Gymnastics at the 1980 Summer Olympics – Men's pommel horse

Men's pommel horse at the Games of the XXII Olympiad
Zoltán Magyar (1976)
Venue	Luzhniki Palace of Sports
Dates	20–25 July
Competitors	65 from 14 nations
Winning score	19.925
Medalists
Zoltán Magyar  Hungary Alexander Dityatin  Soviet Union Michael Nikolay  East Germany

The men's pommel horse competition was one of eight events for male competitors in artistic gymnastics at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. The qualification and final rounds took place on July 20, 22 and 25 at the Luzhniki Palace of Sports. There were 65 competitors from 14 nations, with nations competing in the team event having 6 gymnasts while other nations could have to up to 3 gymnasts. The event was won by Zoltán Magyar of Hungary, the third man to successfully defend an Olympic title in the pommel horse. Silver went to Alexander Dityatin, extending the Soviet Union's podium streak in the event to eight Games. Michael Nikolay of East Germany took bronze for the second consecutive Games. Magyar and Nikolay were the sixth and seventh men to earn multiple pommel horse medals.

Background

This was the 15th 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 1976 returned: gold medalist Zoltán Magyar of Hungary, bronze medalists Nikolai Andrianov of the Soviet Union and Michael Nikolay of East Germany, and sixth-place finisher Alexander Dityatin of the Soviet Union. Magyar had also won the last three world championships (1974, 1978, and 1979) and was a heavy favorite. The American-led boycott resulted in there being no competitors from either the traditional men's gymnastics power of Japan or the rising power of the United States; the Soviets' dominance this Games would be challenged only by the East Germans and occasional specialists such as Magyar (on the men's side, at least; Romania had a strong women's team).

Brazil made its debut in the men's pommel horse. Hungary made its 13th appearance, tying the United States (absent from the pommel horse event for the first time since the inaugural 1896 Games) for most of any nation.

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 65th. Half of the preliminary score carried over to the final.

Schedule

All times are Moscow Time (UTC+3)

Date	Time	Round
Sunday, 20 July 1980	10:00 17:00	Preliminary: Compulsory
Tuesday, 22 July 1980	10:00 17:00	Preliminary: Voluntary
Friday, 25 July 1980	14:30	Final

