The horizontal bar is an artistic gymnastics event held at the Summer Olympics. The event was first held for men at the first modern Olympics in 1896. It was held again in 1904, but not in 1900, 1908, 1912, or 1920 when no apparatus events were awarded medals. The horizontal bar was one of the components of the men's artistic individual all-around in 1900, 1908, and 1912, however. The men's horizontal bar returned as a medal event in 1924 and has been held every Games since. Horizontal bar scores were included in the individual all-around for 1924 and 1928, with no separate apparatus final. In 1932, the horizontal bar was entirely separate from the all-around. From 1936 to 1956, there were again no separate apparatus finals with the horizontal bar scores used in the all-around. Beginning in 1960, there were separate apparatus finals.
The 1896 Games also featured a team horizontal bar event.
At the 2024 Games, the final event saw all but two fall from the horizontal bar, sparking calls for an investigation.
Medalists
Men
1896 Athens Not awarded 1900 Paris Not held1904 St. Louis Not awarded 1908 London Not held 1912 Stockholm Not held 1920 Antwerp Not held1924 Paris1928 Amsterdam1932 Los Angeles1936 Berlin1948 London 1952 Helsinki Not awarded1956 Melbourne 1960 Rome 1964 Tokyo 1968 Mexico City Not awarded 1972 Munich1976 Montreal1980 Moscow1984 Los Angeles 1988 Seoul Not awarded 1992 Barcelona 1996 Atlanta2000 Sydney2004 Athens2008 Beijing2012 London2016 Rio de Janeiro2020 Tokyo2024 Paris
Multiple medalists
Rank Gymnast Nation OlympicsGoldSilverBronze Total 1 Takashi Ono 1956–1960 2 0 0 2 Mitsuo Tsukahara 1972–1976 2 0 0 2 3 Fabian Hambüchen 2008–2016 1 1 1 3 4 Josef Stalder 1948–1952 1 1 0 2 Andreas Wecker 1992–1996 1 1 0 2 6 Boris Shakhlin 1960–1964 1 0 1 2 Alexei Nemov 1996–2000 1 0 1 2 Zou Kai 2008–2012 1 0 1 2 9 Yuri Titov 1956–1964 0 2 0 2 10 Eizo Kenmotsu 1968–1976 0 1 1 2 Alfred Schwarzmann 1936–1952 0 1 1 2 Masao Takemoto 1956–1960 0 1 1 2
Medalists by country
Rank NationGoldSilverBronze Total 1 8 3 5 16 2 4 3 2 9 3 4 3 1 8 4 3 5 2 10 5 3 3 1 7 6 1 1 3 5 1 1 2 4 8 1 1 0 2 1 1 0 2 10 1 0 1 2 1 0 1 2 12 1 0 0 1 13 0 1 2 3 14 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 16 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1
Gallery
Team horizontal bar
At the 1896 Olympics a team version of the horizontal bar was held. It was one of two team apparatus events in 1896, along with the team parallel bars. The team apparatus events were never held again.
The team horizontal bar event had 10 horizontal bars for the team to use. Teams in the 1896 team events could be large, with one in the parallel bars exceeding 30 members. Only one team competed in the team horizontal bar. Judges scored the teams on execution, rhythm, and technical difficulty.
1896 Athens Not awarded Not awarded
References