Gymnastics at the 1976 Summer Olympics – Men's parallel bars

Men's parallel bars at the Games of the XXI Olympiad
Sawao Katō (1970)
Venue	Montreal Forum
Dates	18–23 July
Competitors	90 from 20 nations
Winning score	19.675
Medalists
Sawao Katō  Japan Nikolai Andrianov  Soviet Union Mitsuo Tsukahara  Japan

The men's parallel bars 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 Sawao Katō of Japan, the first man to successfully defend an Olympic title in the parallel bars—and, as of the 2016 Games, still the only one to do so (the most decorated parallel bars gymnast, Li Xiaopeng, had his two gold medals separated by a bronze). It was the fourth consecutive victory by a Japanese gymnast in the event, breaking a tie with Switzerland for most all-time. Japan was unable to repeat its 1972 medal sweep, as nations were now limited to two finalists each. Nikolai Andrianov of the Soviet Union took silver, while Mitsuo Tsukahara of Japan earned bronze, missing a 1–2 finish for Japan by .025 points.

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: gold medalist Sawao Katō of Japan, bronze medalist Eizo Kenmotsu of Japan, and sixth-place finisher Nikolai Andrianov of the Soviet Union. Kenmotsu had won the 1974 world championship, with Andrianov the runner-up.

Israel made its debut in the men's parallel bars. The United States made its 13th 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 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
	Sawao Katō	Japan	9.75	9.80	19.55	9.775	9.900	19.675
	Nikolai Andrianov	Soviet Union	9.80	9.70	19.50	9.750	9.750	19.500
	Mitsuo Tsukahara	Japan	9.70	9.65	19.35	9.675	9.800	19.475
4	Bernd Jäger	East Germany	9.65	9.55	19.20	9.600	9.600	19.200
5	Miloslav Netusil	Czechoslovakia	9.45	9.60	19.05	9.525	9.600	19.125
6	Andrzej Szajna	Poland	9.45	9.55	19.00	9.500	9.450	18.950
7	Hiroshi Kajiyama	Japan	9.70	9.65	19.35	Did not advance
8	Dan Grecu	Romania	9.70	9.55	19.25	Did not advance
	Vladimir Markelov	Soviet Union	9.65	9.60	19.25	Did not advance
10	Hisato Igarashi	Japan	9.55	9.45	19.00	Did not advance
	Zoltán Magyar	Hungary	9.55	9.45	19.00	Did not advance
12	Bart Conner	United States	9.55	9.40	18.95	Did not advance
13	Alexander Dityatin	Soviet Union	9.50	9.40	18.90	Did not advance
	Lutz Mack	East Germany	9.50	9.40	18.90	Did not advance
15	Henri Boerio	France	9.45	9.40	18.85	Did not advance
	Gennady Krysin	Soviet Union	9.45	9.40	18.85	Did not advance
17	Robert Bretscher	Switzerland	9.50	9.25	18.75	Did not advance
	Eizo Kenmotsu	Japan	9.00	9.75	18.75	Did not advance
	Imre Molnar	Hungary	9.60	9.15	18.75	Did not advance
	Michael Nikolay	East Germany	9.40	9.35	18.75	Did not advance
21	Ferenc Donath	Hungary	9.40	9.30	18.70	Did not advance
	Edgar Jorek	West Germany	9.30	9.40	18.70	Did not advance
	Kurt Thomas	United States	9.40	9.30	18.70	Did not advance
24	Volker Rohrwick	West Germany	9.25	9.40	18.65	Did not advance
25	Mihai Borş	Romania	9.45	9.15	18.60	Did not advance
	Pierre Leclerc	Canada	9.40	9.20	18.60	Did not advance
27	Gustav Tannenberger	Czechoslovakia	9.30	9.25	18.55	Did not advance
	Wayne Young	United States	9.35	9.20	18.55	Did not advance
29	Rainer Hanschke	East Germany	9.35	9.15	18.50	Did not advance
	Nicolae Oprescu	Romania	9.40	9.10	18.50	Did not advance
31	Mariusz Zasada	Poland	9.25	9.20	18.45	Did not advance
32	Vladislav Nehasil	Czechoslovakia	8.95	9.40	18.35	Did not advance
33	Sorin Cepoi	Romania	9.25	9.05	18.30	Did not advance
