The men's parallel bars competition was one of eight events for male competitors in artistic gymnastics at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. The qualification and final rounds took place on July 18, 20, and 23rd at the Montreal Forum. There were 90 competitors from 20 nations, with nations competing in the team event having 6 gymnasts while other nations could have up to 3 gymnasts. The event was won by Sawao Katō of Japan, the first man to successfully defend an Olympic title in the parallel bars—and, as of the 2016 Games, still the only one to do so (the most decorated parallel bars gymnast, Li Xiaopeng, had his two gold medals separated by a bronze). It was the fourth consecutive victory by a Japanese gymnast in the event, breaking a tie with Switzerland for most all-time. Japan was unable to repeat its 1972 medal sweep, as nations were now limited to two finalists each. Nikolai Andrianov of the Soviet Union took silver, while Mitsuo Tsukahara of Japan earned bronze, missing a 1–2 finish for Japan by .025 points.

Background

This was the 14th 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). Three of the six finalists from 1972 returned: gold medalist Sawao Katō of Japan, bronze medalist Eizo Kenmotsu of Japan, and sixth-place finisher Nikolai Andrianov of the Soviet Union. Kenmotsu had won the 1974 world championship, with Andrianov the runner-up.

Israel made its debut in the men's parallel bars. The United States made its 13th 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. 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, except that nations were limited to two finalists each; others were ranked 7th through 90th. Half of the preliminary score carried over to the final.Official Report, vol. 3, p. 327.

Schedule

All times are Eastern Daylight Time (UTC-4)

Date Time Round Sunday, 18 July 1976 12:3019:1521:00 Preliminary: Compulsory Tuesday, 20 July 1976 15:0019:0020:45 Preliminary: Voluntary Friday, 23 July 1976 19:30 Final

