The men's rings 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 111 competitors from 26 nations (with 2 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. The top two places were the same as in 1968, while the next two places were taken by the same gymnasts but in the opposite order. The event was won by Akinori Nakayama of Japan, the nation's third consecutive victory in the men's rings; Nakayama was the second man to successfully defend an Olympic title in the event. Mikhail Voronin's second consecutive silver extended the Soviet Union's podium streak in the rings to six Games. Nakayama and Voronin were the fifth and sixth men to earn multiple medals in the rings. Mitsuo Tsukahara of Japan took bronze, switching places with fourth-place finisher Sawao Kato from the previous Games (where Kato took bronze and Tsukahara fourth).

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 Sawao Kato of Japan, and fourth-place finisher Mitsuo Tsukahara of Japan. Nakayama, Tsukahara, and Voronin (in that order) had comprised the podium at the 1970 World Championships.

Liechtenstein, New Zealand, and North Korea each made their debut in the men's rings. 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.Official Report, vol. 3, p. 192.

Schedule

All times are Central European Time (UTC+1)

Date Time Round Monday, 27 August 1972 11:1519:00 Preliminary: Compulsory Wednesday, 29 August 1972 10:0018:00 Preliminary: Voluntary Saturday, 1 September 1972 19:30 Final

Results

One-hundred eleven 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 Prelim. Final Total Akinori Nakayama 9.70 9.70 19.40 9.700 9.650 19.350 Mikhail Voronin 9.60 9.65 19.25 9.625 9.650 19.275 Mitsuo Tsukahara 9.45 9.60 19.05 9.525 9.700 19.225 4 Sawao Kato 9.50 9.60 19.10 9.550 9.600 19.150 5 Eizo Kenmotsu 9.60 9.50 19.10 9.550 9.400 18.950 Klaus Köste 9.45 9.55 19.00 9.500 9.450 18.950 7 Nikolai Andrianov 9.50 9.50 19.00 Did not advance 8 Shin Heung-do 9.30 9.65 18.95 Did not advance 9 Teruichi Okamura 9.45 9.45 18.90 Did not advance 10 Andrzej Szajna 9.40 9.45 18.85 Did not advance Wolfgang Thüne 9.50 9.35 18.85 Did not advance 12 Matthias Brehme 9.40 9.40 18.80 Did not advance Shigeru Kasamatsu 9.30 9.50 18.80 Did not advance Sylwester Kubica 9.30 9.50 18.80 Did not advance Edvard Mikaelian 9.45 9.35 18.80 Did not advance 16 Viktor Klimenko 9.40 9.30 18.70 Did not advance Wolfgang Klotz 9.40 9.30 18.70 Did not advance Walter Mossinger 9.30 9.40 18.70 Did not advance 19 Makoto Sakamoto 9.35 9.30 18.65 Did not advance 20 Dan Grecu 9.20 9.30 18.50 Did not advance Mikolaj Kubica 9.20 9.30 18.50 Did not advance 22 Li Song-sob 8.90 9.50 18.40 Did not advance Alexander Maleev 9.25 9.15 18.40 Did not advance Vladimir Schukin 9.10 9.30 18.40 Did not advance Günter Spies 9.20 9.20 18.40 Did not advance 26 Eberhard Gienger 9.10 9.25 18.35 Did not advance Kim Song-yu 9.00 9.35 18.35 Did not advance 28 Marshall Avener 9.15 9.15 18.30 Did not advance 29 Jifi Fejtek 9.15 9.10 18.25 Did not advance Imre Molnár 9.10 9.15 18.25 Did not advance 31 Peter Rohner 9.15 9.05 18.20 Did not advance Reinhard Rychly 9.00 9.20 18.20 Did not advance 33 Janez Brodnik 9.05 9.05 18.10 Did not advance Ho Yun-hang 8.95 9.15 18.10 Did not advance Wilhelm Kubica 8.80 9.30 18.10 Did not advance Petre Mihaiuc 8.90 9.20 18.10 Did not advance 37 Steven Hug 9.00 9.05 18.05 Did not advance Vladislav Nehasil 9.05 9.00 18.05 Did not advance Nicolae Oprescu 9.00 9.05 18.05 Did not advance 40 István Kiss 8.90 9.10 18.00 Did not advance 41 Jo Jong-ryol 