The men's parallel bars 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. The event was won by Vladimir Artemov of the Soviet Union, bracketing the 1984 boycott with gold medal wins for the Soviets; Valeri Liukin took silver, as well. Sven Tippelt 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: sixth-place finisher Li Ning of China and seventh-place finisher Daniel Winkler of West Germany. Vladimir Artemov of the Soviet Union was the reigning (1987) world champion, with his teammate Dmitry Bilozerchev runner-up and a pair of East Germans (Sven Tippelt and Sylvio Kroll) third and fourth.

Chinese Taipei made its debut in the men's parallel bars. The United States made its 15th appearance, most of any nation; the Americans had missed only the inaugural 1896 event 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 14:20 Final

Results

Eighty-nine gymnasts competed in the parallel bars 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 the "prelim" score.

Rank Gymnast Nation Preliminary Final Compulsory Voluntary Total Prelim. Final Total Vladimir Artemov 10.00 9.95 19.95 9.975 9.950 19.925 Valeri Liukin 9.90 10.00 19.90 9.950 9.950 19.900 Sven Tippelt 9.90 9.80 19.70 9.850 9.900 19.750 4 Kalofer Khristozov 9.80 9.95 19.75 9.875 9.850 19.725 5 Marius Gherman 9.80 9.90 19.70 9.850 9.850 19.700 6 Curtis Hibbert 9.80 9.90 19.70 9.850 9.825 19.675 7 Sylvio Kroll 9.85 9.90 19.75 9.875 9.750 19.625 8 Boris Preti 9.80 9.90 19.70 9.850 9.750 19.600 9 Dmitry Bilozerchev 9.90 10.00 19.90 Did not advance 10 Holger Behrendt 9.80 9.90 19.70 Did not advance Sergey Kharkov 9.80 9.90 19.70 Did not advance Vladimir Novikov 9.80 9.90 19.70 Did not advance 13 Gyorgy Guczoghy 9.75 9.90 19.65 Did not advance Stoyko Gochev 9.80 9.85 19.65 Did not advance Ulf Hoffmann 9.80 9.85 19.65 Did not advance Vladimir Gogoladze 9.75 9.90 19.65 Did not advance Zsolt Borkai 9.80 9.85 19.65 Did not advance 18 Christian Chevalier 9.80 9.80 19.60 Did not advance Claude Carmona 9.80 9.80 19.60 Did not advance Jury Chechi 9.75 9.85 19.60 Did not advance Koichi Mizushima 9.70 9.90 19.60 Did not advance Guo Linxian 9.70 9.90 19.60 Did not advance Ralf Büchner 9.80 9.80 19.60 Did not advance Toshiharu Sato 9.80 9.80 19.60 Did not advance 25 Charles Lakes 9.60 9.95 19.55 Did not advance Paolo Bucci 9.70 9.85 19.55 Did not advance Philippe Chartrand 9.75 9.80 19.55 Did not advance Xu Zhiqiang 9.70 9.85 19.55 Did not advance 29 Adrian Sandu 9.80 9.70 19.50 Did not advance Daisuke Nishikawa 9.75 9.75 19.50 Did not advance Petar Georgiev 9.70 9.80 19.50 Did not advance Scott Johnson 9.70 9.80 19.50 Did not advance Takahiro Yamada 9.75 9.75 19.50 Did not advance Yukio Iketani 9.70 9.80 19.50 Did not advance 35 Andreas Aguilar 9.65 9.80 19.45 Did not advance Li Chunyang 9.70 9.75 19.45 Did not advance Josef Zellweger 9.65 9.80 19.45 Did not advance Nicolae Bejenaru 9.60 9.85 19.45 Did not advance 39 Brad Peters 9.70 9.70 19.40 Did not advance Csaba Fajkusz 9.60 9.80 19.40 Did not advance Gabriele Sala 9.70 9.70 19.40 Did not advance Park Jong-Hoon 9.70 9.70 19.40 Did not advance Lubomir Geraskov 9.60 9.80 19.40 Did not advance 44 Alfonso Rodríguez 9.65 9.70 19.35 Did not advance Deyan Kolev 9.60 9.75 19.35 Did not advance Kevin Davis 9.50 9.85 19.35 Did not advance Marius Toba 9.55 9.80 19.35 Did not advance Patrick Mattioni 9.70 9.65 19.35 Did not advance Zsolt Horváth 9.55 9.80 19.35 Did not advance 50 Wang Chongsheng 9.65 9.65 19.30 Did not advance Daniel Winkler 9.60 9.70 19.30 Did not advance Hiroyuki Konishi 9.60 9.70 19.30 Did not advance Lance Ringnald 9.50 9.80 19.30 Did not advance Lorne Bobkin 9.60 9.70 19.30 Did not advance Mike Beckmann 9.60 9.70 19.30 Did not advance Ralph Kern 9.70 9.60 19.30 Did not advance Tony Piñeda 9.65 9.65 19.30 Did not advance Ju Yeong-sam 9.60 9.70 19.30 Did not advance 59 Andreas Wecker 9.70 9.55 19.25 Did not advance Bernhard Simmelbauer 9.50 9.75 19.25 Did not advance Dimitar Taskov 9.30 9.95 19.25 Did not advance Dominick Minicucci 9.60 9.65 19.25 Did not advance Riccardo Trapella 9.50 9.75 19.25 Did not advance Valentin Pîntea 9.65 9.60 19.25 Did not advance Lou Yun 9.40 9.85 19.25 Did not advance 66 Wes Suter 9.40 9.80 19.20 Did not advance 67 James Rozon 9.60 9.55 19.15 Did not advance Miguel Ángel Rubio 9.55 9.60 19.15 Did not advance 69 Frédéric Longuepée 9.50 9.60 19.10 Did not advance Stéphane Cauterman 9.70 9.40 19.10 Did not advance Song Yu-jin 9.45 9.65 19.10 Did not advance 72 Andrew Morris 9.45 9.60 19.05 Did not advance Jürgen Brümmer 9.45 9.60 19.05 Did not advance Terry Bartlett 9.50 9.55 19.05 Did not advance 75 Vittorio Allievi 9.35 9.55 18.90 Did not advance 76 Jenő Paprika 9.15 9.70 18.85 Did not advance 77 Bruno Cavelti 9.40 9.40 18.80 Did not advance Johan Jonasson 9.40 9.40 18.80 Did not advance Marian Rizan 8.90 9.90 18.80 Did not advance 80 Kenneth Meredith 9.15 9.60 18.75 Did not advance Thierry Pecqueux 9.65 9.10 18.75 Did not advance 82 Alan Nolet 9.50 9.20 18.70 Did not advance Álvaro Montesinos 9.30 9.40 18.70 Did not advance 84 Chang Chao-chun 9.05 9.55 18.60 Did not advance Hélder Pinheiro 9.20 9.40 18.60 Did not advance Li Ning 9.00 9.60 18.60 Did not advance 87 Jože Kolman 9.05 9.50 18.55 Did not advance 88 Gil Pinto 8.30 9.50 17.80 Did not advance 89 Balázs Tóth 9.70 — 9.70 Did not advance

References

Official Olympic Report www.gymnasticsresults.com