Gymnastics at the 1972 Summer Olympics – Men's parallel bars

Men's parallel bars at the Games of the XX Olympiad
Sawao Kato (1970)
Venue	Olympiahalle
Dates	27 August – 1 September
Competitors	112 from 26 nations
Winning score	19.475
Medalists
Sawao Kato  Japan Shigeru Kasamatsu  Japan Eizo Kenmotsu  Japan

The men's parallel bars competition was one of eight events for male competitors in artistic gymnastics at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. The qualification and final rounds took place on August 27, 29 and September 1 at the Olympiahalle. There were 112 competitors from 26 nations (with 1 of the 113 gymnasts not starting in this apparatus); nations entering the team event had 6 gymnasts while other nations could have up to 3 gymnasts. Japan reached the height of its success in the event this year: putting four men into the six-man final and sweeping the medals. Sawao Kato earned Japan's third consecutive gold medal in the parallel bars, tying Switzerland for most golds all-time; Kato would break that tie in 1976 with his second (and Japan's fourth) gold medal. Shigeru Kasamatsu took silver while Eizo Kenmotsu earned bronze.

Background

This was the 13th 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). Four of the six finalists from 1968 returned: gold medalist Akinori Nakayama of Japan, silver medalist Mikhail Voronin of the Soviet Union, bronze medalist Viktor Klimenko of the Soviet Union, and fifth-place finisher Eizo Kenmotsu of Japan. Nakayama had also won the 1970 world championship, with Voronin and Kenmotsu tied for second.

Liechtenstein, New Zealand, and North Korea each made their debut in the men's parallel bars. The United States made its 12th 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. (One gymnast who entered the all-around competition did not perform on the vault.) 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; others were ranked 7th through 111th. Half of the scores from the preliminary carried over to the final.

Schedule

All times are Central European Time (UTC+1)

Date	Time	Round
Monday, 27 August 1972	11:15 19:00	Preliminary: Compulsory
Wednesday, 29 August 1972	10:00 18:00	Preliminary: Voluntary
Saturday, 1 September 1972	19:30	Final

Results

One-hundred twelve gymnasts competed in the compulsory and optional rounds on August 27 and 29. The six highest scoring gymnasts advanced to the final on September 1.

