At the 1968 Summer Olympics, fourteen different artistic gymnastics events were contested, eight for men and six for women. All events were held at the National Auditorium in Mexico City from October 21 through October 26.
Format of competition The scoring in all the events was similar to that of the gymnastics events at the 1960 Summer Olympics. The six best gymnasts on the apparatus in the team competition (by sum of two scores - for compulsory and optional routine) qualified for that apparatus finals. The new feature of the competition was in women's events: each of them was judged by four judges, like the men's competition. The highest and lowest marks were dropped and an average of two remaining marks constituted the score.
Results Men's events Individual all-around Team all-around Yukio EndoSawao KatoTakeshi KatōEizo KenmotsuAkinori NakayamaMitsuo Tsukahara Sergei DiomidovValery IljinykhValery KarasevViktor KlimenkoVictor LisitskyMikhail Voronin Günter BeierMatthias BrehmeGerhard DietrichSiegfried FülleKlaus KöstePeter WeberFloor exerciseHorizontal barnone awardedParallel barsPommel horseRingsVault
Women's events Individual all-around Team all-around Lyubov BurdaOlga KarasyovaNatalia KuchinskayaLarisa PetrikLudmilla TourischevaZinaida Voronina Věra ČáslavskáMarianna KrajčírováJana KubičkováHana LiškováBohumila ŘimnáčováMiroslava Skleničková Maritta BauerschmidtKarin JanzMarianne NoackMagdalena SchmidtUte StarkeErika ZucholdBalance beamFloor exercisenone awardedUneven barsVault
Medal table
Čáslavská's public defiance of the Soviet Union Larisa Petrik's gold medal on floor was very controversial because originally, Věra Čáslavská won outright. After the competition was concluded, Petrik's prelims scores were changed to let her tie with Čáslavská, an action which caused Čáslavská to publicly defy the Soviets who had recently invaded her home country during the Prague Spring. A similar controversy occurred in the balance beam, where Čáskavská was denied gold altogether.
See also Olympic medalists in gymnastics (men) Olympic medalists in gymnastics (women)
References
External links Official Olympic Report www.gymnasticsresults.com www.gymn-forum.net