The men's horizontal bar 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 Mitsuo Tsukahara of Japan, the second man to successfully defend an Olympic title in the horizontal bar. It was the third consecutive victory by a Japanese gymnast in the event, and fifth in six Games. Japan also took silver, as Eizo Kenmotsu finished second, but was prevented from repeating its 1972 podium sweep by new rules that limited nations to two gymnasts in the final (Japan had the top four gymnasts in qualifying). Tsukuhara and Kenmotsu (bronze in 1968) were the seventh and eighth men to win multiple medals in the horizontal bar. Henri Boerio of France and Eberhard Gienger of West Germany tied for bronze, the first medal for France in the event since 1924 and first horizontal bar medal for West Germany.The IOC credits West Germany as "Germany" in 1952, when Alfred Schwarzmann won silver.

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). Four of the six finalists from 1972 returned: gold medalist Mitsuo Tsukahara, silver medalist Sawao Kato, and fourth-place finisher (and 1968 bronze medalist) Eizo Kenmotsu of Japan and sixth-place finisher Nikolai Andrianov of the Soviet Union. Eberhard Gienger of West Germany was the reigning (1974) world champion.

Israel made its debut in the men's horizontal bar. 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.Official Report, vol. 3, p. 327.

Schedule

All times are Eastern Daylight Time (UTC-4)

