The men's parallel bars competition was one of eight events for male competitors in artistic gymnastics at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. There were 117 competitors from 28 nations, with nations in the team competition having up to 6 gymnasts and other nations entering up to 3 gymnasts. The event was won by Akinori Nakayama of Japan, the nation's second consecutive victory in the parallel bars event, tying Germany and the Soviet Union for second-most all-time behind Switzerland at three gold medals. It was the second of four straight Games that the parallel bars would be won by a Japanese gymnast. Mikhail Voronin took silver and Viktor Klimenko took bronze to put the Soviet Union back on the podium after a one-Games absence.
Background
This was the 12th 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). Five of the six finalists from 1964 returned: gold medalist Yukio Endo of Japan, bronze medalist Franco Menichelli of Italy, fourth-place finisher Sergey Diomidov and fifth-place finisher Victor Lisitsky of the Soviet Union, and sixth-place finisher Miroslav Cerar of Yugoslavia. Diomidov had won the 1966 world championship, with fellow Soviet Mikhail Voronin second and Cerar third.
Ecuador and the Philippines each made their debut in the men's parallel bars; East and West Germany competed separately for the first time. The United States made its 11th 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 new 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 117th. In the final, each gymnast performed an additional voluntary exercise; half of the score from the preliminary carried over.Official Report, p. 676.
Schedule
All times are Central Standard Time (UTC-6)
Date Time Round Tuesday, 22 October 1968 8:3017:00 Preliminary: Compulsory Thursday, 24 October 1968 8:3017:00 Preliminary: Voluntary Saturday, 26 October 1968 19:00 Final
Results
Rank Gymnast Nation Preliminary Final Compulsory Voluntary Total Prelim. Final Total 9.70 9.85 19.55 9.775 9.700 19.475 9.75 9.70 19.45 9.725 9.700 19.425 9.60 9.65 19.25 9.625 9.600 19.225 4 9.60 9.70 19.30 9.650 9.550 19.200 5 9.60 9.65 19.25 9.625 9.550 19.175 6 9.60 9.60 19.20 9.600 9.350 18.950 7 9.65 9.70 19.35 did not compete 8 9.55 9.65 19.20 did not advance 9 9.65 9.50 19.15 did not advance 9.55 9.60 19.15 did not advance 9.50 9.65 19.15 did not advance 12 9.60 9.50 19.10 did not advance 9.60 9.50 19.10 did not advance 9.50 9.60 19.10 did not advance 15 9.55 9.50 19.05 did not advance 9.45 9.60 19.05 did not advance 9.50 9.55 19.05 did not advance 9.45 9.60 19.05 did not advance 19 9.50 9.50 19.00 did not advance 9.40 9.60 19.00 did not advance 21 9.50 9.45 18.95 did not advance 9.50 9.45 18.95 did not advance 23 9.45 9.45 18.90 did not advance 9.45 9.45 18.90 did not advance 9.45 9.45 18.90 did not advance 26 9.45 9.40 18.85 did not advance 9.40 9.45 18.85 did not advance 9.35 9.50 18.85 did not advance 9.35 9.50 18.85 did not advance 9.35 9.50 18.85 did not advance 31 9.35 9.45 18.80 did not advance 9.30 9.50 18.80 did not advance 33 9.40 9.35 18.75 did not advance 9.45 9.30 18.75 did not advance 35 9.30 9.40 18.70 did not advance 9.30 9.40 18.70 did not advance 9.30 9.40 18.70 did not advance 9.30 9.40 18.70 did not advance 39 9.30 9.35 18.65 did not advance 9.20 9.45 18.65 did not advance 41 9.10 9.50 18.60 did not advance 9.60 9.00 18.60 did not advance 9.10 9.50 18.60 did not advance 9.30 9.30 18.60 did not advance 45 9.05 9.50 18.55 did not advance 9.25 9.30 18.55 did not advance 9.30 9.25 18.55 did not advance 9.30 9.25 18.55 did not advance 49 9.05 9.45 18.50 did not advance 9.20 9.30 18.50 did not advance 51 9.25 9.20 18.45 did not advance 9.10 9.35 18.45 did not advance 9.30 9.15 18.45 did not advance 9.05 9.40 18.45 did not advance 55 9.20 9.20 18.40 did not advance 9.15 9.25 18.40 did not advance 57 9.10 9.25 18.35 did not advance 9.10 9.25 18.35 did not advance 9.15 9.20 18.35 did not advance 60 9.15 9.15 18.30 did not advance 9.20 9.10 18.30 did not advance 9.10 9.20 18.30 did not advance 63 8.85 9.40 18.25 did not advance 8.90 9.35 18.25 did not advance 65 8.75 9.45 18.20 did not advance 9.00 9.20 18.20 did not advance 67 9.05 9.10 18.15 did not advance 9.10 9.05 18.15 did not advance 69 8.60 9.50 18.10 did not advance 9.00 9.10 18.10 did not advance 8.95 9.15 18.10 did not advance 72 8.70 9.35 18.05 did not advance 73 8.70 9.30 18.00 did not advance 74 8.95 9.00 17.95 did not advance 8.95 9.00 17.95 did not advance 8.35 9.60 17.95 did not advance 9.10 8.85 17.95 did not advance 78 9.15 8.75 17.90 did not advance 79 8.85 9.00 17.85 did not advance 8.85 9.00 17.85 did not advance 81 8.55 9.25 17.80 did not advance 9.10 8.70 17.80 did not advance 83 9.00 8.70 17.70 did not advance 8.70 9.00 17.70 did not advance 85 8.70 8.95 17.65 did not advance 8.50 9.15 17.65 did not advance 8.90 8.75 17.65 did not advance 88 8.65 8.95 17.60 did not advance 89 8.70 8.85 17.55 did not advance 90 9.05 8.35 17.40 did not advance 8.20 9.20 17.40 did not advance 8.20 9.20 17.40 did not advance 93 8.95 8.40 17.35 did not advance 94 8.85 8.45 17.30 did not advance 95 8.55 8.65 17.20 did not advance 8.00 9.20 17.20 did not advance 97 8.35 8.80 17.15 did not advance 98 8.95 8.15 17.10 did not advance 99 8.50 8.50 17.00 did not advance 100 8.00 8.90 16.90 did not advance 101 7.70 9.10 16.80 did not advance 102 7.70 9.05 16.75 did not advance 9.00 7.75 16.75 did not advance 104 8.00 8.70 16.70 did not advance 105 7.70 8.95 16.65 did not advance 106 8.55 8.05 16.60 did not advance 107 8.00 8.55 16.55 did not advance 108 7.55 8.90 16.45 did not advance 109 8.70 7.70 16.40 did not advance 110 7.40 8.60 16.00 did not advance 111 7.20 8.45 15.65 did not advance 112 7.20 8.05 15.25 did not advance 113 5.70 7.55 13.25 did not advance 114 5.50 7.20 12.70 did not advance 115 9.60 — 9.60 did not advance 116 6.65 — 6.65 did not advance 117 4.95 — 4.95 did not advance
References
Official Olympic Report www.gymnasticsresults.com www.gymn-forum.net