Gymnastics at the 1976 Summer Olympics – Men's vault

Men's vault at the Games of the XXI Olympiad
Nikolai Andrianov (c. 1974)
Venue	Montreal Forum
Date	18–23 July
Competitors	90 from 20 nations
Winning score	19.450
Medalists
Nikolai Andrianov  Soviet Union Mitsuo Tsukahara  Japan Hiroshi Kajiyama  Japan

The men's vault 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 fifth gold medal in the men's vault; it was the seventh consecutive Games that the Soviets had a gymnast place in the top two. Andrianov became the third man to win multiple vault medals, adding to his 1972 bronze. Japan returned to the vault podium after a one-Games absence, with Mitsuo Tsukahara taking silver and Hiroshi Kajiyama bronze.

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 six finalists from 1972 returned: bronze medalist Nikolai Andrianov of the Soviet Union, fourth-place finisher Sawao Kato of Japan, and sixth-place finisher Peter Rohner of Switzerland. The 1974 vault world champion, Shigeru Kasamatsu of Japan, did not compete in Montreal. Andrianov had been the runner-up.

Israel made its debut in the men's vault. The United States made its 13th appearance, most of any nation, having missed only the inaugural 1896 Games.

Competition format

The event used a "vaulting horse" aligned parallel to the gymnast's run (rather than the modern "vaulting table" in use since 2004). 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.

Schedule

All times are Eastern Daylight Time (UTC-4)

