The men's
parallel bars competition was one of eight events for male competitors in
artistic gymnastics at the
1968 Summer Olympics
The 1968 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1968), officially known as the Games of the XIX Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XIX Olimpiada) and commonly known as Mexico 1968 ( es, México 1968), were an international multi-sport eve ...
in
Mexico City. There were 117 competitors from 28 nations, with nations in the team competition having up to 6 gymnasts and other nations entering up to 3 gymnasts.
[ The event was won by Akinori Nakayama of Japan, the nation's second consecutive victory in the parallel bars event, tying Germany and the Soviet Union for second-most all-time behind Switzerland at three gold medals. It was the second of four straight Games that the parallel bars would be won by a Japanese gymnast. ]Mikhail Voronin
Mikhail Yakovlevich Voronin (russian: Михаил Яковлевич Воронин; 26 March 1945 – 22 May 2004) was a Soviet and Russian gymnast who competed for the Soviet Union in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He won seven medals, inclu ...
took silver and Viktor Klimenko took bronze to put the Soviet Union back on the podium after a one-Games absence.
Background
This was the 12th 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). Five of the six finalists from 1964 returned: gold medalist Yukio Endo of Japan, bronze medalist Franco Menichelli
Franco Menichelli (born 3 August 1941) is a retired Italian gymnast. He competed in all artistic gymnastics events at the 1960, 1964 and 1968 Olympics and won one gold, one silver, and three bronze
medals.
Biography
He was most successful in 1 ...
of Italy, fourth-place finisher Sergey Diomidov
Sergey Viktorovich Diomidov (russian: Сергей Викторович Диомидов; born 9 July 1943) is a Soviet former Gymnastics, gymnast who competed in the 1964 Summer Olympics and in the 1968 Summer Olympics. He won team silver medals ...
and fifth-place finisher Victor Lisitsky
Viktor Nikitovich Lisitsky (russian: Ви́ктор Ники́тович Лиси́цкий; 18 October 1939 – 13 June 2023) was a Russian gymnast. He competed in all artistic gymnastics events at the 1964 and 1968 Summer Olympics and won five ...
of the Soviet Union, and sixth-place finisher Miroslav Cerar of Yugoslavia. Diomidov had won the 1966 world championship, with fellow Soviet Mikhail Voronin
Mikhail Yakovlevich Voronin (russian: Михаил Яковлевич Воронин; 26 March 1945 – 22 May 2004) was a Soviet and Russian gymnast who competed for the Soviet Union in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He won seven medals, inclu ...
second and Cerar third.
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 new 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 117th. In the final, each gymnast performed an additional voluntary exercise; half of the score from the preliminary carried over.[Official Report, p. 676.]
Schedule
All times are Central Standard Time
The North American Central Time Zone (CT) is a time zone in parts of Canada, the United States, Mexico, Central America, some Caribbean Islands, and part of the Eastern Pacific Ocean.
Central Standard Time (CST) is six hours behind Coordinate ...
( UTC-6)
Results
References
Official Olympic Report
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gymnastics at the 1968 Summer Olympics - Men's parallel bars
Women's individual all-around
Men's 1968
Men's events at the 1968 Summer Olympics