The men's parallel bars competition was one of eight events for male competitors in artistic gymnastics at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. The qualification and final rounds took place on August 27, 29 and September 1 at the Olympiahalle. There were 112 competitors from 26 nations (with 1 of the 113 gymnasts not starting in this apparatus); nations entering the team event had 6 gymnasts while other nations could have up to 3 gymnasts. Japan reached the height of its success in the event this year: putting four men into the six-man final and sweeping the medals. Sawao Kato earned Japan's third consecutive gold medal in the parallel bars, tying Switzerland for most golds all-time; Kato would break that tie in 1976 with his second (and Japan's fourth) gold medal. Shigeru Kasamatsu took silver while Eizo Kenmotsu earned bronze.

Background

This was the 13th 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). Four of the six finalists from 1968 returned: gold medalist Akinori Nakayama of Japan, silver medalist Mikhail Voronin of the Soviet Union, bronze medalist Viktor Klimenko of the Soviet Union, and fifth-place finisher Eizo Kenmotsu of Japan. Nakayama had also won the 1970 world championship, with Voronin and Kenmotsu tied for second.

Liechtenstein, New Zealand, and North Korea each made their debut in the men's parallel bars. The United States made its 12th appearance, most of any nation, having missed only the inaugural 1896 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. (One gymnast who entered the all-around competition did not perform on the vault.) 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; the top 6 in each apparatus participated in the finals; others were ranked 7th through 111th. Half of the scores from the preliminary carried over to the final.Official Report, vol. 3, p. 192.

Schedule

All times are Central European Time (UTC+1)

Date Time Round Monday, 27 August 1972 11:1519:00 Preliminary: Compulsory Wednesday, 29 August 1972 10:0018:00 Preliminary: Voluntary Saturday, 1 September 1972 19:30 Final

Results

One-hundred twelve gymnasts competed in the compulsory and optional rounds on August 27 and 29. The six highest scoring gymnasts advanced to the final on September 1.

