nation; the Americans had missed only the inaugural 1896 rings and the boycotted 1980 Games.

Competition format

Each nation entered a team of six gymnasts or up to three individual gymnasts. All entrants in the gymnastics competitions performed both a compulsory exercise and a voluntary exercise for each apparatus. The scores for all 12 exercises were summed to give an individual all-around score. These exercise scores were also used for qualification for the apparatus finals. The two exercises (compulsory and voluntary) for each apparatus were summed to give an apparatus score. Half of the preliminary score carried over to the final. The 1984 Games had expanded the number of finalists from six to eight. Nations were still limited to two finalists each. Others were ranked 9th through 89th. Official Report, vol. 2, p. 429.

Schedule

All times are Korea Standard Time adjusted for daylight savings (UTC+10)

Date Time Round Sunday, 18 September 1988 Preliminary: Compulsory Tuesday, 20 September 1988 Preliminary: Voluntary Saturday, 24 September 1988 13:10 Final

Results

Eighty-nine gymnasts competed in the rings event during the compulsory and optional rounds on September 18 and 20. The eight highest scoring gymnasts advanced to the final on September 24. Each country was limited to two competitors in the final. Half of the points earned by each gymnast during both the compulsory and optional rounds carried over to the final. This constitutes each gymnast's "prelim" score.