Results

Ninety gymnasts competed in the compulsory and optional rounds on July 18 and 20. The six highest scoring gymnasts advanced to the final on July 23. 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 Sawao Katō 9.75 9.80 19.55 9.775 9.900 19.675 Nikolai Andrianov 9.80 9.70 19.50 9.750 9.750 19.500 Mitsuo Tsukahara 9.70 9.65 19.35 9.675 9.800 19.475 4 Bernd Jäger 9.65 9.55 19.20 9.600 9.600 19.200 5 Miloslav Netusil 9.45 9.60 19.05 9.525 9.600 19.125 6 Andrzej Szajna 9.45 9.55 19.00 9.500 9.450 18.950 7 Hiroshi Kajiyama 9.70 9.65 19.35 Did not advance 8 Dan Grecu 9.70 9.55 19.25 Did not advance Vladimir Markelov 9.65 9.60 19.25 Did not advance 10 Hisato Igarashi 9.55 9.45 19.00 Did not advance Zoltán Magyar 9.55 9.45 19.00 Did not advance 12 Bart Conner 9.55 9.40 18.95 Did not advance 13 Alexander Dityatin 9.50 9.40 18.90 Did not advance Lutz Mack 9.50 9.40 18.90 Did not advance 15 Henri Boerio 9.45 9.40 18.85 Did not advance Gennady Krysin 9.45 9.40 18.85 Did not advance 17 Robert Bretscher 9.50 9.25 18.75 Did not advance Eizo Kenmotsu 9.00 9.75 18.75 Did not advance Imre Molnar 9.60 9.15 18.75 Did not advance Michael Nikolay 9.40 9.35 18.75 Did not advance 21 Ferenc Donath 9.40 9.30 18.70 Did not advance Edgar Jorek 9.30 9.40 18.70 Did not advance Kurt Thomas 9.40 9.30 18.70 Did not advance 24 Volker Rohrwick 9.25 9.40 18.65 Did not advance 25 Mihai Borş 9.45 9.15 18.60 Did not advance Pierre Leclerc 9.40 9.20 18.60 Did not advance 27 Gustav Tannenberger 9.30 9.25 18.55 Did not advance Wayne Young 9.35 9.20 18.55 Did not advance 29 Rainer Hanschke 9.35 9.15 18.50 Did not advance Nicolae Oprescu 9.40 9.10 18.50 Did not advance 31 Mariusz Zasada 9.25 9.20 18.45 Did not advance 32 Vladislav Nehasil 8.95 9.40 18.35 Did not advance 33 Sorin Cepoi 9.25 9.05 18.30 Did not advance Ştefan Gal 9.05 9.25 18.30 Did not advance 35 Marshall Avener 9.20 9.05 18.25 Did not advance Wolfgang Klotz 9.05 9.20 18.25 Did not advance 37 Eberhard Gienger 8.80 9.40 18.20 Did not advance Maurizio Milanetto 9.15 9.05 18.20 Did not advance Roberto Richards 8.90 9.30 18.20 Did not advance Roland Brückner 9.10 9.10 18.20 Did not advance Dov Lupi 9.00 9.20 18.20 Did not advance Peter Rohner 9.25 8.95 18.20 Did not advance 43 Tom Beach 9.15 9.00 18.15 Did not advance Árpád Farkas 9.15 9.00 18.15 Did not advance Eric Koloko 9.15 9.00 18.15 Did not advance 46 Ueli Bachmann 8.80 9.30 18.10 Did not advance Stoyan Delchev 8.90 9.20 18.10 Did not advance Peter Kormann 9.05 9.05 18.10 Did not advance Vladimir Tikhonov 9.30 8.80 18.10 Did not advance 50 Vladimir Marchenko 8.55 9.50 18.05 Did not advance Willi Moy 9.20 8.85 18.05 Did not advance Łukasz Uhma 8.70 9.35 18.05 Did not advance 53 Béla Laufer 9.30 8.70 18.00 Did not advance 54 Ion Checicheş 8.85 9.10 17.95 Did not advance 55 Gabriel Calvo 8.85 9.05 17.90 Did not advance 56 Keith Carter 9.05 8.80 17.85 Did not advance Philippe Gaille 8.90 8.95 17.85 Did not advance Peter Lloyd 8.90 8.95 17.85 Did not advance Werner Steinmetz 8.90 8.95 17.85 Did not advance 60 Bernard Decoux 8.85 8.95 17.80 Did not advance Roman Tkaczyk 8.95 8.85 17.80 Did not advance 62 Imre Bánrévi 8.55 9.20 17.75 Did not advance Ole Benediktson 8.60 9.15 17.75 Did not advance Reinhard Dietze 9.05 8.70 17.75 Did not advance Andrey Keranov 8.95 8.80 17.75 Did not advance Reinhard Ritter 8.80 8.95 17.75 Did not advance 67 Armin Vock 9.05 8.65 17.70 Did not advance Philip Delesalle 9.20 8.50 17.70 Did not advance 69 Patrick Boutet 8.40 9.25 17.65 Did not advance Maurizio Montesi 8.95 8.70 17.65 Did not advance 71 Michel Boutard 8.80 8.80 17.60 Did not advance Jan Zoulík 8.65 8.95 17.60 Did not advance 73 Dimitar Koychev 8.65 8.90 17.55 Did not advance Dimitrios Janulidis 8.85 8.70 17.55 Did not advance 75 Phil Cheetham 8.65 8.80 17.45 Did not advance José de la Casa 8.90 8.55 17.45 Did not advance Bernhard Locher 8.65 8.80 17.45 Did not advance Angelo Zucca 8.35 9.10 17.45 Did not advance 79 Grzegorz Ciastek 8.70 8.55 17.25 Did not advance Nelson Fernández 8.50 8.75 17.25 Did not advance 81 Georgi Todorov 8.30 8.90 17.20 Did not advance Tommy Wilson 8.50 8.70 17.20 Did not advance 83 Ian Neale 7.85 9.15 17.00 Did not advance 84 Jeff Davis 8.00 8.90 16.90 Did not advance 85 Marian Pieczka 8.55 8.20 16.75 Did not advance 86 Jiri Tabak 6.95 9.35 16.30 Did not advance 87 Fernando Bertrand 8.60 7.60 16.20 Did not advance 88 Toncho Todorov 6.95 8.65 15.60 Did not advance 89 Zhivko Rusev 7.10 8.30 15.40 Did not advance 90 Shun Fujimoto 9.45 0.00 9.45 Did not advance — Jorge Cuervo Did not advance

References

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