8.70 9.25 17.95 Did not advance 42 Antal Kisteleki 9.00 8.90 17.90 Did not advance Mauno Nissinen 8.90 9.00 17.90 Did not advance Pavel Stanovsky 8.95 8.95 17.90 Did not advance Mieczyslaw Strzalka 8.80 9.10 17.90 Did not advance 46 Reinhard Ritter 8.95 8.85 17.80 Did not advance 47 George Greenfield 8.85 8.90 17.75 Did not advance Zoltán Magyar 9.00 8.75 17.75 Did not advance 49 Philippe Gaille 8.85 8.85 17.70 Did not advance Kim Song-il 8.70 9.00 17.70 Did not advance Jürgen Paeke 8.50 9.20 17.70 Did not advance 52 Dimitar Koychev 8.90 8.75 17.65 Did not advance Ladislav Morava 8.80 8.85 17.65 Did not advance 54 Edwin Greutmann 9.00 8.60 17.60 Did not advance 55 Jorge Cuervo 8.75 8.80 17.55 Did not advance Jerzy Kruza 8.55 9.00 17.55 Did not advance Miloš Vratič 8.75 8.80 17.55 Did not advance 58 Max Brühwiler 8.60 8.90 17.50 Did not advance Heinz Häussler 8.55 8.95 17.50 Did not advance Cecilio Ugarte 8.65 8.85 17.50 Did not advance 61 Bernd Effing 8.60 8.85 17.45 Did not advance Gheorghe Paunescu 8.60 8.85 17.45 Did not advance 63 Adolfo Lampronti 8.50 8.85 17.35 Did not advance 64 Jim Culhane Jr. 8.50 8.80 17.30 Did not advance 65 Dimitar Dimitrov 8.65 8.55 17.20 Did not advance Ivica Hmjelovac 8.50 8.70 17.20 Did not advance Bohumil Mudrik 8.45 8.75 17.20 Did not advance Stefan Zoev 8.60 8.60 17.20 Did not advance 69 Henri Boërio 8.55 8.60 17.15 Did not advance Ivan Kondev 8.40 8.75 17.15 Did not advance Jean-Pierre Miens 8.65 8.50 17.15 Did not advance Fedele Spatazza 8.60 8.55 17.15 Did not advance 73 Maurizio Milanetto 8.30 8.80 17.10 Did not advance 74 Emilio Sagre 8.45 8.60 17.05 Did not advance 75 Christian Deuza 8.10 8.90 17.00 Did not advance Drago Sostaric 8.40 8.60 17.00 Did not advance 77 René Badell 8.20 8.75 16.95 Did not advance István Bérczi 8.55 8.40 16.95 Did not advance Bernard Farjat 8.30 8.65 16.95 Did not advance Mircea Gheorghiu 8.35 8.60 16.95 Did not advance Constantin Petrescu 8.30 8.65 16.95 Did not advance Jorge Rodriguez 8.50 8.45 16.95 Did not advance 83 Tore Lie 8.25 8.65 16.90 Did not advance Geno Radev 8.40 8.50 16.90 Did not advance 85 John Crosby Jr. 7.85 9.00 16.85 Did not advance Christian Guiffroy 8.10 8.75 16.85 Did not advance Carmine Luppino 8.00 8.85 16.85 Did not advance 88 Luigi Coppa 8.25 8.55 16.80 Did not advance Milenko Kersnic 8.05 8.75 16.80 Did not advance 90 Zoran Ivanovic 8.15 8.60 16.75 Did not advance Bill Norgrave 8.55 8.20 16.75 Did not advance 92 Béla Herczeg 8.50 8.20 16.70 Did not advance Bozhidar Iliev 8.85 7.85 16.70 Did not advance 94 Robert Bretscher 7.50 9.10 16.60 Did not advance Franco Donega 7.95 8.65 16.60 Did not advance 96 Eddie Arnold 8.50 8.00 16.50 Did not advance 97 André Simard 7.70 8.75 16.45 Did not advance 98 Peter Lloyd 8.15 8.10 16.25 Did not advance Agustin Sandoval 8.00 8.25 16.25 Did not advance 100 Roberto Léon Richards 7.75 8.45 16.20 Did not advance 101 Luis Ramirez 7.55 8.60 16.15 Did not advance 102 Ian Clarke 8.15 7.90 16.05 Did not advance Georges Guelzec 7.45 8.60 16.05 Did not advance 104 Bruno Banzer 7.45 8.55 16.00 Did not advance Steve Mitruk 7.75 8.25 16.00 Did not advance 106 José Ginés 7.55 8.30 15.85 Did not advance Stan Wild 8.00 7.85 15.85 Did not advance 108 Rogelio Mendoza 6.90 8.35 15.25 Did not advance 109 Ole Benediktson 6.90 8.25 15.15 Did not advance 110 Terry Sale 6.60 7.35 13.95 Did not advance 111 Miloslav Netusil 9.05 0.00 9.05 Did not advance — Hans Ettlin Did not advance Bruce Medd Did not advance

References

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