	Ştefan Gal	Romania	9.05	9.25	18.30	Did not advance
35	Marshall Avener	United States	9.20	9.05	18.25	Did not advance
	Wolfgang Klotz	East Germany	9.05	9.20	18.25	Did not advance
37	Eberhard Gienger	West Germany	8.80	9.40	18.20	Did not advance
	Maurizio Milanetto	Italy	9.15	9.05	18.20	Did not advance
	Roberto Richards	Cuba	8.90	9.30	18.20	Did not advance
	Roland Brückner	East Germany	9.10	9.10	18.20	Did not advance
	Dov Lupi	Israel	9.00	9.20	18.20	Did not advance
	Peter Rohner	Switzerland	9.25	8.95	18.20	Did not advance
43	Tom Beach	United States	9.15	9.00	18.15	Did not advance
	Árpád Farkas	Hungary	9.15	9.00	18.15	Did not advance
	Eric Koloko	France	9.15	9.00	18.15	Did not advance
46	Ueli Bachmann	Switzerland	8.80	9.30	18.10	Did not advance
	Stoyan Delchev	Bulgaria	8.90	9.20	18.10	Did not advance
	Peter Kormann	United States	9.05	9.05	18.10	Did not advance
	Vladimir Tikhonov	Soviet Union	9.30	8.80	18.10	Did not advance
50	Vladimir Marchenko	Soviet Union	8.55	9.50	18.05	Did not advance
	Willi Moy	France	9.20	8.85	18.05	Did not advance
	Łukasz Uhma	Poland	8.70	9.35	18.05	Did not advance
53	Béla Laufer	Hungary	9.30	8.70	18.00	Did not advance
54	Ion Checicheş	Romania	8.85	9.10	17.95	Did not advance
55	Gabriel Calvo	Spain	8.85	9.05	17.90	Did not advance
56	Keith Carter	Canada	9.05	8.80	17.85	Did not advance
	Philippe Gaille	Switzerland	8.90	8.95	17.85	Did not advance
	Peter Lloyd	Australia	8.90	8.95	17.85	Did not advance
	Werner Steinmetz	West Germany	8.90	8.95	17.85	Did not advance
60	Bernard Decoux	France	8.85	8.95	17.80	Did not advance
	Roman Tkaczyk	Poland	8.95	8.85	17.80	Did not advance
62	Imre Bánrévi	Hungary	8.55	9.20	17.75	Did not advance
	Ole Benediktson	Denmark	8.60	9.15	17.75	Did not advance
	Reinhard Dietze	West Germany	9.05	8.70	17.75	Did not advance
	Andrey Keranov	Bulgaria	8.95	8.80	17.75	Did not advance
	Reinhard Ritter	West Germany	8.80	8.95	17.75	Did not advance
67	Armin Vock	Switzerland	9.05	8.65	17.70	Did not advance
	Philip Delesalle	Canada	9.20	8.50	17.70	Did not advance
69	Patrick Boutet	France	8.40	9.25	17.65	Did not advance
	Maurizio Montesi	Italy	8.95	8.70	17.65	Did not advance
71	Michel Boutard	France	8.80	8.80	17.60	Did not advance
	Jan Zoulík	Czechoslovakia	8.65	8.95	17.60	Did not advance
73	Dimitar Koychev	Bulgaria	8.65	8.90	17.55	Did not advance
	Dimitrios Janulidis	Czechoslovakia	8.85	8.70	17.55	Did not advance
75	Phil Cheetham	Australia	8.65	8.80	17.45	Did not advance
	José de la Casa	Spain	8.90	8.55	17.45	Did not advance
	Bernhard Locher	Switzerland	8.65	8.80	17.45	Did not advance
	Angelo Zucca	Italy	8.35	9.10	17.45	Did not advance
79	Grzegorz Ciastek	Poland	8.70	8.55	17.25	Did not advance
	Nelson Fernández	Cuba	8.50	8.75	17.25	Did not advance
81	Georgi Todorov	Bulgaria	8.30	8.90	17.20	Did not advance
	Tommy Wilson	Great Britain	8.50	8.70	17.20	Did not advance
83	Ian Neale	Great Britain	7.85	9.15	17.00	Did not advance
84	Jeff Davis	Great Britain	8.00	8.90	16.90	Did not advance
85	Marian Pieczka	Poland	8.55	8.20	16.75	Did not advance
86	Jiri Tabak	Czechoslovakia	6.95	9.35	16.30	Did not advance
87	Fernando Bertrand	Spain	8.60	7.60	16.20	Did not advance
88	Toncho Todorov	Bulgaria	6.95	8.65	15.60	Did not advance
89	Zhivko Rusev	Bulgaria	7.10	8.30	15.40	Did not advance
90	Shun Fujimoto	Japan	9.45	0.00	9.45	Did not advance
—	Jorge Cuervo	Cuba	DNS			Did not advance

References

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