Rank Gymnast Nation Preliminary Final Compulsory Voluntary Total Prelim. Final Total Holger Behrendt 9.90 10.00 19.90 9.950 9.975 19.925 Dmitry Bilozerchev 9.95 10.00 19.95 9.975 9.950 19.925 Sven Tippelt 9.90 9.95 19.85 9.925 9.950 19.875 4 Kalofer Khristozov 9.90 9.90 19.80 9.900 9.925 19.825 Valeri Liukin 9.90 9.95 19.85 9.925 9.900 19.825 6 Lou Yun 9.80 9.90 19.70 9.850 9.950 19.800 Jury Chechi 9.80 9.90 19.70 9.850 9.950 19.800 8 Gyorgy Guczoghy 9.85 9.90 19.75 9.875 9.825 19.700 9 Vladimir Artemov 9.90 9.90 19.80 Did not advance Sergey Kharkov 9.90 9.90 19.80 Did not advance 11 Andreas Aguilar 9.80 9.90 19.70 Did not advance Lubomir Geraskov 9.80 9.90 19.70 Did not advance Sylvio Kroll 9.80 9.90 19.70 Did not advance Vladimir Novikov 9.80 9.90 19.70 Did not advance Xu Zhiqiang 9.80 9.90 19.70 Did not advance 16 Deyan Kolev 9.80 9.85 19.65 Did not advance Marius Toba 9.85 9.80 19.65 Did not advance 18 Vladimir Gogoladze 9.80 9.80 19.60 Did not advance Boris Preti 9.70 9.90 19.60 Did not advance Andreas Wecker 9.80 9.80 19.60 Did not advance 21 Csaba Fajkusz 9.70 9.85 19.55 Did not advance Stoyko Gochev 9.70 9.85 19.55 Did not advance Yukio Iketani 9.80 9.75 19.55 Did not advance Toshiharu Sato 9.75 9.80 19.55 Did not advance Wang Chongsheng 9.75 9.80 19.55 Did not advance 26 Guo Linxian 9.70 9.80 19.50 Did not advance Li Chunyang 9.70 9.80 19.50 Did not advance Valentin Pîntea 9.75 9.75 19.50 Did not advance 29 Koichi Mizushima 9.65 9.80 19.45 Did not advance Daisuke Nishikawa 9.75 9.70 19.45 Did not advance Alfonso Rodríguez 9.70 9.75 19.45 Did not advance Dimitar Taskov 9.65 9.80 19.45 Did not advance Josef Zellweger 9.70 9.75 19.45 Did not advance 34 Jürgen Brümmer 9.70 9.70 19.40 Did not advance Ralf Büchner 9.70 9.70 19.40 Did not advance Curtis Hibbert 9.70 9.70 19.40 Did not advance Zsolt Horváth 9.60 9.80 19.40 Did not advance Song Yu-jin 9.65 9.75 19.40 Did not advance 39 Paolo Bucci 9.55 9.80 19.35 Did not advance Philippe Chartrand 9.70 9.65 19.35 Did not advance Petar Georgiev 9.65 9.70 19.35 Did not advance Marius Gherman 9.65 9.70 19.35 Did not advance Ulf Hoffmann 9.65 9.70 19.35 Did not advance Li Ning 9.40 9.95 19.35 Did not advance Takahiro Yamada 9.70 9.65 19.35 Did not advance 46 Claude Carmona 9.70 9.60 19.30 Did not advance Hiroyuki Konishi 9.70 9.60 19.30 Did not advance 48 Zsolt Borkai 9.80 9.45 19.25 Did not advance Christian Chevalier 9.45 9.80 19.25 Did not advance Brad Peters 9.70 9.55 19.25 Did not advance Miguel Ángel Rubio 9.60 9.65 19.25 Did not advance 52 Charles Lakes 9.60 9.60 19.20 Did not advance Patrick Mattioni 9.55 9.65 19.20 Did not advance Park Jong-Hoon 9.65 9.55 19.20 Did not advance Marian Rizan 9.55 9.65 19.20 Did not advance 56 Jenő Paprika 9.50 9.65 19.15 Did not advance Thierry Pecqueux 9.40 9.75 19.15 Did not advance 58 Nicolae Bejenaru 9.55 9.55 19.10 Did not advance Kevin Davis 9.50 9.60 19.10 Did not advance Scott Johnson 9.30 9.80 19.10 Did not advance Riccardo Trapella 9.40 9.70 19.10 Did not advance 62 Johan Jonasson 9.40 9.65 19.05 Did not advance Ju Yeong-sam 9.75 9.30 19.05 Did not advance Dominick Minicucci 9.55 9.50 19.05 Did not advance 65 Andrew Morris 9.50 9.50 19.00 Did not advance Adrian Sandu 9.55 9.45 19.00 Did not advance 67 Bruno Cavelti 9.35 9.60 18.95 Did not advance Alan Nolet 9.55 9.40 18.95 Did not advance Bernhard Simmelbauer 9.45 9.50 18.95 Did not advance 70 Daniel Winkler 9.50 9.40 18.90 Did not advance 71 Álvaro Montesinos 9.55 9.30 18.85 Did not advance Lance Ringnald 9.30 9.55 18.85 Did not advance 73 Kenneth Meredith 9.30 9.50 18.80 Did not advance James Rozon 9.50 9.30 18.80 Did not advance 75 Frédéric Longuepée 9.15 9.55 18.70 Did not advance 76 Terry Bartlett 9.50 9.15 18.65 Did not advance Stéphane Cauterman 9.25 9.40 18.65 Did not advance Gabriele Sala 9.45 9.20 18.65 Did not advance 79 Mike Beckmann 9.40 9.20 18.60 Did not advance Lorne Bobkin 9.45 9.15 18.60 Did not advance 81 Vittorio Allievi 9.15 9.40 18.55 Did not advance 82 Wes Suter 9.15 9.35 18.50 Did not advance 83 Ralph Kern 9.60 8.80 18.40 Did not advance Jože Kolman 9.10 9.30 18.40 Did not advance 85 Chang Chao-chun 9.20 8.95 18.15 Did not advance 86 Gil Pinto 8.80 9.30 18.10 Did not advance 87 Tony Piñeda 8.60 9.40 18.00 Did not advance 88 Hélder Pinheiro 8.70 9.25 17.95 Did not advance 89 Balázs Tóth 9.65 0.00 9.65 Did not advance

References

Official Olympic Report www.gymnasticsresults.com