Results

Sixty-five gymnasts competed in the compulsory and optional rounds on July 20 and 22. The six highest scoring gymnasts advanced to the final on July 25. 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
	Zoltán Magyar	Hungary	9.90	9.95	19.85	9.925	10.000	19.925
	Alexander Dityatin	Soviet Union	9.90	9.90	19.80	9.900	9.900	19.800
	Michael Nikolay	East Germany	9.90	9.85	19.75	9.875	9.900	19.775
4	Roland Brückner	East Germany	9.80	9.85	19.65	9.825	9.900	19.725
5	Aleksandr Tkachyov	Soviet Union	9.90	9.85	19.75	9.875	9.600	19.475
6	Ferenc Donáth	Hungary	9.75	9.85	19.60	9.800	9.600	19.400
7	Eduard Azaryan	Soviet Union	9.80	9.90	19.70	Did not advance
8	Nikolai Andrianov	Soviet Union	9.75	9.85	19.60	Did not advance
	Vladimir Markelov	Soviet Union	9.80	9.80	19.60	Did not advance
10	Stoyan Deltchev	Bulgaria	9.65	9.85	19.50	Did not advance
11	Lutz Hoffmann	East Germany	9.70	9.75	19.45	Did not advance
	Bohdan Makuts	Soviet Union	9.70	9.75	19.45	Did not advance
13	György Guczoghy	Hungary	9.65	9.75	19.40	Did not advance
14	Michel Boutard	France	9.60	9.75	19.35	Did not advance
	Andreas Bronst	East Germany	9.60	9.75	19.35	Did not advance
	Romulus Bucuroiu	Romania	9.65	9.70	19.35	Did not advance
	Kurt Szilier	Romania	9.65	9.70	19.35	Did not advance
18	Roberto Leon	Cuba	9.65	9.65	19.30	Did not advance
19	Rudolf Babiak	Czechoslovakia	9.45	9.75	19.20	Did not advance
	Ralf-Peter Hemmann	East Germany	9.50	9.70	19.20	Did not advance
	Zoltán Kelemen	Hungary	9.50	9.70	19.20	Did not advance
22	Miloslav Kučeřík	Czechoslovakia	9.45	9.70	19.15	Did not advance
	Joël Suty	France	9.50	9.65	19.15	Did not advance
24	Péter Kovács	Hungary	9.35	9.75	19.10	Did not advance
25	Plamen Petkov	Bulgaria	9.40	9.65	19.05	Did not advance
	Jiří Tabák	Czechoslovakia	9.55	9.50	19.05	Did not advance
27	Enrique Bravo	Cuba	9.55	9.45	19.00	Did not advance
28	Sorin Cepoi	Romania	9.45	9.50	18.95	Did not advance
29	Dan Grecu	Romania	9.25	9.65	18.90	Did not advance
	Andrzej Szajna	Poland	9.30	9.60	18.90	Did not advance
	Dancho Yordanov	Bulgaria	9.40	9.50	18.90	Did not advance
32	Jan Zoulik	Czechoslovakia	9.00	9.80	18.80	Did not advance
33	István Vámos	Hungary	9.25	9.50	18.75	Did not advance
34	Miguel Arroyo	Cuba	9.45	9.25	18.70	Did not advance
	Henri Boerio	France	9.45	9.25	18.70	Did not advance
	Willi Moy	France	9.30	9.40	18.70	Did not advance
37	Yves Bouquel	France	9.50	9.05	18.55	Did not advance
	Krzysztof Potaczek	Poland	9.55	9.00	18.55	Did not advance
	Thomas Wilson	Great Britain	9.25	9.30	18.55	Did not advance
	Barry Winch	Great Britain	9.25	9.30	18.55	Did not advance
41	Aurelian Georgescu	Romania	8.90	9.60	18.50	Did not advance
42	Jorge Roche	Cuba	9.40	9.05	18.45	Did not advance
43	Lutz Mack	East Germany	8.80	9.60	18.40	Did not advance
	Rumen Petkov	Bulgaria	9.00	9.40	18.40	Did not advance
45	Ognyan Bangiev	Bulgaria	9.25	9.10	18.35	Did not advance
46	Lindsay Nylund	Australia	8.90	9.35	18.25	Did not advance
47	Nicolae Oprescu	Romania	8.85	9.35	18.20	Did not advance
	Waldemar Woźniak	Poland	8.85	9.35	18.20	Did not advance
49	Yanko Radanchev	Bulgaria	8.60	9.55	18.15	Did not advance
50	Mario Castro	Cuba	9.15	8.80	17.95	Did not advance
51	Gabriel Calvo	Spain	9.00	8.90	17.90	Did not advance
52	Fernando Bertrand	Spain	9.05	8.80	17.85	Did not advance
	José de la Casa	Spain	8.95	8.90	17.85	Did not advance
	Marc Touchais	France	9.00	8.85	17.85	Did not advance
55	Han Gwang-song	North Korea	8.80	8.90	17.70	Did not advance
	Keith Langley	Great Britain	9.05	8.65	17.70	Did not advance
	Jan Migdau	Czechoslovakia	8.50	9.20	17.70	Did not advance
58	Jozef Konečný	Czechoslovakia	8.05	9.55	17.60	Did not advance
59	Cho Hun	North Korea	8.40	9.15	17.55	Did not advance
60	Song Sun-bong	North Korea	8.35	8.85	17.20	Did not advance
	Sergio Suarez	Cuba	8.95	8.25	17.20	Did not advance
62	Kang Gwang-song	North Korea	7.55	9.45	17.00	Did not advance
63	João Luiz Ribeiro	Brazil	8.55	8.30	16.85	Did not advance
64	Li Su-gil	North Korea	8.00	8.65	16.65	Did not advance
65	Kim Gwang-jin	North Korea	7.95	8.60	16.55	Did not advance
—	Moustapha Chouara	Lebanon	DNS			Did not advance
	Adnan Horns	Lebanon	DNS			Did not advance
	Maurizio Zonzini	San Marino	DNS			Did not advance

References

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