The men's vault competition at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro was held at the HSBC Arena on 15 August 2016. There were 17 competitors from 14 nations. The event was won by Ri Se-gwang of North Korea, the nation's first medal in the men's vault. Denis Ablyazin repeated as silver medalist, the eighth man to win multiple medals in the event. Kenzō Shirai earned Japan's first medal in the men's vault since 1984 with his bronze.

The medals were presented by Chang Ung, IOC Member, People's Republic of Korea, and Ali Al-Hitmi, FIG Executive Committee Member.

Background

This was the 24th 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 eight finalists from 2012 returned—silver medalist Denis Ablyazin of Russia, bronze medalist Igor Radivilov of Ukraine, and fourth-place finisher Tomás González of Chile. Two other 2012 finalists, fifth-place finisher Samuel Mikulak of the United States and eighth-place finisher Kristian Thomas of Great Britain, competed in gymnastics in Rio de Janeiro but did not perform the necessary two vaults in the qualifying round to compete in the vault. Marian Drăgulescu of Romania, the 2004 bronze medalist and 2008 fourth-place finisher, also returned. The favorite was Ri Se-gwang of North Korea, who had won the last two world championships (2014 and 2015).

Lithuania made its debut in the men's vault. The United States made its 21st appearance, most of any nation.

Qualification

Qualification for the men's artistic gymnastics in 2008 was based primarily on the 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships. The top 8 teams at the world championships could send a full team of 5 gymnasts to the Olympics. The next 8 teams (#9 through #16) competed in the 2012 Gymnastics Olympic Test Event, with the top 4 of those teams also qualifying a team of 5 gymnasts for the Olympics. The individual apparatus medalists from the World Championships also qualified, if their nation had not already qualified a team. There were places reserved for host country and continental representation, and the Tripartite Commission made an invitation. The quota of 98 gymnasts was then filled through the individual all-around rankings at the Test Event, with each nation able to qualify only one gymnast in that manner (though this one gymnast could be added to the world championship apparatus medalists—for example, Romania qualified Marian Drăgulescu as silver medalist in vault and Andrei Muntean through Test Event).

Competition format

The top 8 qualifiers in the qualification phase (limit two per NOC) advanced to the apparatus final. On vault, only gymnasts who performed two skills on vault were considered for the final. The average score of the two skills was counted. The finalists again performed two vaults. Qualification scores were then ignored with only final round scores (average of the two skills) counting.

Schedule

All times are Brasília Time (UTC-03:00)

Date Time Round Wednesday, 10 August 2016 Qualifying Friday, 15 August 2016 14:54 Final

Results

Qualifying

The gymnasts who ranked top eight qualified for final round. In case of there were more than two gymnasts in same NOC, the last ranked among them would not qualify to final round. The next best ranked gymnast would qualify instead. Although four gymnasts (Shirai, Radivilov, Drăgulescu and Nagornyy) posted third highest average score (15.283), tiebreak procedures were activated and successfully separated each athlete by rank. Shirai ranked ahead in third while Nagornyy ranked sixth overall due to highest (15.466) and lowest (15.300) single vault score. Because Drăgulescu and Radivilov had identical scores on both vaults, their ranks were then separated by identifying the single top E-score among their already-completed vaults, resulting in Radivilov ranking ahead in fourth and Drăgulescu in fifth overall (9.433 vs 9.333).

Rank Gymnast Nation Vault 1 Vault 2 Total Notes Vault Score Vault Score1 Ri Se-gwang 6.400 9.000 −0.1 15.300 6.400 9.166 15.566 15.433 2 Denis Ablyazin 9.100 15.400 6.200 9.233 15.433 15.4163 Kenzō Shirai 6.000 9.466 15.466 5.600 9.500 15.100 15.2834 Igor Radivilov 9.433 15.433 6.000 9.233 −0.1 15.1335 Marian Drăgulescu 9.133 15.133 6.200 9.333 15.4336 Nikita Nagornyy 9.266 15.266 6.000 9.300 15.3007 Oleg Verniaiev 9.066 15.066 15.1838 Tomás González 9.233 15.233 5.600 9.466 15.066 15.1499 Sérgio Sasaki Junior 6.000 9.266 15.266 6.000 9.066 −0.3 14.766 15.016 10 Jacob Dalton 9.133 15.133 8.433 14.133 14.63311 Artur Davtyan 9.400 −0.1 15.300 8.133 13.833 14.566 12 Benjamin Gischard 5.200 9.100 14.300 5.600 9.133 14.733 14.516 13 Andrei Muntean 5.600 9.033 14.633 5.200 14.333 14.483 14 Scott Morgan 9.000 14.600 5.600 8.841 −0.1 14.341 14.470 15 Robert Tvorogal 5.200 8.933 14.133 8.266 −0.3 13.566 13.849 16 Mikhail Koudinov 4.400 9.066 13.466 13.799 17 Kim Han-sol 7.433 12.633 6.000 8.966 −0.1 14.866 13.749

Final

The tiebreak procedure was used due to final scores tying for third highest. Kenzō Shirai of Japan won the bronze medal with Marian Drăgulescu of Romania placing fourth due to Shirai's top vault score being higher than Drăgulescu's (15.833 versus 15.633), and with identical scores in total, and separate vaults as well as both E- and D-scores, Nikita Nagornyy of Russia and Oleg Verniaiev of Ukraine ended the competition in a rare tie for fifth place since the tiebreak procedure would be ineffective in such instances. Ties at the Olympics are far less common since 2000 (thanks to new tie-breaking rules), but remain possible if the total, E- and then D-scores of both vaults all finished with identical values. Shirai and Igor Radivilov of Ukraine also successfully originated two new skills in the final—the Shirai 2, 3½-twisting Yurchenko, and Radivilov, handspring triple front somersault, even though the latter did have a crash landing. Despite that, the reason justifying the naming credit was because Radivilov was able to perform skill, landing feet first, which the rules had to count it as a valid vault, and thus the skill including its high D-score had to also be accepted into the Code of Points. The Shirai 2 is now 1 of 5 vaults with the top D-score of 6.0 in the 2017–2020 Code of Points, but even with the highest assigned D-score of 7.0, the Radivilov has since been banned after Rio by the FIG in competitions due to the determined high risk of injury factor when attempting and training the skill.

Rank Gymnast Nation Vault 1 Vault 2 Total Vault Score Vault Score Ri Se-gwang 6.400 9.216 15.616 6.400 9.366 15.766 15.691 Denis Ablyazin 6.400 9.200 15.600 6.200 9.233 15.433 15.516 Kenzō Shirai 6.400 9.433 15.833 5.600 9.466 15.066 15.449 4 Marian Drăgulescu 6.000 9.266 15.266 6.200 9.433 15.633 15.449 5 Nikita Nagornyy 9.233 15.233 6.000 9.400 15.400 15.316 Oleg Verniaiev 9.400 15.400 9.233 15.233 7 Tomás González 9.375 15.375 5.600 9.300 14.900 15.137 8 Igor Radivilov 7.000 7.933 14.933 6.000 9.133 15.133 15.033

References