Rank Gymnast Nation Preliminary Final Compulsory Voluntary Total Prelim. Final Total Sawao Kato 9.60 9.75 19.35 9.675 9.800 19.475 Shigeru Kasamatsu 9.55 9.70 19.25 9.625 9.750 19.375 Eizo Kenmotsu 9.65 9.65 19.30 9.650 9.600 19.250 4 Viktor Klimenko 9.65 9.60 19.25 9.625 9.500 19.125 5 Akinori Nakayama 9.60 9.65 19.25 9.625 9.250 18.875 6 Nikolai Andrianov 9.50 9.55 19.05 9.525 8.450 17.975 7 Eberhard Gienger 9.50 9.55 19.05 Did not advance Mikhail Voronin 9.60 9.45 19.05 Did not advance 9 Klaus Köste 9.50 9.50 19.00 Did not advance 10 Günter Spies 9.55 9.40 18.95 Did not advance 11 Mikolaj Kubica 9.40 9.45 18.85 Did not advance Edvard Mikaelian 9.50 9.35 18.85 Did not advance Mitsuo Tsukahara 9.35 9.50 18.85 Did not advance 14 Teruichi Okamura 9.35 9.40 18.75 Did not advance 15 Matthias Brehme 9.30 9.35 18.65 Did not advance Wolfgang Thüne 9.30 9.35 18.65 Did not advance 17 Wolfgang Klotz 9.25 9.35 18.60 Did not advance Alexander Maleev 9.35 9.25 18.60 Did not advance Peter Rohner 9.30 9.30 18.60 Did not advance Makoto Sakamoto 9.30 9.30 18.60 Did not advance Andrzej Szajna 9.25 9.35 18.60 Did not advance 22 Li Song-sob 9.25 9.30 18.55 Did not advance Walter Mossinger 9.35 9.20 18.55 Did not advance 24 Janez Brodnik 9.20 9.30 18.50 Did not advance Sylwester Kubica 9.15 9.35 18.50 Did not advance Imre Molnár 9.40 9.10 18.50 Did not advance 27 Max Brühwiler 9.15 9.30 18.45 Did not advance Kim Song-yu 9.15 9.30 18.45 Did not advance 29 Steven Hug 9.10 9.30 18.40 Did not advance Wilhelm Kubica 9.10 9.30 18.40 Did not advance Reinhard Rychly 9.20 9.20 18.40 Did not advance 32 Béla Herczeg 9.15 9.20 18.35 Did not advance Milenko Kersnic 9.10 9.25 18.35 Did not advance Kim Song-il 9.15 9.20 18.35 Did not advance Mauno Nissinen 8.95 9.40 18.35 Did not advance 36 Jürgen Paeke 9.00 9.30 18.30 Did not advance Geno Radev 9.00 9.30 18.30 Did not advance 38 Bernd Effing 9.00 9.25 18.25 Did not advance Petre Mihaiuc 9.10 9.15 18.25 Did not advance Ladislav Morava 9.05 9.20 18.25 Did not advance Roberto Léon Richards 8.95 9.30 18.25 Did not advance 42 Jifi Fejtek 9.05 9.15 18.20 Did not advance Edwin Greutmann 8.95 9.25 18.20 Did not advance Reinhard Ritter 9.10 9.10 18.20 Did not advance 45 Vladislav Nehasil 8.95 9.20 18.15 Did not advance Vladimir Schukin 9.00 9.15 18.15 Did not advance 47 Robert Bretscher 8.90 9.20 18.10 Did not advance Jorge Cuervo 8.90 9.20 18.10 Did not advance Ho Yun-hang 9.00 9.10 18.10 Did not advance István Kiss 9.10 9.00 18.10 Did not advance Bohumil Mudrik 9.05 9.05 18.10 Did not advance 52 Dan Grecu 9.00 9.05 18.05 Did not advance Christian Guiffroy 9.05 9.00 18.05 Did not advance Zoltán Magyar 9.00 9.05 18.05 Did not advance Miloš Vratič 8.90 9.15 18.05 Did not advance 56 István Bérczi 8.85 9.10 17.95 Did not advance Shin Heung-do 9.00 8.95 17.95 Did not advance 58 John Crosby Jr. 8.65 9.25 17.90 Did not advance Drago Sostaric 8.85 9.05 17.90 Did not advance 60 Franco Donega 8.85 9.00 17.85 Did not advance Carmine Luppino 8.70 9.15 17.85 Did not advance Jean-Pierre Miens 8.85 9.00 17.85 Did not advance 63 Ole Benediktson 8.65 9.15 17.80 Did not advance Jo Jong-ryol 8.55 9.25 17.80 Did not advance Heinz Häussler 8.70 9.10 17.80 Did not advance Zoran Ivanovic 8.85 8.95 17.80 Did not advance Gheorghe Paunescu 8.70 9.10 17.80 Did not advance 68 Christian Deuza 8.85 8.90 17.75 Did not advance Ivica Hmjelovac 8.80 8.95 17.75 Did not advance Antal Kisteleki 8.90 8.85 17.75 Did not advance 71 Mircea Gheorghiu 9.05 8.65 17.70 Did not advance 72 Jim Culhane Jr. 8.65 9.00 17.65 Did not advance Jerzy Kruza 8.60 9.05 17.65 Did not advance Adolfo Lampronti 8.60 9.05 17.65 Did not advance 75 René Badell 8.60 9.00 17.60 Did not advance José Ginés 8.70 8.90 17.60 Did not advance Stefan Zoev 8.65 8.95 17.60 Did not advance 78 Georges Guelzec 8.45 9.05 17.50 Did not advance Ivan Kondev 8.55 8.95 17.50 Did not advance Constantin Petrescu 8.55 8.95 17.50 Did not advance 81 Henri Boërio 8.15 9.30 17.45 Did not advance Bernard Farjat 8.65 8.80 17.45 Did not advance Cecilio Ugarte 8.50 8.95 17.45 Did not advance 84 Tore Lie 8.70 8.65 17.35 Did not advance 85 Marshall Avener 8.10 9.15 17.25 Did not advance Luigi Coppa 8.35 8.90 17.25 Did not advance Rogelio Mendoza 8.45 8.80 17.25 Did not advance 88 Bozhidar Iliev 8.40 8.80 17.20 Did not advance Agustin Sandoval 8.55 8.65 17.20 Did not advance Bruno Banzer 8.70 8.50 17.20 Did not advance 91 Maurizio Milanetto 8.10 9.05 17.15 Did not advance Pavel Stanovsky 8.25 8.90 17.15 Did not advance 93 Dimitar Dimitrov 8.50 8.60 17.10 Did not advance Luis Ramirez 8.20 8.90 17.10 Did not advance Fedele Spatazza 8.80 8.30 17.10 Did not advance 96 Dimitar Koychev 8.30 8.75 17.05 Did not advance Ian Clarke 8.45 8.60 17.05 Did not advance 98 Eddie Arnold 8.40 8.60 17.00 Did not advance 99 George Greenfield 7.75 9.05 16.80 Did not advance Stan Wild 8.00 8.80 16.80 Did not advance 101 Philippe Gaille 7.70 9.05 16.75 Did not advance 102 Jorge Rodriguez 7.85 8.80 16.65 Did not advance André Simard 7.90 8.75 16.65 Did not advance Mieczyslaw Strzalka 8.30 8.35 16.65 Did not advance 105 Peter Lloyd 8.60 8.00 16.60 Did not advance 106 Bill Norgrave 7.90 8.45 16.35 Did not advance 107 Emilio Sagre 8.30 7.95 16.25 Did not advance 108 Steve Mitruk 7.80 8.40 16.20 Did not advance 109 Nicolae Oprescu 7.25 8.85 16.10 Did not advance 110 Terry Sale 6.65 8.50 15.15 Did not advance 111 Miloslav Netusil 9.25 0.00 9.25 Did not advance 112 Bruce Medd 6.30 0.00 6.30 Did not advance — Hans Ettlin Did not advance

References

Official Olympic Report www.gymnasticsresults.com www.gymn-forum.net