The men's parallel bars 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 25th 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 Aleksandr Tkachyov of the Soviet Union, the nation's first victory in the parallel bars since 1960 and third overall, tying Switzerland for second-most all-time behind Japan's four. Fellow Soviet Alexander Dityatin took silver, while Roland Brückner earned East Germany's first medal in the event (and first medal for any German gymnast in the parallel bars since 1936). Japan's four-Games gold medal streak in the event ended with no Japanese gymnasts competing due to the American-led boycott.
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). Two of the six finalists from 1976 returned: silver medalist Nikolai Andrianov of the Soviet Union and sixth-place finisher Andrzej Szajna of Poland. The two most recent world champions, Eizo Kenmotsu of Japan (1978) and Bart Conner of the United States (1979), did not compete in Moscow due to the boycott. Andrianov had shared silver at the 1978 world championships and Aleksandr Tkachyov, also of the Soviet Union, had shared silver in 1979.
Brazil made its debut in the men's parallel bars. Hungary made its 13th appearance, tying the United States (absent from the parallel bars 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 Aleksandr Tkachyov 9.85 9.90 19.75 9.875 9.900 19.775 Alexander Dityatin 9.80 9.90 19.70 9.850 9.900 19.750 Roland Brückner 9.70 9.90 19.60 9.800 9.850 19.650 4 Michael Nikolay 9.60 9.80 19.40 9.700 9.900 19.600 5 Stoyan Deltchev 9.85 9.90 19.75 9.875 9.700 19.575 6 Roberto Leon 9.70 9.90 19.60 9.800 9.700 19.500 7 Nikolai Andrianov 9.80 9.90 19.70 Did not advance 8 Bohdan Makuts 9.60 9.90 19.50 Did not advance 9 Dan Grecu 9.65 9.80 19.45 Did not advance 10 Eduard Azaryan 9.65 9.75 19.40 Did not advance 11 Andreas Bronst 9.50 9.80 19.30 Did not advance Sorin Cepoi 9.60 9.70 19.30 Did not advance Ralf-Peter Hemmann 9.60 9.70 19.30 Did not advance 14 Ferenc Donáth 9.55 9.65 19.20 Did not advance Zoltán Magyar 9.45 9.75 19.20 Did not advance Dancho Yordanov 9.45 9.75 19.20 Did not advance 17 Aurelian Georgescu 9.55 9.60 19.15 Did not advance 18 Jozef Konečný 9.50 9.60 19.10 Did not advance Lutz Mack 9.50 9.60 19.10 Did not advance Plamen Petkov 9.40 9.70 19.10 Did not advance 21 Michel Boutard 9.50 9.55 19.05 Did not advance Miguel Arroyo 9.45 9.60 19.05 Did not advance Jiří Tabák 9.35 9.70 19.05 Did not advance 24 Mario Castro 9.30 9.70 19.00 Did not advance Cho Hun 9.40 9.60 19.00 Did not advance Han Gwang-song 9.50 9.50 19.00 Did not advance Lutz Hoffmann 9.30 9.70 19.00 Did not advance 28 György Guczoghy 9.40 9.55 18.95 Did not advance Jan Zoulik 9.40 9.55 18.95 Did not advance Ognyan Bangiev 9.35 9.60 18.95 Did not advance Sergio Suarez 9.25 9.70 18.95 Did not advance 32 Kim Gwang-jin 9.30 9.60 18.90 Did not advance Vladimir Markelov 9.10 9.80 18.90 Did not advance Nicolae Oprescu 9.45 9.45 18.90 Did not advance Rumen Petkov 9.35 9.55 18.90 Did not advance 36 Rudolf Babiak 9.40 9.45 18.85 Did not advance Gabriel Calvo 9.25 9.60 18.85 Did not advance Péter Kovács 9.00 9.85 18.85 Did not advance 39 Miloslav Kučeřík 9.40 9.40 18.80 Did not advance 40 Kang Gwang-song 8.95 9.80 18.75 Did not advance 41 José de la Casa 9.15 9.55 18.70 Did not advance Jan Migdau 9.30 9.40 18.70 Did not advance 43 Fernando Bertrand 9.25 9.40 18.65 Did not advance Romulus Bucuroiu 9.10 9.55 18.65 Did not advance Joël Suty 9.15 9.50 18.65 Did not advance Kurt Szilier 9.65 9.00 18.65 Did not advance 47 Enrique Bravo 9.15 9.40 18.55 Did not advance Lindsay Nylund 9.30 9.25 18.55 Did not advance Waldemar Woźniak 9.15 9.40 18.55 Did not advance 50 Zoltán Kelemen 9.20 9.30 18.50 Did not advance István Vámos 9.35 9.15 18.50 Did not advance 52 Krzysztof Potaczek 9.05 9.40 18.45 Did not advance 53 Li Su-gil 8.95 9.45 18.40 Did not advance Yanko Radanchev 9.25 9.15 18.40 Did not advance 55 Willi Moy 9.25 9.10 18.35 Did not advance Barry Winch 9.20 9.15 18.35 Did not advance 57 Henri Boerio 8.55 9.60 18.15 Did not advance 58 Andrzej Szajna 8.55 9.55 18.10 Did not advance 59 Yves Bouquel 8.85 8.75 17.60 Did not advance 60 Keith Langley 9.10 8.40 17.50 Did not advance 61 Thomas Wilson 8.25 9.15 17.40 Did not advance 62 Song Sun-bong 8.15 9.00 17.15 Did not advance 63 João Luiz Ribeiro 8.20 8.85 17.05 Did not advance 64 Marc Touchais 8.30 8.55 16.85 Did not advance 65 Jorge Roche 9.45 0.00 9.45 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