Rank	Gymnast	Nation	Preliminary			Final
			Compulsory	Voluntary	Total	1⁄2 Prelim.	Final	Total
	Sawao Kato	Japan	9.60	9.75	19.35	9.675	9.800	19.475
	Shigeru Kasamatsu	Japan	9.55	9.70	19.25	9.625	9.750	19.375
	Eizo Kenmotsu	Japan	9.65	9.65	19.30	9.650	9.600	19.250
4	Viktor Klimenko	Soviet Union	9.65	9.60	19.25	9.625	9.500	19.125
5	Akinori Nakayama	Japan	9.60	9.65	19.25	9.625	9.250	18.875
6	Nikolai Andrianov	Soviet Union	9.50	9.55	19.05	9.525	8.450	17.975
7	Eberhard Gienger	West Germany	9.50	9.55	19.05	Did not advance
	Mikhail Voronin	Soviet Union	9.60	9.45	19.05	Did not advance
9	Klaus Köste	East Germany	9.50	9.50	19.00	Did not advance
10	Günter Spies	West Germany	9.55	9.40	18.95	Did not advance
11	Mikolaj Kubica	Poland	9.40	9.45	18.85	Did not advance
	Edvard Mikaelian	Soviet Union	9.50	9.35	18.85	Did not advance
	Mitsuo Tsukahara	Japan	9.35	9.50	18.85	Did not advance
14	Teruichi Okamura	Japan	9.35	9.40	18.75	Did not advance
15	Matthias Brehme	East Germany	9.30	9.35	18.65	Did not advance
	Wolfgang Thüne	East Germany	9.30	9.35	18.65	Did not advance
17	Wolfgang Klotz	East Germany	9.25	9.35	18.60	Did not advance
	Alexander Maleev	Soviet Union	9.35	9.25	18.60	Did not advance
	Peter Rohner	Switzerland	9.30	9.30	18.60	Did not advance
	Makoto Sakamoto	United States	9.30	9.30	18.60	Did not advance
	Andrzej Szajna	Poland	9.25	9.35	18.60	Did not advance
22	Li Song-sob	North Korea	9.25	9.30	18.55	Did not advance
	Walter Mossinger	West Germany	9.35	9.20	18.55	Did not advance
24	Janez Brodnik	Yugoslavia	9.20	9.30	18.50	Did not advance
	Sylwester Kubica	Poland	9.15	9.35	18.50	Did not advance
	Imre Molnár	Hungary	9.40	9.10	18.50	Did not advance
27	Max Brühwiler	Switzerland	9.15	9.30	18.45	Did not advance
	Kim Song-yu	North Korea	9.15	9.30	18.45	Did not advance
29	Steven Hug	United States	9.10	9.30	18.40	Did not advance
	Wilhelm Kubica	Poland	9.10	9.30	18.40	Did not advance
	Reinhard Rychly	East Germany	9.20	9.20	18.40	Did not advance
32	Béla Herczeg	Hungary	9.15	9.20	18.35	Did not advance
	Milenko Kersnic	Yugoslavia	9.10	9.25	18.35	Did not advance
	Kim Song-il	North Korea	9.15	9.20	18.35	Did not advance
	Mauno Nissinen	Finland	8.95	9.40	18.35	Did not advance
36	Jürgen Paeke	East Germany	9.00	9.30	18.30	Did not advance
	Geno Radev	Bulgaria	9.00	9.30	18.30	Did not advance
38	Bernd Effing	West Germany	9.00	9.25	18.25	Did not advance
	Petre Mihaiuc	Romania	9.10	9.15	18.25	Did not advance
	Ladislav Morava	Czechoslovakia	9.05	9.20	18.25	Did not advance
	Roberto Léon Richards	Cuba	8.95	9.30	18.25	Did not advance
42	Jifi Fejtek	Czechoslovakia	9.05	9.15	18.20	Did not advance
	Edwin Greutmann	Switzerland	8.95	9.25	18.20	Did not advance
	Reinhard Ritter	West Germany	9.10	9.10	18.20	Did not advance
45	Vladislav Nehasil	Czechoslovakia	8.95	9.20	18.15	Did not advance
	Vladimir Schukin	Soviet Union	9.00	9.15	18.15	Did not advance
47	Robert Bretscher	Switzerland	8.90	9.20	18.10	Did not advance
	Jorge Cuervo	Cuba	8.90	9.20	18.10	Did not advance
	Ho Yun-hang	North Korea	9.00	9.10	18.10	Did not advance
	István Kiss	Hungary	9.10	9.00	18.10	Did not advance
	Bohumil Mudrik	Czechoslovakia	9.05	9.05	18.10	Did not advance
52	Dan Grecu	Romania	9.00	9.05	18.05	Did not advance
	Christian Guiffroy	France	9.05	9.00	18.05	Did not advance
	Zoltán Magyar	Hungary	9.00	9.05	18.05	Did not advance
	Miloš Vratič	Yugoslavia	8.90	9.15	18.05	Did not advance