Date Time Round Sunday, 18 July 1976 12:3019:1521:00 Preliminary: Compulsory Tuesday, 20 July 1976 15:0019:0020:45 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 Prelim. Final Total Mitsuo Tsukahara 9.75 9.90 19.65 9.775 9.900 19.675 Eizo Kenmotsu 9.65 9.85 19.50 9.750 9.750 19.500 Eberhard Gienger 9.65 9.70 19.35 9.675 9.800 19.475 Henri Boerio 9.60 9.75 19.35 9.675 9.800 19.475 5 Gennady Krysin 9.50 9.80 19.30 9.525 9.600 19.125 6 Ferenc Donath 9.55 9.65 19.20 9.500 9.450 18.950 7 Hisato Igarashi 9.60 9.85 19.45 Did not advance 8 Sawao Kato 9.65 9.75 19.40 Did not advance 9 Vladimir Markelov 9.60 9.70 19.30 Did not advance 10 Hiroshi Kajiyama 9.50 9.75 19.25 Did not advance 11 Nikolai Andrianov 9.70 9.50 19.20 Did not advance Bernd Jäger 9.60 9.60 19.20 Did not advance Michael Nikolay 9.60 9.60 19.20 Did not advance 14 Tom Beach 9.45 9.65 19.10 Did not advance Alexander Dityatin 9.45 9.65 19.10 Did not advance Andrzej Szajna 9.50 9.60 19.10 Did not advance 17 Zoltán Magyar 9.50 9.55 19.05 Did not advance Vladimir Marchenko 9.45 9.60 19.05 Did not advance 19 Dan Grecu 9.40 9.60 19.00 Did not advance 20 Vladimir Tikhonov 9.30 9.65 18.95 Did not advance 21 Robert Bretscher 9.25 9.65 18.90 Did not advance 22 Imre Molnar 9.35 9.50 18.85 Did not advance Volker Rohrwick 9.40 9.45 18.85 Did not advance Wayne Young 9.35 9.50 18.85 Did not advance 25 Béla Laufer 9.25 9.55 18.80 Did not advance Lutz Mack 9.30 9.50 18.80 Did not advance Willi Moy 9.40 9.40 18.80 Did not advance Kurt Thomas 9.30 9.50 18.80 Did not advance 29 Ueli Bachmann 9.30 9.45 18.75 Did not advance Sorin Cepoi 9.30 9.45 18.75 Did not advance 31 Rainer Hanschke 9.40 9.30 18.70 Did not advance Peter Kormann 9.20 9.50 18.70 Did not advance 33 Philip Delesalle 9.40 9.25 18.65 Did not advance Wolfgang Klotz 9.20 9.45 18.65 Did not advance Bernhard Locher 9.15 9.50 18.65 Did not advance 36 Bart Conner 9.40 9.20 18.60 Did not advance Gustav Tannenberger 9.25 9.35 18.60 Did not advance 38 Imre Bánrévi 9.25 9.30 18.55 Did not advance Roland Brückner 9.25 9.30 18.55 Did not advance Nicolae Oprescu 9.15 9.40 18.55 Did not advance Ştefan Gal 9.10 9.45 18.55 Did not advance Werner Steinmetz 9.20 9.35 18.55 Did not advance 43 Marshall Avener 9.10 9.40 18.50 Did not advance Edgar Jorek 9.30 9.20 18.50 Did not advance 45 Vladislav Nehasil 9.35 9.05 18.40 Did not advance 46 Philippe Gaille 9.05 9.30 18.35 Did not advance Andrey Keranov 9.15 9.20 18.35 Did not advance 48 Bernard Decoux 9.05 9.25 18.30 Did not advance Miloslav Netusil 9.15 9.15 18.30 Did not advance Marian Pieczka 9.05 9.25 18.30 Did not advance Reinhard Dietze 8.95 9.35 18.30 Did not advance Eric Koloko 9.35 8.95 18.30 Did not advance 53 Mariusz Zasada 9.30 8.90 18.20 Did not advance Jiri Tabak 9.00 9.20 18.20 Did not advance 55 Keith Carter 9.00 9.10 18.10 Did not advance Georgi Todorov 9.00 9.10 18.10 Did not advance 57 Maurizio Montesi 8.80 9.25 18.05 Did not advance 58 Ole Benediktson 8.65 9.30 17.95 Did not advance Maurizio Milanetto 8.65 9.30 17.95 Did not advance Peter Rohner 9.05 8.90 17.95 Did not advance 61 Patrick Boutet 8.50 9.35 17.85 Did not advance Árpád Farkas 9.10 8.75 17.85 Did not advance Pierre Leclerc 9.00 8.85 17.85 Did not advance 64 Mihai Borş 8.65 9.15 17.80 Did not advance Ion Checicheş 8.90 8.90 17.80 Did not advance 66 Angelo Zucca 8.40 9.30 17.70 Did not advance Dimitar Koychev 8.75 8.95 17.70 Did not advance Roman Tkaczyk 8.70 9.00 17.70 Did not advance 69 Dov Lupi 8.75 8.90 17.65 Did not advance 70 Jan Zoulík 8.70 8.80 17.50 Did not advance 71 Stoyan Delchev 8.45 8.95 17.40 Did not advance Łukasz Uhma 8.55 8.85 17.40 Did not advance 73 Michel Boutard 9.20 8.15 17.35 Did not advance Gabriel Calvo 8.40 8.95 17.35 Did not advance 75 Ian Neale 8.10 9.20 17.30 Did not advance 76 Reinhard Ritter 8.05 9.20 17.25 Did not advance Zhivko Rusev 8.50 8.75 17.25 Did not advance 78 José de la Casa 8.60 8.60 17.20 Did not advance 79 Tommy Wilson 8.15 9.00 17.15 Did not advance 80 Peter Lloyd 8.40 8.70 17.10 Did not advance 81 Grzegorz Ciastek 8.90 8.15 17.05 Did not advance Dimitrios Janulidis 8.50 8.55 17.05 Did not advance 83 Phil Cheetham 8.65 8.30 16.95 Did not advance Jeff Davis 8.15 8.80 16.95 Did not advance 85 Toncho Todorov 8.20 8.70 16.90 Did not advance 86 Nelson Fernández 7.60 9.15 16.75 Did not advance 87 Fernando Bertrand 7.30 8.90 16.20 Did not advance 88 Shun Fujimoto 9.60 — 9.60 Did not advance 89 Roberto Richards 9.20 — 9.20 Did not advance 90 Armin Vock 8.90 — 8.90 Did not advance — Jorge Cuervo Did not advance

References

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