Date	Time	Round
Sunday, 18 July 1976	12:30 19:15 21:00	Preliminary: Compulsory
Tuesday, 20 July 1976	15:00 19:00 20:45	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	1⁄2 Prelim.	Final	Total
	Nikolai Andrianov	Soviet Union	9.65	9.70	19.35	9.675	9.775	19.450
	Mitsuo Tsukahara	Japan	9.50	9.80	19.30	9.650	9.725	19.375
	Hiroshi Kajiyama	Japan	9.65	9.70	19.35	9.675	9.600	19.275
4	Danuţ Grecu	Romania	9.60	9.70	19.30	9.650	9.550	19.200
5	Zoltán Magyar	Hungary	9.60	9.55	19.15	9.575	9.575	19.150
	Imre Molnar	Hungary	9.75	9.70	19.45	9.725	9.425	19.150
7	Ferenc Donath	Hungary	9.55	9.55	19.10	Did not advance
	Sawao Kato	Japan	9.55	9.55	19.10	Did not advance
	Andrzej Szajna	Poland	9.40	9.70	19.10	Did not advance
	Jiri Tabak	Czechoslovakia	9.35	9.75	19.10	Did not advance
11	Mihai Borş	Romania	9.40	9.65	19.05	Did not advance
	Roland Brückner	East Germany	9.50	9.55	19.05	Did not advance
	Alexander Dityatin	Soviet Union	9.40	9.65	19.05	Did not advance
	Béla Laufer	Hungary	9.50	9.55	19.05	Did not advance
15	Eizo Kemmotsu	Japan	9.65	9.35	19.00	Did not advance
	Gennady Krysin	Soviet Union	9.50	9.50	19.00	Did not advance
	Vladimir Marchenko	Soviet Union	9.45	9.55	19.00	Did not advance
18	Imre Bánrévi	Hungary	9.45	9.50	18.95	Did not advance
19	Gabriel Calvo	Spain	9.30	9.60	18.90	Did not advance
	Eberhard Gienger	West Germany	9.50	9.40	18.90	Did not advance
	Hisato Igarashi	Japan	9.45	9.45	18.90	Did not advance
22	Henri Boerio	France	9.35	9.50	18.85	Did not advance
	Robert Bretscher	Switzerland	9.30	9.55	18.85	Did not advance
	Wolfgang Klotz	East Germany	9.35	9.50	18.85	Did not advance
	Georgi Todorov	Bulgaria	9.30	9.55	18.85	Did not advance
26	Ion Checicheş	Romania	9.40	9.40	18.80	Did not advance
	Bernd Jäger	East Germany	9.40	9.40	18.80	Did not advance
	Willi Moy	France	9.25	9.55	18.80	Did not advance
	Vladimir Markelov	Soviet Union	9.60	9.20	18.80	Did not advance
30	Keith Carter	Canada	9.25	9.50	18.75	Did not advance
	Dimitrios Janulidis	Czechoslovakia	9.15	9.60	18.75	Did not advance
	Lutz Mack	East Germany	9.35	9.40	18.75	Did not advance
	Maurizio Milanetto	Italy	9.30	9.45	18.75	Did not advance
	Volker Rohrwick	West Germany	9.35	9.40	18.75	Did not advance
35	Árpád Farkas	Hungary	9.30	9.40	18.70	Did not advance
	Marian Pieczka	Poland	9.20	9.50	18.70	Did not advance
37	Philip Delesalle	Canada	9.30	9.35	18.65	Did not advance
	Vladislav Nehasil	Czechoslovakia	9.20	9.45	18.65	Did not advance
39	Wayne Young	United States	9.20	9.40	18.60	Did not advance
40	Sorin Cepoi	Romania	9.30	9.25	18.55	Did not advance
	Nelson Fernández	Cuba	9.15	9.40	18.55	Did not advance
	Pierre Leclerc	Canada	9.35	9.20	18.55	Did not advance
	Łukasz Uhma	Poland	9.10	9.45	18.55	Did not advance
44	Tom Beach	United States	9.20	9.30	18.50	Did not advance
	Bart Conner	United States	9.20	9.30	18.50	Did not advance
	Ştefan Gal	Romania	9.20	9.30	18.50	Did not advance
	Ian Neale	Great Britain	9.15	9.35	18.50	Did not advance
	Reinhard Ritter	West Germany	9.15	9.35	18.50	Did not advance
	Werner Steinmetz	West Germany	9.15	9.35	18.50	Did not advance
50	Ueli Bachmann	Switzerland	9.15	9.30	18.45	Did not advance
	José de la Casa	Spain	8.95	9.50	18.45	Did not advance
	Reinhard Dietze	West Germany	9.25	9.20	18.45	Did not advance
	Eric Koloko	France	9.25	9.20	18.45	Did not advance
54	Jeff Davis	Great Britain	9.15	9.25	18.40	Did not advance
	Gustav Tannenberger	Czechoslovakia	8.95	9.45	18.40	Did not advance
	Mariusz Zasada	Poland	9.15	9.25	18.40	Did not advance
	Angelo Zucca	Italy	8.95	9.45	18.40	Did not advance
58	Philippe Gaille	Switzerland	9.20	9.15	18.35	Did not advance
	Peter Kormann	United States	9.10	9.25	18.35	Did not advance
60	Ole Benediktson	Denmark	9.00	9.30	18.30	Did not advance
	Armin Vock	Switzerland	9.10	9.20	18.30	Did not advance
62	Marshall Avener	United States	9.05	9.20	18.25	Did not advance
	Edgar Jorek	West Germany	9.40	8.85	18.25	Did not advance
	Michael Nikolay	East Germany	9.25	9.00	18.25	Did not advance
	Roberto Richards	Cuba	9.30	8.95	18.25	Did not advance
66	Patrick Boutet	France	8.90	9.25	18.15	Did not advance
	Grzegorz Ciastek	Poland	8.95	9.20	18.15	Did not advance
	Bernard Decoux	France	8.75	9.40	18.15	Did not advance
	Stoyan Delchev	Bulgaria	8.75	9.40	18.15	Did not advance
	Maurizio Montesi	Italy	8.75	9.40	18.15	Did not advance
	Roman Tkaczyk	Poland	8.75	9.40	18.15	Did not advance
	Jan Zoulík	Czechoslovakia	8.90	9.25	18.15	Did not advance
73	Fernando Bertrand	Spain	8.70	9.40	18.10	Did not advance
	Andrey Keranov	Bulgaria	9.15	8.95	18.10	Did not advance
75	Vladimir Tikhonov	Soviet Union	9.40	8.65	18.05	Did not advance
	Bernhard Locher	Switzerland	8.85	9.20	18.05	Did not advance
77	Toncho Todorov	Bulgaria	8.65	9.35	18.00	Did not advance
78	Rainer Hanschke	East Germany	9.05	8.90	17.95	Did not advance
79	Dimitar Koychev	Bulgaria	8.85	9.05	17.90	Did not advance
80	Zhivko Rusev	Bulgaria	8.65	9.20	17.85	Did not advance
81	Dov Lupi	Israel	9.05	8.75	17.80	Did not advance
82	Phil Cheetham	Australia	8.50	9.25	17.75	Did not advance
	Miloslav Netusil	Czechoslovakia	8.50	9.25	17.75	Did not advance
	Nicolae Oprescu	Romania	8.35	9.40	17.75	Did not advance
85	Tommy Wilson	Great Britain	9.05	8.65	17.70	Did not advance
86	Michel Boutard	France	8.90	8.75	17.65	Did not advance
	Kurt Thomas	United States	9.20	8.45	17.65	Did not advance
88	Peter Rohner	Switzerland	8.60	9.00	17.60	Did not advance
89	Peter Lloyd	Australia	8.70	8.80	17.50	Did not advance
90	Shun Fujimoto	Japan	9.00	0.00	9.00	Did not advance
—	Jorge Cuervo	Cuba	DNS			Did not advance

References

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