The men's pommel horse competition was one of eight events for male competitors in artistic gymnastics at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. The qualification and final rounds took place on July 20, 22 and 25 at the Luzhniki Palace of Sports. There were 65 competitors from 14 nations, with nations competing in the team event having 6 gymnasts while other nations could have to up to 3 gymnasts. The event was won by Zoltán Magyar of Hungary, the third man to successfully defend an Olympic title in the pommel horse. Silver went to Alexander Dityatin, extending the Soviet Union's podium streak in the event to eight Games. Michael Nikolay of East Germany took bronze for the second consecutive Games. Magyar and Nikolay were the sixth and seventh men to earn multiple pommel horse medals.
Background
This was the 15th 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 1976 returned: gold medalist Zoltán Magyar of Hungary, bronze medalists Nikolai Andrianov of the Soviet Union and Michael Nikolay of East Germany, and sixth-place finisher Alexander Dityatin of the Soviet Union. Magyar had also won the last three world championships (1974, 1978, and 1979) and was a heavy favorite. The American-led boycott resulted in there being no competitors from either the traditional men's gymnastics power of Japan or the rising power of the United States; the Soviets' dominance this Games would be challenged only by the East Germans and occasional specialists such as Magyar (on the men's side, at least; Romania had a strong women's team).
Brazil made its debut in the men's pommel horse. Hungary made its 13th appearance, tying the United States (absent from the pommel horse event for the first time since the inaugural 1896 Games) for most of any nation.
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 65th. Half of the preliminary score carried over to the final.Official Report, vol. 3, p. 313.
Schedule
All times are Moscow Time (UTC+3)
Date Time Round Sunday, 20 July 1980 10:0017:00 Preliminary: Compulsory Tuesday, 22 July 1980 10:0017:00 Preliminary: Voluntary Friday, 25 July 1980 14:30 Final
Results
Sixty-five gymnasts competed in the compulsory and optional rounds on July 20 and 22. The six highest scoring gymnasts advanced to the final on July 25. 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 Zoltán Magyar 9.90 9.95 19.85 9.925 10.000 19.925 Alexander Dityatin 9.90 9.90 19.80 9.900 9.900 19.800 Michael Nikolay 9.90 9.85 19.75 9.875 9.900 19.775 4 Roland Brückner 9.80 9.85 19.65 9.825 9.900 19.725 5 Aleksandr Tkachyov 9.90 9.85 19.75 9.875 9.600 19.475 6 Ferenc Donáth 9.75 9.85 19.60 9.800 9.600 19.400 7 Eduard Azaryan 9.80 9.90 19.70 Did not advance 8 Nikolai Andrianov 9.75 9.85 19.60 Did not advance Vladimir Markelov 9.80 9.80 19.60 Did not advance 10 Stoyan Deltchev 9.65 9.85 19.50 Did not advance 11 Lutz Hoffmann 9.70 9.75 19.45 Did not advance Bohdan Makuts 9.70 9.75 19.45 Did not advance 13 György Guczoghy 9.65 9.75 19.40 Did not advance 14 Michel Boutard 9.60 9.75 19.35 Did not advance Andreas Bronst 9.60 9.75 19.35 Did not advance Romulus Bucuroiu 9.65 9.70 19.35 Did not advance Kurt Szilier 9.65 9.70 19.35 Did not advance 18 Roberto Leon 9.65 9.65 19.30 Did not advance 19 Rudolf Babiak 9.45 9.75 19.20 Did not advance Ralf-Peter Hemmann 9.50 9.70 19.20 Did not advance Zoltán Kelemen 9.50 9.70 19.20 Did not advance 22 Miloslav Kučeřík 9.45 9.70 19.15 Did not advance Joël Suty 9.50 9.65 19.15 Did not advance 24 Péter Kovács 9.35 9.75 19.10 Did not advance 25 Plamen Petkov 9.40 9.65 19.05 Did not advance Jiří Tabák 9.55 9.50 19.05 Did not advance 27 Enrique Bravo 9.55 9.45 19.00 Did not advance 28 Sorin Cepoi 9.45 9.50 18.95 Did not advance 29 Dan Grecu 9.25 9.65 18.90 Did not advance Andrzej Szajna 9.30 9.60 18.90 Did not advance Dancho Yordanov 9.40 9.50 18.90 Did not advance 32 Jan Zoulik 9.00 9.80 18.80 Did not advance 33 István Vámos 9.25 9.50 18.75 Did not advance 34 Miguel Arroyo 9.45 9.25 18.70 Did not advance Henri Boerio 9.45 9.25 18.70 Did not advance Willi Moy 9.30 9.40 18.70 Did not advance 37 Yves Bouquel 9.50 9.05 18.55 Did not advance Krzysztof Potaczek 9.55 9.00 18.55 Did not advance Thomas Wilson 9.25 9.30 18.55 Did not advance Barry Winch 9.25 9.30 18.55 Did not advance 41 Aurelian Georgescu 8.90 9.60 18.50 Did not advance 42 Jorge Roche 9.40 9.05 18.45 Did not advance 43 Lutz Mack 8.80 9.60 18.40 Did not advance Rumen Petkov 9.00 9.40 18.40 Did not advance 45 Ognyan Bangiev 9.25 9.10 18.35 Did not advance 46 Lindsay Nylund 8.90 9.35 18.25 Did not advance 47 Nicolae Oprescu 8.85 9.35 18.20 Did not advance Waldemar Woźniak 8.85 9.35 18.20 Did not advance 49 Yanko Radanchev 8.60 9.55 18.15 Did not advance 50 Mario Castro 9.15 8.80 17.95 Did not advance 51 Gabriel Calvo 9.00 8.90 17.90 Did not advance 52 Fernando Bertrand 9.05 8.80 17.85 Did not advance José de la Casa 8.95 8.90 17.85 Did not advance Marc Touchais 9.00 8.85 17.85 Did not advance 55 Han Gwang-song 8.80 8.90 17.70 Did not advance Keith Langley 9.05 8.65 17.70 Did not advance Jan Migdau 8.50 9.20 17.70 Did not advance 58 Jozef Konečný 8.05 9.55 17.60 Did not advance 59 Cho Hun 8.40 9.15 17.55 Did not advance 60 Song Sun-bong 8.35 8.85 17.20 Did not advance Sergio Suarez 8.95 8.25 17.20 Did not advance 62 Kang Gwang-song 7.55 9.45 17.00 Did not advance 63 João Luiz Ribeiro 8.55 8.30 16.85 Did not advance 64 Li Su-gil 8.00 8.65 16.65 Did not advance 65 Kim Gwang-jin 7.95 8.60 16.55 Did not advance — Moustapha Chouara Did not advance Adnan Horns Did not advance Maurizio Zonzini Did not advance
References
Official Olympic Report www.gymnasticsresults.com www.gymn-forum.net