56	István Bérczi	Hungary	8.85	9.10	17.95	Did not advance
	Shin Heung-do	North Korea	9.00	8.95	17.95	Did not advance
58	John Crosby Jr.	United States	8.65	9.25	17.90	Did not advance
	Drago Sostaric	Yugoslavia	8.85	9.05	17.90	Did not advance
60	Franco Donega	Italy	8.85	9.00	17.85	Did not advance
	Carmine Luppino	Italy	8.70	9.15	17.85	Did not advance
	Jean-Pierre Miens	France	8.85	9.00	17.85	Did not advance
63	Ole Benediktson	Denmark	8.65	9.15	17.80	Did not advance
	Jo Jong-ryol	North Korea	8.55	9.25	17.80	Did not advance
	Heinz Häussler	West Germany	8.70	9.10	17.80	Did not advance
	Zoran Ivanovic	Yugoslavia	8.85	8.95	17.80	Did not advance
	Gheorghe Paunescu	Romania	8.70	9.10	17.80	Did not advance
68	Christian Deuza	France	8.85	8.90	17.75	Did not advance
	Ivica Hmjelovac	Yugoslavia	8.80	8.95	17.75	Did not advance
	Antal Kisteleki	Hungary	8.90	8.85	17.75	Did not advance
71	Mircea Gheorghiu	Romania	9.05	8.65	17.70	Did not advance
72	Jim Culhane Jr.	United States	8.65	9.00	17.65	Did not advance
	Jerzy Kruza	Poland	8.60	9.05	17.65	Did not advance
	Adolfo Lampronti	Italy	8.60	9.05	17.65	Did not advance
75	René Badell	Cuba	8.60	9.00	17.60	Did not advance
	José Ginés	Spain	8.70	8.90	17.60	Did not advance
	Stefan Zoev	Bulgaria	8.65	8.95	17.60	Did not advance
78	Georges Guelzec	France	8.45	9.05	17.50	Did not advance
	Ivan Kondev	Bulgaria	8.55	8.95	17.50	Did not advance
	Constantin Petrescu	Romania	8.55	8.95	17.50	Did not advance
81	Henri Boërio	France	8.15	9.30	17.45	Did not advance
	Bernard Farjat	France	8.65	8.80	17.45	Did not advance
	Cecilio Ugarte	Spain	8.50	8.95	17.45	Did not advance
84	Tore Lie	Norway	8.70	8.65	17.35	Did not advance
85	Marshall Avener	United States	8.10	9.15	17.25	Did not advance
	Luigi Coppa	Italy	8.35	8.90	17.25	Did not advance
	Rogelio Mendoza	Mexico	8.45	8.80	17.25	Did not advance
88	Bozhidar Iliev	Bulgaria	8.40	8.80	17.20	Did not advance
	Agustin Sandoval	Spain	8.55	8.65	17.20	Did not advance
	Bruno Banzer	Liechtenstein	8.70	8.50	17.20	Did not advance
91	Maurizio Milanetto	Italy	8.10	9.05	17.15	Did not advance
	Pavel Stanovsky	Czechoslovakia	8.25	8.90	17.15	Did not advance
93	Dimitar Dimitrov	Bulgaria	8.50	8.60	17.10	Did not advance
	Luis Ramirez	Cuba	8.20	8.90	17.10	Did not advance
	Fedele Spatazza	Italy	8.80	8.30	17.10	Did not advance
96	Dimitar Koychev	Bulgaria	8.30	8.75	17.05	Did not advance
	Ian Clarke	Australia	8.45	8.60	17.05	Did not advance
98	Eddie Arnold	Great Britain	8.40	8.60	17.00	Did not advance
99	George Greenfield	United States	7.75	9.05	16.80	Did not advance
	Stan Wild	Great Britain	8.00	8.80	16.80	Did not advance
101	Philippe Gaille	Switzerland	7.70	9.05	16.75	Did not advance
102	Jorge Rodriguez	Cuba	7.85	8.80	16.65	Did not advance
	André Simard	Canada	7.90	8.75	16.65	Did not advance
	Mieczyslaw Strzalka	Poland	8.30	8.35	16.65	Did not advance
105	Peter Lloyd	Australia	8.60	8.00	16.60	Did not advance
106	Bill Norgrave	Great Britain	7.90	8.45	16.35	Did not advance
107	Emilio Sagre	Cuba	8.30	7.95	16.25	Did not advance
108	Steve Mitruk	Canada	7.80	8.40	16.20	Did not advance
109	Nicolae Oprescu	Romania	7.25	8.85	16.10	Did not advance
110	Terry Sale	New Zealand	6.65	8.50	15.15	Did not advance
111	Miloslav Netusil	Czechoslovakia	9.25	0.00	9.25	Did not advance
112	Bruce Medd	Canada	6.30	0.00	6.30	Did not advance
—	Hans Ettlin	Switzerland	DNS			Did not advance

References

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