The men's rings 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 Nikolai Andrianov of the Soviet Union, the nation's first victory in the rings since 1960 (and fourth overall). Another Soviet gymnast, Alexander Dityatin, took silver. The Soviet podium streak in the event reached seven Games. Dan Grecu earned Romania's first medal in the rings (and in any men's gymnastic event). Japan's three-Games gold medal streak and five-Games podium streak in the event ended as the nation's best results were fifth and sixth places.

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 four Japanese finalists from 1972 returned: bronze medalist Mitsuo Tsukahara (also a finalist in 1968), fourth-place finisher Sawao Kato (the bronze medalist in 1968), and fifth-place finisher Eizo Kenmotsu. Two-time champion Akinori Nakayama had retired. The reigning world co-champions were Dănuț Grecu of Romania and Nikolai Andrianov of the Soviet Union.

Israel made its debut in the men's rings. 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 Nikolai Andrianov 9.80 9.90 19.70 9.850 9.800 19.650 Alexander Dityatin 9.60 9.90 19.50 9.750 9.800 19.550 Dan Grecu 9.65 9.85 19.50 9.750 9.750 19.500 4 Ferenc Donath 9.55 9.75 19.30 9.650 9.550 19.200 5 Eizo Kenmotsu 9.55 9.70 19.25 9.625 9.550 19.175 6 Sawao Kato 9.45 9.80 19.25 9.625 9.500 19.125 7 Vladimir Markelov 9.70 9.90 19.60 Did not advance 8 Vladimir Marchenko 9.50 9.85 19.35 Did not advance 9 Vladimir Tikhonov 9.40 9.80 19.20 Did not advance Lutz Mack 9.45 9.75 19.20 Did not advance Mitsuo Tsukahara 9.45 9.75 19.20 Did not advance 12 Mihai Borş 9.45 9.65 19.10 Did not advance Hiroshi Kajiyama 9.40 9.70 19.10 Did not advance Nicolae Oprescu 9.40 9.70 19.10 Did not advance 15 Shun Fujimoto 9.35 9.70 19.05 Did not advance 16 Eberhard Gienger 9.30 9.70 19.00 Did not advance 17 Ion Checicheş 9.30 9.65 18.95 Did not advance Zoltán Magyar 9.35 9.60 18.95 Did not advance Andrzej Szajna 9.35 9.60 18.95 Did not advance 20 Henri Boerio 9.35 9.55 18.90 Did not advance Bernd Jäger 9.30 9.60 18.90 Did not advance Gennady Krysin 9.30 9.60 18.90 Did not advance Imre Molnar 9.35 9.55 18.90 Did not advance Volker Rohrwick 9.20 9.70 18.90 Did not advance Wayne Young 9.30 9.60 18.90 Did not advance 26 Robert Bretscher 9.30 9.50 18.80 Did not advance Edgar Jorek 9.15 9.65 18.80 Did not advance Béla Laufer 9.30 9.50 18.80 Did not advance 29 Rainer Hanschke 9.30 9.45 18.75 Did not advance Hisato Igarashi 9.25 9.50 18.75 Did not advance Maurizio Montesi 9.25 9.50 18.75 Did not advance 32 Werner Steinmetz 9.15 9.55 18.70 Did not advance Michael Nikolay 9.20 9.50 18.70 Did not advance 34 Wolfgang Klotz 9.30 9.35 18.65 Did not advance Willi Moy 9.00 9.65 18.65 Did not advance 36 Imre Bánrévi 9.20 9.40 18.60 Did not advance Tom Beach 9.20 9.40 18.60 Did not advance Roland Brückner 9.10 9.50 18.60 Did not advance Dimitrios Janulidis 9.20 9.40 18.60 Did not advance Maurizio Milanetto 9.10 9.50 18.60 Did not advance Jiri Tabak 9.00 9.60 18.60 Did not advance 42 Miloslav Netusil 9.20 9.35 18.55 Did not advance 43 Árpád Farkas 9.15 9.35 18.50 Did not advance Peter Rohner 9.10 9.40 18.50 Did not advance Angelo Zucca 9.10 9.40 18.50 Did not advance 46 Ştefan Gal 9.00 9.45 18.45 Did not advance Pierre Leclerc 9.10 9.35 18.45 Did not advance Armin Vock 9.00 9.45 18.45 Did not advance 49 Keith Carter 9.05 9.35 18.40 Did not advance Zhivko Rusev 8.95 9.45 18.40 Did not advance 51 Kurt Thomas 9.05 9.25 18.30 Did not advance Sorin Cepoi 9.10 9.20 18.30 Did not advance Bernard Decoux 8.95 9.35 18.30 Did not advance 54 Peter Kormann 9.05 9.15 18.20 Did not advance Reinhard Ritter 9.05 9.15 18.20 Did not advance 56 Marshall Avener 9.20 8.95 18.15 Did not advance Bart Conner 8.95 9.20 18.15 Did not advance Philippe Gaille 8.85 9.30 18.15 Did not advance 59 Roberto Richards 8.80 9.30 18.10 Did not advance 60 Philip Delesalle 8.85 9.20 18.05 Did not advance Gustav Tannenberger 8.85 9.20 18.05 Did not advance 62 Dimitar Koychev 8.85 9.15 18.00 Did not advance Vladislav Nehasil 8.95 9.05 18.00 Did not advance 64 Reinhard Dietze 8.65 9.25 17.90 Did not advance 65 Grzegorz Ciastek 8.85 8.95 17.80 Did not advance Łukasz Uhma 8.70 9.10 17.80 Did not advance 67 Jan Zoulík 8.75 9.00 17.75 Did not advance 68 Andrey Keranov 8.45 9.20 17.65 Did not advance Roman Tkaczyk 8.65 9.00 17.65 Did not advance 70 Bernhard Locher 8.60 9.00 17.60 Did not advance Dov Lupi 8.55 9.05 17.60 Did not advance Marian Pieczka 8.40 9.20 17.60 Did not advance 73 Ueli Bachmann 8.40 9.15 17.55 Did not advance 74 Georgi Todorov 9.05 8.45 17.50 Did not advance Tommy Wilson 8.55 8.95 17.50 Did not advance 76 Eric Koloko 8.45 9.00 17.45 Did not advance 77 Fernando Bertrand 8.40 8.95 17.35 Did not advance Mariusz Zasada 8.65 8.70 17.35 Did not advance 79 Stoyan Delchev 7.70 9.55 17.25 Did not advance 80 José de la Casa 8.30 8.90 17.20 Did not advance Michel Boutard 8.20 9.00 17.20 Did not advance Gabriel Calvo 8.20 9.00 17.20 Did not advance 83 Phil Cheetham 8.45 8.65 17.10 Did not advance Toncho Todorov 8.05 9.05 17.10 Did not advance 85 Nelson Fernández 8.55 8.25 16.80 Did not advance Peter Lloyd 8.35 8.45 16.80 Did not advance 87 Ole Benediktson 7.90 8.85 16.75 Did not advance 88 Jeff Davis 8.00 8.65 16.65 Did not advance 89 Ian Neale 8.05 8.40 16.45 Did not advance 90 Patrick Boutet 7.65 8.50 16.15 Did not advance — Jorge Cuervo Did not advance

References

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