The men's rings 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 rings event. Mikhail Voronin took silver to extend the Soviet Union's podium streak in the event to five Games, while Sawao Kato of Japan finished with bronze.
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). Two of the six finalists from 1964 returned: silver medalist Franco Menichelli of Italy and sixth-place finisher Yukio Endō of Japan. Menichelli had finished third at the 1966 World Championships behind Mikhail Voronin of the Soviet Union and Akinori Nakayama of Japan.
Ecuador and the Philippines each made their debut in the men's rings; 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 9.75 9.75 19.50 9.750 9.700 19.450 9.75 9.70 19.45 9.725 9.600 19.325 9.70 9.85 19.55 9.775 9.450 19.225 4 9.65 9.60 19.25 9.625 9.500 19.125 5 9.70 9.70 19.40 9.700 9.350 19.050 6 9.60 9.45 19.05 9.525 9.450 18.975 7 9.55 9.45 19.00 did not advance 8 9.45 9.50 18.95 did not advance 9 9.30 9.60 18.90 did not advance 9.40 9.50 18.90 did not advance 11 9.40 9.40 18.80 did not advance 9.40 9.40 18.80 did not advance 13 9.35 9.40 18.75 did not advance 9.30 9.45 18.75 did not advance 15 9.30 9.40 18.70 did not advance 9.30 9.40 18.70 did not advance 17 9.30 9.30 18.60 did not advance 9.45 9.15 18.60 did not advance 9.30 9.30 18.60 did not advance 20 9.20 9.35 18.55 did not advance 9.30 9.25 18.55 did not advance 22 9.20 9.30 18.50 did not advance 23 9.05 9.40 18.45 did not advance 9.20 9.25 18.45 did not advance 25 9.10 9.30 18.40 did not advance 9.20 9.20 18.40 did not advance 27 9.15 9.20 18.35 did not advance 28 9.00 9.30 18.30 did not advance 9.00 9.30 18.30 did not advance 9.00 9.30 18.30 did not advance 9.00 9.30 18.30 did not advance 32 9.05 9.20 18.25 did not advance 9.10 9.15 18.25 did not advance 9.10 9.15 18.25 did not advance 8.85 9.40 18.25 did not advance 9.05 9.20 18.25 did not advance 9.05 9.20 18.25 did not advance 38 8.95 9.20 18.15 did not advance 8.95 9.20 18.15 did not advance 9.00 9.15 18.15 did not advance 8.90 9.25 18.15 did not advance 9.05 9.10 18.15 did not advance 43 9.05 9.05 18.10 did not advance 44 8.85 9.20 18.05 did not advance 8.90 9.15 18.05 did not advance 9.10 8.95 18.05 did not advance 47 8.95 9.05 18.00 did not advance 8.95 9.05 18.00 did not advance 9.00 9.00 18.00 did not advance 8.80 9.20 18.00 did not advance 51 8.90 9.05 17.95 did not advance 52 8.80 9.10 17.90 did not advance 8.95 8.95 17.90 did not advance 54 8.85 9.00 17.85 did not advance 8.85 9.00 17.85 did not advance 8.80 9.05 17.85 did not advance 8.90 8.95 17.85 did not advance 58 8.80 9.00 17.80 did not advance 8.75 9.05 17.80 did not advance 60 8.70 9.00 17.70 did not advance 8.90 8.80 17.70 did not advance 8.45 9.30 17.75 did not advance 63 8.80 8.85 17.65 did not advance 8.75 8.90 17.65 did not advance 8.80 8.85 17.65 did not advance 8.75 8.90 17.65 did not advance 67 8.70 8.90 17.60 did not advance 68 8.45 9.10 17.55 did not advance 8.60 8.95 17.55 did not advance 8.60 8.95 17.55 did not advance 8.65 8.90 17.55 did not advance 8.45 9.10 17.55 did not advance 8.50 9.05 17.55 did not advance 8.55 9.00 17.55 did not advance 75 8.90 8.60 17.50 did not advance 8.55 8.95 17.50 did not advance 77 8.25 9.10 17.35 did not advance 8.65 8.70 17.35 did not advance 79 8.65 8.60 17.25 did not advance 79 8.70 8.55 17.25 did not advance 81 8.00 9.20 17.20 did not advance 82 8.25 8.90 17.15 did not advance 8.25 8.90 17.15 did not advance 84 8.65 8.45 17.10 did not advance 8.35 8.75 17.10 did not advance 86 8.90 8.15 17.05 did not advance 87 8.10 8.90 17.00 did not advance 88 8.15 8.70 16.85 did not advance 89 8.20 8.55 16.75 did not advance 8.60 8.15 16.75 did not advance 91 8.10 8.60 16.70 did not advance 8.10 8.60 16.70 did not advance 93 7.85 8.80 16.65 did not advance 8.45 8.20 16.65 did not advance 95 8.10 8.40 16.50 did not advance 8.50 8.00 16.50 did not advance 97 7.90 8.55 16.45 did not advance 7.85 8.60 16.45 did not advance 99 7.80 8.50 16.30 did not advance 100 7.85 8.40 16.25 did not advance 101 7.20 8.85 16.05 did not advance 102 7.60 8.35 15.95 did not advance 103 6.90 8.95 15.85 did not advance 104 7.95 7.80 15.75 did not advance 105 7.75 7.85 15.60 did not advance 106 7.85 7.70 15.55 did not advance 7.45 8.10 15.55 did not advance 108 7.65 7.65 15.30 did not advance 109 6.15 8.25 14.40 did not advance 110 6.15 8.10 14.25 did not advance 111 6.70 7.15 13.85 did not advance 112 6.65 7.10 13.75 did not advance 113 6.50 7.15 13.65 did not advance 114 5.50 6.95 12.45 did not advance 115 9.60 — 9.60 did not advance 116 6.60 — 6.60 did not advance 117 6.25 — 6.25 did not advance
References
Official Olympic Report www.gymnasticsresults.com www.gymn-forum.net